chapter sixteen

I woke up, scared, when she screamed. She was trying to calm herself. “Olivia,” I said, hugging her, “what happened? The same dream again?” She nodded. When she was a little kid, she almost got kidnapped. Every time she got exhausted, she has nightmares about it. “It’s okay. You’re safe.” I said, trying to calm her down. She put her head on my shoulder as she was hugging me tightly. After a while her breathing slowed down. I laid back on the bed and tried not to wake her up. As I was falling back to sleep, my chest started to get wet. She was crying. “Baby,” I said. She didn’t respond. “Olivia,” She blinked a couple of times. Her nose got red. I wiped her tears. We did not say anything, just lay there like that for a couple of minutes.

“I know you’re going to say no again but,” I said, looking at her, “you have to go to therapy. You may study psychology, but you need an expert for that.”

“I know,” she sniffed. “Tell me a story, so I can fall asleep again.”