The fork tapping the edge of her plate affected her far more than she would have liked to admit. The sharp sound echoed within the room as he took up the conversation with the sort of casualness that was beginning to make Elsie very uncomfortable. Since the day she’s first met Oscar, she understood his need for control. It was a fact she consciously had ignored and convinced herself that he’d come to love her and not just control her.<br/><br/>Oscar said Mattie’s name in that sort of tone she tried so hard to pretend was something else. What he’d said wasn’t upsetting, but the way he said it told her everything she needed to know. When he said nothing about her seeing her friends, or not wanting her to, she almost sighed in relief. Yet, she still felt as if she had stopped breathing. He had that effect on her practically all the time. As if he’d be angry if she made it obvious that she too required air to live.<br/><br/>Taking a small bite of the breakfast set out in front of her, as Oscar hummed over his food and appeared to be perfectly content with the world around him. After all, it was his world. Just as she was about to take another meager bite, his chair slid across the floor and he set his knee out, not asking. This was not a request she could deny. He had an expectation and Elsie was to follow through. She set her fork down, her gaze slowly shifting from her plate, to his face and then to the seat was offering her.<br/><br/>She patted her pink lips with the cloth napkin she had laid over her lap and gingerly stood, her own chair sliding across the floor as his has. Silence was her friend and action her only option. Elsie smoothed the fabric of her dress and gently lowered herself to sit on Oscar’s thigh, her knees tucked in between his knees like how a child would sit on their father’s lap when a story was to be told. Her rear protested the movement just as it had when she settled into the hard chair. Her dress pressed against the lashes, reminding her of what he could do whenever it pleased him. Being so close to him, with the burning and searing pain activated across her flesh once more left her heart racing — fearing what he might do even now.