Her Swedish Billionaire's Baby(9)

 

She couldn’t resist her anymore. Even if she hadn’t been so lonely and fragile about her family, the tenderness of her touch would have overwhelmed her, as would her echoes of her loneliness. Her whole life had been brutality. This was a sweetness she’d never expected to experience in this world. She wasn’t even sure it existed. Alison had had their mom, at least for a little while; she’d known the gentleness of a mother who loved her. Samara had only had Dad and Alison, rough and tumble and afraid of their feelings. Samara hadn’t realized she’d been starving for simple affection all her life until she got her very first taste. They fell into a food coma soon after.

 

She and Amy were still all wrapped up together, asleep, when Samara’s phone rang the next morning. She fought her way out from under the covers (this must be why hustlers generally shunned them) and grabbed madly for her pants, managing to get to her phone out of her pocket before it stopped ringing, but she didn’t have time to see who was on the caller ID. first. “Hello?” she gasped.

 

A pause, then Alison’s voice: Guarded. Cool. “Samara.”

 

“Alison?!”

 

There was a long moment when neither of them said anything. All Samara could think about was how happy she was to know her sister was on the other end of the line, whatever she might say to Samara in a few seconds. “Yeah,” Alison said carefully at last.

 

“How--how are you? How’s Dad?”

 

“Dad’s ... well, you know. And me, I’m ... fine.” Samara’s face creased. That didn’t sound good, but she couldn’t be sure exactly what it meant; Alison had never talked like that before. “What about you?” Her voice sounded strained. “How’s college girl? You there with some frat boy ass?”

 

Maybe Amy could hear what Alison was saying; she smirked where she still lay on the bed. Samara made an irritated noise and turned away slightly. “That’s an offensive term, Alison,” she said, lowering her voice.

 

Alison snickered, but her heart wasn’t in it. “You really are. Now I know why you left. I guess.”

 

Samara was all the more irritated. “I didn’t go to college so I could get laid.”

 

“Yeah? Then why the fuck did you? Why, Samara? All of a sudden, I find you climbing out our bedroom window, no warning, no nothing?”

 

Samara got out of the bed and tried to stand in the far corner for some privacy, but it was a dorm room, so this was only about three feet away from where she’d been before. She lowered her voice further, also knowing this would accomplish nothing, but she couldn’t very well go out into the hall of the girls’ dorm naked. “Alison, you know I’ve wanted to get away forever. And you knew I wanted to go to college!”

 

“So, what, you don’t even tell us? What if I hadn’t caught you, Samara? You were gonna ditch out and that was it, no note, no explanation, you’re just gone?!”

 

“I was going to call you and tell you where I went, of course. Hopefully after it was too late for Dad to drag me back.”

 

“Like he could?! You’re eighteen now, Samara, you can do whatever you want. What did you think he was gonna do, tie you up?”

 

“Maybe.” Actually, Samara had envisioned all sorts of scenarios. When it came to his daughters, Samara honestly wasn’t sure he had any limits. “But I guess I may as well not have called,” she couldn’t help saying bitterly, “since you wouldn’t have answered, anyway.” When Alison only scoffed, Samara snapped, “Why didn’t you answer my calls, Alison?”

 

She heard Alison breathing, loudly and almost evenly, like she was trying to calm herself. It didn’t work. “Because I wanted to wait until it wouldn’t end in a screaming match, but looks like I didn’t wait long enough. So what, that’s it? You just ditch out to be the big kahuna on campus and tell your family to fuck off? You’re done with us?”

 

Samara sighed sadly. “Of course not! But, you know, did it ever occur to you and Dad--ever once, in eighteen years--to think about what I wanted?”

 

“We did think about what you wanted! That’s all we ever thought about!”

 

“Then how come it never occurred to you to let me have it? This is the only way I was ever going to get it, Alison. The only way you guys would ever let me have what I want is if I left and got it for myself.”

 

Alison was obviously trying to restrain the nastiest words that were jumping to mind. “So all that matters is what little Samara wants, is that it?”