I'm not her - Don't run away from me! (18.)

"How much do you owe Omelgel?" Anna's throat tightened for a moment at his words, and she flashed him a look. The man was just putting his sweatshirt on the back of the sofa.

"Too much. But don't worry, I'll sort it out," she uttered casually, until she herself was surprised at how calmly she was telling her old friend - or whatever he was now.

She shook her head at herself, grinning bitterly as she did so, but unfortunately, doing so brought a blue gaze to her that had her instantly attached to herself.

"Like I said, I can do this on my own," she repeated firmly after a moment, tearing her gaze away.

"You may go if you like. I'll keep an eye on her," she continued hurriedly, kicking off the child's shoes as she did so.

"That won't be necessary. I have nothing important to do, and it's Saturday. I try to spend Saturdays at home with my daughter," the man replied in a firm voice, as if it was a done deal. Anna longed to be alone for a while and get everything straightened out in her head.

"Okay," she said in a low, emotionless voice. In doing so, she reached for the white blanket, the one she had been covered with this morning.

"Here," she handed it to Michael. She did her best not to look at the man next to her. She straightened up and picked up her shoes, which she had placed on the edge of the sofa. She bent down to put them on the floor, but when she stood up again, the world spun with her.

"Anna!" He blurted out in a deep tone, his arms already around her waist.

 

‚‚It's okay; the cane will hold me." Anna smacked the first thing that flashed through her mind at that moment. She tried not to feel her heart, which wanted to leap out of her chest at that moment.

"I can see that." There was a hint of anger in the deep voice.

"Really, I can handle it," she hissed, wanting to pull away from him as she felt that what she was currently feeling was wrong and wrong.

"Don't run away from me!" Strong arms pulled her tighter against him. Anna was so compelled to lift her head and look at him.

"I won't let you this time." Her breath almost stopped at those words. Her heartbeat, on the other hand, sped up a little more. He'd last looked at her like that that night, as she poured shot after shot into him.

"I was looking for you the other day. I even went to your house, but they told me you weren't there." Anna felt his tone of voice change completely.

''I even argued with your father because I knew you were home. In fact, I saw you in the window when I was standing outside your gate. You looked really scary then. So I got the impression that there was something more to it, and I was worried about you."

 

Anna's mind raced with memories of that day. She had hoped that Michael would come to her rescue. After all, like every other time, something had happened to her.

She ran to the door of her room and tried to open the door, but couldn't. She fumbled with it for a moment, but it was no use. She felt a panicky fear that grew greater and greater with each pull of the knob.

It didn't occur to her mind then that she should scream or something. She didn't understand why her father had done this in the first place.

Anna quickly shook her head to push away the memories and the bad feeling that was slowly creeping into her body.

"I saw you and knew you were there." She ducked her head and tried again to wriggle out of the warm, welcoming embrace, but the man grabbed her even tighter at that moment.

"I need to make a new coffee," she tried to hurriedly talk herself out of it. There was no way she wanted the man to know that the memories of another part of the past had upset her so much.