Page 154 of Monster

I grabbed her hands. She let me.

I looked at the scars there. I was sure it was worse when it happened. I was sure the pain had been unimaginable.

“He stomped on my hands because he didn’t want me to go to New York without him, after we found out I got accepted to Juilliard on a composer scholarship.”

My jaw clenched, and I didn’t say anything, even though I wanted to. I wanted to know who the fucking bastard was.

“He was my first boyfriend. My first kiss… my first everything. I had always been so focused on my music, I didn’t give myself time to date in high school. But he was different. He was the only one who seemed to really see me. Now that I’m older, I realize it only seemed that way because that was what he wanted me to see. I had just turned seventeen, and he was… he was twenty-eight. Older than me, way more experienced than I was, and I let myself get so caught up in all the excitement of a first love that I didn’t realize how fucked up my relationship with him really was.”

Seventeen?

Fuck me, but she was only seventeen when she dated that bastard?

“Baby, whatever he did was not your fault. You know that, don’t you?”

She shrugged. “A part of me knows that, but sometimes it feels like it. It feels like perhaps I got too greedy. Too arrogant. I had sacrificed almost everything to get into Juilliard, and perhaps this is what I deserved.”

“Bullshit,” I said vehemently. Unable to stand the distance between us anymore, I stood up and took her into my arms.

I moved to the bed and settled her on my lap. She burrowed her face into my chest, and I tightened my arms around her.

“His parents owned an accounting firm in Nevada, and he couldn’t really leave the state,” she said, keeping her face on my chest. “He was training to take over the family business soon, and he wanted me to stay and be a stay-at-home mom to our future kids. I had already graduated high school and had my whole life in front of me, and though I loved him, it didn’t make a difference to me whether he would be with me in that future. All that mattered to me was New York. I think he could see that, too. Right after he told me how he saw our life playing out, I finally realize how different we saw the relationship going. I broke up with him a week later.”

She shuddered, and I had a feeling that what she planned on saying next wouldn’t be easy. I moved my hand up and petted her hair, trying to offer comfort in any way I could.

“I was working part-time at a coffee shop, and he waited for me until I left for work. He cornered me by my car, and he—”

She took a deep breath.

“It’s okay, wildcat. You don’t have to tell me if it’s too much.”

I felt her shake her head against me. “No, I want to tell you. I haven’t talked about that day in seven long years.”

She looked up at me, her eyes wet. “I want to tell you.”

I leaned forward and kissed her softly, feeling her relax in my arms.

“And I’ll listen to what you have to say,” I assured her.

She smiled a little before resting the side of her face against my chest.

“He was so angry. So angry. And I didn’t know what to do. I was scared, and the more he talked, the angrier he got, to the point where I couldn’t really understand his words anymore. And that was when he got violent.”

She shuddered against me.

“H-he hit me. He knocked me to the ground, and then he kicked me. God, it had hurt so bad. So bad. I just wanted to pass out so I wouldn’t have to feel the pain. I was already bleeding on the ground when he moved over me. Everything hurt, but then he—when he s-stomped on my hands, I knew what that meant. I knew I couldn’t play the piano like I used to, and even if a miracle happened, Juilliard wouldn’t wait for me. In just one night, everything was gone.”

“Where is the bastard now?” I asked, trying to keep the anger from showing in my voice.

“Last time I talked to my dad, I found out he took over running his family accounting firm.”

“He’s not serving time?”

I frowned. It made it easier for me to hunt him down, but why the fuck wasn’t that bastard locked up?

Emmy let out a bitter laugh. “No. Not with his parents’ money and connections. Not when I never told the police who attacked me.”

The last part was said in whispers, but even then, I could hear the regret in her voice.

---