HIS DEADLY FACADE: I BECAME THE OPPRESSOR OBSESSION

Lenny's POV

"Explain?!" I spat out, throwing my plastic bag at him. "How the heck are you going to explain this?"

He dodged-he always had surprisingly fast reflexes-and groaned, pulling up his pants and buckling swiftly.

"Sofia is a friend,"

"I'm sure she is," I seethed as he approached me. He had the audacity to wear 'that' smile, the one that usually had me melting in a puddle and swallowing any half-baked apology he had to offer.

Not this time... or ever again.

"Len... look, I'm a man," he gestured to himself like it wasn't obvious enough, "I have needs. Sofia is just a distraction." He sounded so convinced with himself that if I had any less self-respect, I would have actually believed him. I dragged my palm over my face, the tears already beginning to bubble in the corner of my eyes. I already knew the answer to the question I was about to ask next, but I did so anyways. Perhaps a vain hook still lived somewhere in my heart as it crumbled into pieces. "Why didn't you call me even once? Why didn't you come and visit me at all? I waited all those years. I waited for you and nothing-not even one single call."

He scratched the back of his neck awkwardly, then suddenly his voice went up.

"What the hell? You barge in and you're only talking about yourself. What about me? Do you know what I've had to go through in the past 5 years after your screw up?" The ground was suddenly spinning under my feet. I marched up to him. "My screw up? You're the one who ran someone over!" I stabbed my finger on his chest, my sadness boiling into rage.

He looked at me, his expression becoming strangely blank.

"Well, that's not what your confession says... or the court." My knees turned to water, and it took everything inside of me not to buckle and collapse.

"Rico, you sick-"

"It doesn't matter what you think of me now." He bent down, picked up my plastic bag, and threw it back at me. "The person with a criminal record right now is you, not me."

A bucket of invisible cold, icy water splashed over me. There was no hint of shame or guilt when he said it-just pure smugness.

I wanted to walk away; the sound of his voice alone was twisting my stomach, but he grabbed my wrist and forced me to look at him.

"Where do you think you're heading off to?" he said, a shift in his voice and tone making my skin bristle with unease.

"Away from this insanity... Away from you! I'll take back my life savings and-"

He laughed hard, a loud throaty sound that sounded as pleasant as garbage going down a chute.

"Just how stupid can you be?!" he snickered. "There's nothing left of that so-called savings of yours. I've spent it."

This time I collapsed, or at least I would have if he wasn't still holding me with that iron grip.

"Rico, you know how I got that money..." I said, shaking all over. I'd worked myself into exhaustion day in and day out, picking jobs that other people wouldn't touch with a 6-foot pole. I starved myself, eating just enough to keep my body in motion.

All of that couldn't have been for nothing. I can't accept it.

"I mean, there's some of it left..." He finally released me, went to the kitchen, and looked through some cabinets before returning with an envelope. "You got like 8k in there."

It was 7.

"How do you bring $200,000 to this?"

As though I was still gripping to hope, I asked him, "Was it for your Nonna's care?"

He chuckled.

"You really are stupid. I've never even met my Nonna!"

He sounded so proud of deceiving me, and I was just spiraling in my mind, thinking of all those times I'd lent him money, those late nights I was all alone because he was catering to her...

And when I took the fall.

Thinking I was keeping the family together, that I was saving a bond that I could only ever dream of.

I'd asked to meet her several times, and there was always an excuse.

Of course she wasn't real.

His hands found my shoulder. "Look, baby, now that I've been honest, let's put that all behind us and-"

He couldn't finish before I delivered a hook to his jaw. He was bigger than me, stronger maybe.

He staggered back, hitting the counter he'd just used to cheat on me, holding onto it as blood coated his lips.

"What the-"

"Pain wasn't the only thing I got from prison, you know," I said, holding the envelope. My eyes explored the apartment that was basically collapsing in on itself. Looks like my life savings had been squandered into the air.

In that moment, my whole body was an earthquake of emotions threatening to crush me.

But I gathered what was left of my strength... and my dignity.

"I wish I never met you, Rico. You're a vile, awful man and I curse the day I met you."

I left before he could see my tears, mourning for a love I never had.

That day I wandered around the streets of Florida aimlessly until night fell and the air felt oddly cold and sticky against my skin.

In my hand was an envelope that was a mere crumb compared to what I once had.

The man I've loved for eight years was nothing but irredeemable scum.

All the dreams I had of us-of a future, of the family life never let me have.

Where do I go from here?

I just want to quit... Nothing ever works out for me.

Lost in my thoughts, a flood of light hit me in the face. I heard the screeching of tyers, and yet I couldn't will myself to move.

The lights covered my vision and in a snap...

Darkness.