Page 98 of Ruin

I lean back on the couch and watch Trixie move her weight from one foot to the other. “I don’t know what to ask or say to you, so it’s better if you start where you want to start.”

She plays with her bracelets, and I can already see the water building in her eyes. “Come here.” She walks closer to me, and I pull her to sit on the table in front of me. Placing my hands on her thigh, hoping it will relax her a little, because fuck does she look tense. “Did you ever hurt yourself after the things I did to you?” I ask. I know I’ve asked her this, but the anger I had and the emotions she was going through then. I need to make sure I didn’t make her do this.

She shakes her head, and I wipe the tears away, and lift her face a little to look at me, she takes a deep breath, and looks over at the other room, not sure why because you can’t see in there.

My step-brother has been raping me since my dad and his mom moved in together. No matter how much I fight it never works. He hits me, then rapes me.

My body tenses up, what the fuck did she just sign to me? My hands ball into fist, but I tell myself not to snap, not yet anyway, she needs me to be calm. Even though I’m telling myself to calm down, I can feel my body ready to kill someone.

I hold her hands, because fuck she’s moving them so fast, I’m scared I’m going to miss what she is saying. I know this is hard for her, and the last thing she wants to talk about, but before I kill anyone I need to know.

“This is hard for you, I get it. But you can talk, talk to me. Let me hear your beautiful voice.” I hate that she's still not talking to me and thinks this is the best way for her to tell me. Fuck, I want to hear my name from her lips. She shakes her head, okay, she doesn’t want to talk. “When and why did you stop talking?”

She wipes the new tears away from her cheeks and looks anywhere but at me. My little flower is broken, and right now I don’t know how to fix her. But I promise myself, no matter what happens, no one will ever break her again.

Three years ago.She takes in another deep breath and shakes her head a little.He always said he was going to get me pregnant, and he did. I was so angry with myself for not-

“Hey, let's not think like that, what happened after?” She is going to blame herself over and over again, and there is no way in hell I’m letting her think this is her fault, it’s not fucking happening.

I went to the hospital, and told them I was raped, and I’m pregnant and don’t want the baby. It took a while, but they finally let me get an abortion. I never thought I would get rid of a baby, but I could-

“Trixie, no one is blaming you for doing it. No one.” She nods her head, but it’s only a slight nod.

Because I told them I was raped, they called the police, and I thought finally someone will help me. I told the police everything, my dad was away on business so they called the bitch, and she told the police I was a jealous little girl who had a one-night thing with her son, and she said it can never happen again, and I started to-She stops for a moment and looks anywhere but me. I’m happy she’s not looking at me, because rage is the only thing she will see in my eyes, and it’s taking everything in me not to get up and go to her house.She put the whole blame on me. She said I was trying to win him back. I got back home and the whole nightmare started again. After that I stopped talking, what was the point no one listened to me, anyway.

In three years she's not said a word. The bastard got her pregnant, and the bitch did nothing. But there is one question I need the answer to.

“Your dad?”

Too blinded by her, and they never told him, and I refused to talk. What was the point? It was my word against hers, and she can do no wrong in his eyes.

I take in a deep breath while I try to stay calm, she needs me to stay calm. I don’t want her to be scared of me, I want her to feel safe with me. My phone dings in my pocket.

Unknown

Let the countdown begin 3 days.

I close my eyes and throw my phone to the side for a moment and look at Trixie as she wipes the tears away again. As I watch her, a thickness builds in my throat, and the tightness hits my chest.

“Has he touched you-” Before I can finish my question she nods her head, and then lifts the side of her top up, and I see the bruises and my hands curl up into balls.

“Not kickboxing. I’m a fucking idiot.” I get up quickly as I feel my body beginning to shake from the anger building inside me. I kick the chair so it goes flying to the other side of the room, and on cue my brothers rush in.

I turn my back to them, and look out to the pool, I’m going to fucking kill him and it’s going to be so fucking slow, too. But at the same time, I’m angry with myself because I could have seen the signs for this, I should have seen something was wrong, and I didn’t.

I feel Cain stand next to me, and Hayden on the other side, and for a moment they stand there in silence.

“I got another message.” I break the silence, because it’s annoying and I’m not in the mood for anything they have to say to me about the situation.

Right now, all I want to do is kill someone, but I need to be here for Trixie. Taking in a deep breath I walk back over to the couch, and sit next to Trixie, opening my phone up, and throwing it over to Hayden.

Leaning back on the couch, I pull Trixie to snuggle up against me, and I sign as she moves in closer to me.

You will never have to worry about anyone hurting you again. I’ll kill anyone who touches you, and the ones who have hurt you, they will feel a lot of fucking pain.

She takes my hand in hers, and I feel a tear escaping her eyes, I let her tears flow without saying anything to her. I lean my head back on the couch and stare up at the ceiling and try to relax my heartbeat from pounding in my chest right now.

TWENTY-SEVEN

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