In your hands (WLW)

"You are insufferable," Dr. Cross sighs, setting her notepad down on the table.

Lia smirks from her seat, curling her legs underneath her. "Is that your professional diagnosis?"

Dr. Cross doesn't answer right away. Instead, she leans back in her chair, eyes cold, calculated. "You want me to say something that will make you feel seen," she says. "Validated. Like you matter."

Lia stiffens.

"But you already know you matter to me, don't you?"

Her breath catches. That tone-low, knowing. Like a hook beneath her ribs, reeling her in. Dr. Cross is so good at this. At making Lia feel like she's the only thing worth studying, worth unraveling. She's spent years feeling like a mess no one wanted to clean up, but with Andrea, it's different. She likes picking her up just to break her down again, piece by piece. And Lia -God help her- craves being broken by Dr. Cross

"You're sick," Lia whispers.

Dr. Cross smiles. "And you love it."

.....

Lalia Bishop is tired of the pills, the white walls, and the careful way people talk to her like she's glass about to break. Diagnosed with borderline personality disorder after a suicide attempt, she's been in and out of psychiatric hospitals for years, cycling through therapists who either pity her, fear her, or grow frustrated with her unpredictability. None of them last-until Dr. Andrea Cross.