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“I cannot ever go back to my uncle!” she shrieked, interrupting. “He is not a good man!”
She began to break down, shaking. Her knees began to give out as she started to have a colossal panic attack before me. I jumped off the bed, sprinting to her and cradling her before she hit the floor. That is when the realization hit me that it was deeper than I thought.
“Bella, I will never let you go back to him,” I soothed. “Come here.” I wrapped her in my arms tightly, holding her against me.
“You might not be able to stop him,” she sniffled against my chest.
“I will need to know what happened, so I know how to approach it,”I suggested. Turning my head, I leaned my cheek on the top of her head. “You don't have to tell me right now,” I alluded, “but sooner than later, please.”
She took a deep breath, shivering again, “I was eight.”She paused, pulling away then looking up into my eyes. “Can we sit on the bed please?”
I nodded, guiding her back over to the bed. Averting her gaze to the floor for a moment, she appeared almost as if she were ashamed before she positioned herself to face me.Reaching out, I took her hands in mine.
“My uncle Felipe showed up to our house in Ohio,” she recounted, “and got into an argument with my father, Carlo, about business gone wrong in the States.At the time, I did not know what I know today,” she choked. “I was an innocent child.”She began to sob, fighting back tears as she lost control of her emotions.
“It’s okay if you need to do this later,” I comforted.
“My uncle had always taken a strange liking to me to the point he seemed a bit obsessed,” she continued through her cries. “He never was able to produce a daughter, so unfortunately when his meeting with my father went badly,” she remembered, “he took me and forced me to be his daughter.”
“Bella,” I mumbled, “I’m so sorry.”
She did not miss a beat as she continued, almost as if she had taken no breath. “He shot my father eight times in front of me and made me count them.” She paused, trying once again to control her emotions. “O-one shot-for each year of m-my age,” she stammered. “He didn't kill him with the first shot.”
“Isabelle, I--,” I began, but stopped, realizing nothing that I could say at that moment would have fixed it.
“He made sure to make him suffer,” she wept.
She took another deep breath and pulled herself together, appearing stronger than when she started, shaking off whatever nerves she had gotten. I ran my fingertips up and down her arms, caressing her soft skin. She swallowed hard, which told me she was about to tell me the most difficult part of all of this.
“After probably the sixth shot, my father stopped breathing,” she lamented, “and once Felipe was finished killing him, he made me kiss his dead body goodbye on the cheek.”
“Oh my God, Isabelle,” I blurted. “I cannot imagine the pain you felt.” I was shocked.
“Then he took me, and we disappeared,” she recalled through her sniffling. “He raised me as his daughter and groomed me to give my virginity up to one of his men.”
I realized it sounded familiar to what I had encountered at the mansion, but I listened intently, hanging on to her every word.
“He wanted me untouched until he came for me, but he let me go with the intention of having me brought back to him when he was ready,” she sighed. “He knew he could not keep me hidden from the public forever.” Her eyes darted to the wall and she mumbled barely above a whisper, “When I started dating your brother, I thought things would finally turn around for me, but your brother was almost as bad.”
I nodded, exhaling, and gently pulled her into my body, hugging her. “I know,” I confirmed the statement about my brother. “There is a lot we need to talk about."
She pulled away. “Can we not talk tonight?" she pleaded.
She rested her head on my chest and wrapped her arm around me. Softly, I stroked her back with my fingertips, mentally taking in everything she had just spilled to me.
“Now, I just want to be in your arms forever,” she insisted.
I smiled, “Why don't we go take a nice hot shower and crawl back into bed?”
She leaned her head back, lifting her gaze to mine, “Do you have Netflix here?”
I chuckled playfully, "Never heard of it."
She snickered and teasingly slapped my chest.
I raised my head, kissing the tip of her nose. “Yes, we have Netflix here,” I smirked, rolling my eyes.
I slid off the bed, standing, then took her hands in mine. Pulling her into my body, I bent over, tossing her over my shoulder before I teasingly slapped her on the rear. She let out a yelp then giggled while she continued to sniffle the last few tears away.
