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“I didn’t do anything!” I screamed as hot tears pooled down my cheeks. “I’m bleeding,” I sobbed, clutching the side of my face as wetness trickled down my fingers.
“You’ll be bleeding a lot worse by the time I’m finished with you!” Dad roared in my face.
Grabbing my arm, he shook me so hard that my head snapped back and forth violently.
“You little tramp, riding in the fucking changing rooms.”
“I wasn’t!” I screamed, trying to pull free from his hold. “Get off me!”
“You want to end up like your mother?” he sneered. “Is that it?” He shook me harder. “You want to be humped with a baby at sixteen?”
“Get off her!” a voice cried out.
My eyes landed on my eleven-year-old brother standing in the doorway and my heart sank.
“No, Tadhg,” I strangled out. “Go back upstairs.”
“Get the fuck out, boy,” Dad barked, releasing me. “If you know what’s good for ya.”
“Leave my sister alone,” Tadhg growled, taking a step into the kitchen.
“Your sister’s a cunt,” Dad slurred, focusing his attention on my little brother. “Are you going to defend a cunt, boy?”
“Ollie,” Tadhg called out bravely. “Get help.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed my nine-year-old brother cowering in the hallway with three-year-old Sean tucked under his arm. All three boys were reincarnations of our father, with sandy blond hair and big brown eyes, and all three boys in this moment were staring at our father in horror.
“Get your holes up that stairs before I redden them,” Dad snarled.
Sean scrambled for the staircase and Ollie dove for the front door. But Tadhg stayed where he was.
“You can’t do that to her,” he challenged, glaring at our father with his chin jutted out. “Joey says we don’t hit girls.”
Shaking, I scrambled to my feet and hurried to intercept Tadhg before our father could.
“Go next door to Fran and phone Joey,” I pleaded, as I tried to shove him out of the kitchen and out of harm’s way. Even though he was only eleven, he was already taller and stronger than me. But he was my little brother and I would protect him with my life. “Please, Tadhg,” I begged him. “Just go.”
Tadhg wouldn’t budge.
“I’ll protect you,” he told me before turning to face our father.
Oh god, no…
“I’m not afraid of you!” he hissed, taking a protective stance in front of me. “You think you’re all tough, but you’re nothing but an alcoholic scumbag who goes around hitting girls!”
Our father took a menacing step closer and my heart seized with dread.
Out of sheer panic, I threw my arms around my little brother and braced myself for impact. The blow came between the middle of my shoulder blades, taking with it the air from my lungs and my legs from beneath me. Crumpling to the floor, I curled up in the smallest ball I could as my father’s boot connected with my back over and over.
“Stop!” Tadhg was screaming, beating his fists against our father’s back. “You’re killing her.”
“Tadhg, run…” Gasping for air, I tried to scramble to my feet, but Dad caught my ponytail and dragged me clean off the ground.
“You’re a little fucking liar,” he snarled seconds before his fist connected with my face. “A dirty whore.”
“Shannon!” my little brother screamed, flailing helplessly. “Shannon!”
“I’m sorry,” I strangled out, coughing when blood trickled down the back of my throat. “Please, stop—”
