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Minty sat before me, waiting, hardly breathing.
“He tied my hands together,” I continued, my voice small. “He hung them from a hook, and…” I glanced down at my lap.
Minty raised her hand to her mouth and nodded, urging me to continue.
“He pulled down my jeans, my pants…”
Minty made a choking sound and I looked up to see her eyes glistening with sadness and shock.
“I thought it was Rupert,” I said again. “I could only feel his…”
I retched into my hand but nothing came. Minty jumped to her feet and pulled me into her chest. Her body shook with silent tears as she held me fast. I stared over her shoulder at the wall, my arms hanging limp at my side.
It felt like an out-of-body experience, as though I was looking down on myself in the arms of my best friend, simply observing, not feeling a thing. When the tears stopped, she stood and cupped my face in her hands. “If Rupert doesn’t kill him, Viv, I will.”
I wasn’t sure what kind of power it was possible for anyone to have over Ossian so I simply nodded.
“Do you want to go to the police?”
“And say what?” I asked, genuinely perplexed.
She dropped back to her knees and looked into my face. “You’ve been abused, Vivian,” she said slowly. “Ossian Thorn just performed a sexual act on you without your consent. That’s abuse. Plain and simple.”
“And you think the police will listen or do anything?” I said with a frown.
We both knew it was a rhetorical question.
“You never know. It’s worth a shot. I’ll take you to the mainland on a boat myself and we’ll go together.”
I shook my head again. “They won’t do anything. They’re all on Ossian’s payroll. The press too. You know that as well as I do.”
Minty sighed into her hands. “Ugh, fuck.” After a few long seconds, she looked up. “Then, do you want to take a shower?”
I hadn’t even thought about washing that man’s fingerprints off my body but now Minty had suggested it, I needed it, and now. I stood quickly. “Yes. Yes please.”
“Okay, Viv. This is your last chance. Only shower if you definitely are not going to take this up with law enforcement because your skin right now is the only evidence you have. You have to be sure.”
“I’m sure,” I replied, suddenly needing nothing more than to wash that evidence down the drain.
“Okay,” she shrugged. “It’s this way.”
I followed Minty into a small bathroom with a toilet, sink and shower cubicle. When she left, I began to peel the clothes from my body. I caught a glimpse of my reflection in the mirror above the sink but couldn’t bring myself to look at it. I would never see myself the same way again.
I stepped into the shower and turned the temperature of the water as high as it would go. I needed to burn that man off my body. As the water pummelled me, turning my skin red, I took the loofah Minty had left out and scrubbed myself raw. I scrubbed and scrubbed, blocking out the pain. Only when I drew blood that turned the floor of the shower red did I stop. Then, I slid down the wall and finally let the tears come.
Rupert
Marcia was waiting at the top of the stairs, guarded by Hector, with a cloth and towel in her hands.
“You look like you just tried to kill someone,” she said quietly, mopping my face as I wiped my own hands.
“I wish I had.” I picked the blood out from beneath my fingernails as Hector towelled me down.
Marcia batted Hector away and took hold of my face. “Now listen. You save that honour for me,” she said in a gravelly voice. “I mean it, Rupert.”
I looked into her eyes and saw three years-worth of rage fermenting behind them. I nodded reluctantly, though I wanted nothing more than to have that creature’s death on my hands.
“There,” she said, releasing me. “You look almost like a respectable groom.”
