Vincent
She looked at me confused and I just laughed.
“I mean, I can love you anytime”
“And I don’t understand what that means either”
I looked at her and she made a cute pout. “Ashy. That means… it is just a matter of time”
“G-Good” she looked into my eyes.
“Yes”
“You… you are not bad at all”
“Thank you. I finally have someone who understands me. You are good too”
“Yeah. They only need to understand and see the beautiful you”
“You flatter me”
She smiled at me. I went to the side and finally got up. She sat up on the bed too.
“Come here, Ashy”
She came to me and I picked up the second ring. “With this ring in your hand, I promise to give you the world on the occasion of the official start of our love story” I inserted the ring in her finger and then looked at her.
She was really happy and she quickly kissed me for a brief second. “You are the sweetest person I have ever met”
“And will ever meet”
She giggled. “Yeah right”
“Okay. Let’s have breakfast”
“Yeah”
She followed me as we moved downstairs.
“So… what do you wanna do the whole day, Ashy?”
“I…” she thought for a moment. “I don’t know. I can do anything”
“Anything like?”
“Like… work under someone maybe? Like I used to do before…”
“You know that you don’t need to earn any money anymore, right?”
“Ah, really?”
“Of course, Ashy”
“Um then… what should I do?”
“Uh well, I don’t do anything else than being a Mafia boss so I just want you to do some household work maybe”
“Yeah. Alright”
We reached the living room. “Uhm sit down for a while”
She sat down on the sofa and I sat beside her. “So, what can you do in household work?”
“Well, anything. You know, Lara and I… well, we have always done everything on our own. So, I know how to do everything”
“You are definitely a wife material”
She looked at me shocked and blushed a little. “Uhm, but why did you have to do everything on your own?”
“My mom… you know. You know everything, don’t you?”
“Yes, I do”
“Then why are you asking me?”
“I want you to remember it”
“But why, Vincent?”
I looked at her as she looked back at me with a small amount of hurt and anger in her eyes.
“I want you to remember it because it will help you”
“Help me? How?”
“Tell me. Since everything happened, did you ever talk about it? About how you felt? With anyone?”
“No… I… I only had Lara and cause she also went through it all, we decided to never talk about it again… cause it is… it is so hard… I-I…” her voice broke as she was on the verge of breaking down.
“I know. I understand. But if you keep it all inside, you are gonna… it is gonna be really difficult. It is gonna eat you up inside. So, you have to let it go for once”
“I… are you sure?”
“Yes”
“Oh… okay… if you say so…”
“Yes, I do. Don’t you think I am right?”
“Y-Yeah…”
“Good then”
I took a deep breath. “It all started with dad. I-I mean, you know… my dad… if I even wanna call him that… wasn’t the perfect dad most of them have”
“Why?”
“You know, right?” she asked again.
“I just know what happened in total. I know nothing about why, or when it happened”
“Oh… okay…”
“Yeah. So tell me” I insisted.
“He… He was abusive. He would drink and return at midnight. At any point, I could hear screams from my parents’ room and it scared the shit out of me”
“Understandable”
“Well… I-I was fed up, you know… I couldn’t do anything, and those screams haunted me everywhere I went…”
“So, Lara wasn’t with you then?”
“No…”
“Hm. Then?”
“Well… I couldn’t do anything other than just praying to Jesus every day. But everything changed that day. When my mom ran away”
“Ran away?”
“Yes. Guess she was fed up too. But… I was shocked. How can she leave me alone with someone so much like a monster?”
“Then?”
“I… I was…” the tears she was holding on started falling down. I wiped one of them. “Control, Ashley. You don’t have to cry. Be strong”
“Y-yeah”
She took another deep breath.
“Then… it started happening with me…”
“What?”
“He… he started being abusive to me. But then I knew. Those screams in the midnight weren’t just from getting beaten. It was more than that… it was-- it…”
She closed her eyes as her breath shattered. She hyperventilated and I took her hand. “Be strong”
She took a couple of deep breaths. “He… he was gonna do things to me… so I… I decided to run away too”
“Did you? Runaway? And… wait. When did this all happen?”
“I… I think when I was 18. I-I ran away the next day in the daytime while he was probably doing the same to other women in our very own house”
“Then?”
“I realized I had no place to go”
“So where did you go?”
She looked at me and sighed. “Police. I reported him to the police and told them about my mom. I thought maybe my and mom could start living together again. Thought she would be lonely too, would be in need of her daughter again”
“Hm…”
“But you know what they found out?”
“What, Ashy?”
“Mom… she-she was sleeping with other guys. Not a guy, but guys. I-I was so… so ashamed. I-I didn’t know if I even had a purpose to live anymore. What kind of parents did I have? I… I felt like whore myself”
“Ashy. But it wasn’t your fault!”
“I… I wasn’t thinking straight until Lara came”
“Lara. How did she enter your life?”
“They found out that mom… she was also sleeping with Lara’s…. my cousin’s dad… so… so it practically broke their family too…”
“Go on”
“Mom… and dad were arrested and even Lara’s dad was arrested… and after all this Lara’s mom committed suicide…”
“Oh God, this is a lot, right?”
“Of course… I-I can’t believe I said it all”
“I bet you feel lighter”
“I-I am not so sure of that” she finally broke down and cried while I hugged her.
“It is gonna be alright”