Lured into Love (Blossom in Winter #2) - Melanie Martins Page 0,87

sleep well, I’ve got nightmares… Every day the same ones… But who cares, right?”

“I do care.” My gaze goes in her direction, and I see Dr. Nel removing her glasses as she looks at me pensively, and I wonder if she can see anything without them. “Tell me about them.”

“Well, um, they’re always of childhood memories.” And my heart squeezes tight as I remember them. “Those of pure joy and happiness.”

“You had a lot of those moments with your godfather when you were young?”

“Yeah, my dad was always traveling and busy, so most weekends, I’d go to Bedford Hills.” A little laugh rolls off my lips, and I decide to share my thoughts with her. “Alex used to say he knew the Snow Queen and that once I became an adult, she’d give me her powers.” Seeing how Dr. Nel is squinting her eyes in confusion, I decide to explain, “Um, the Snow Queen is responsible for snow and winter. It’s also my favorite season, and when I was a child, I wanted to play in the snow all the time.”

“You don’t need him or the Snow Queen to be happy, Petra,” she rebukes just as fast. Her patronizing tone is quite revolting though. “You can do it on your own, you know.” Dr. Nel starts tapping her pen on the notebook, considering me. “I understand you’re associating happy memories with him. But you can build happy memories with your own self.”

I’m perfectly aware how pathetic I must sound talking to Dr. Nel about my childhood memories, when I felt understood, loved, and appreciated for who I was by a man that she and my parents despise. After all, why am I even surprised by her reaction? “I’m trying…” I answer her, not even bothering to refute her statements. “I’m taking the pills you prescribed me, um, I’m painting, I’m focusing on my studies, but I still miss him…” Yeah, I’m just human, I guess.

“Yet you barely eat, smile, or talk to anyone,” she points out. “Your parents are worried about you. They care a lot about you.”

Lies. Clear-cut lies. That’s what Dr. Nel and my parents are all about—creating a world where they feed me illusions. The illusion that they care about me, while in reality, it’s all about them and the chess game they are playing with each other. I’m just a pawn in the way. Tired of her fakery, I can’t help but say, “The truth is, Alex had to leave because Mom told him to.” And simply the idea of it infuriates me. “Why? What does she have against him?” I ask once more.

But I know Dr. Nel will never tell me. She might not even know either.

“He is too old for you,” she replies, putting her glasses on to write something in her notebook. “It was not a healthy relationship, and it was not doing you any good.”

I couldn’t disagree more. When Alex was around, my previous doctors told me I could reduce my intake of Xanax, and my agoraphobia seemed to be under control. But there is no point arguing, because that’s not what matters to Dr. Nel. Her job is to put a smile on my face and to, no matter what, make me forget him. But since the day I saw Alex again at my dad’s fifty-fifth birthday, I knew it would be impossible for me to do so. I will always miss him—no matter how hard she tries to cure me.

As she glances at her watch, she closes her notebook, and says, “Thank you, Petra. We have made some good progress today. See you on Friday.”

Chapter 23

Manhattan, October 2, 2020

Petra Van Gatt

It has been two weeks since Alex broke up with me. And since then, I haven’t heard anything from him. Foolishly, I texted him again yesterday and asked how he was doing. But he didn’t even see my messages. I then tried to send the same texts to him on WhatsApp and found out, to my greatest surprise, that he had blocked me. Yes, blocked. After everything we’ve gone through together, I keep wondering how someone I trust and love so much can treat me like this and move to the other side of the world. I’ve come to the conclusion that whatever my mom holds against him, my dad, and his family cannot justify his choice to sacrifice us and our happiness. The man I love would’ve never bowed to my parents’ threats—he would’ve fought back. But this is