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“What?” Anna asks, her eyes widening.
Father’s face contorts into something pure evil. “You don’t get to talk back to me like this.”
“Or what? You’re going to kill me? Then be done with it.”
He backhands me across the face so fast, I have no time to prepare for it. Anna screams as I fall to the ground. I can hear the unmistakable sound of my father’s belt buckle coming undone.
“What are you doing?” Anna screams.
“Antonio knows I’m working with Franco?” Father asks, standing over me.
“Yes,” I spit out.
I’m not prepared for the sting of his belt. He whacks it across my arm, leaving a red welt. I scream and curl inward.
“Stop!” Anna screams louder, running over to me. Father raises his belt at her.
“Do you want me to use this on you, too?” he asks. Anna hesitates before shaking her head no. Father snorts. “I didn’t think so.” He turns his attention back to me. “This has been a long time coming.”
Then he brings his belt back down.
He whacks it repeatedly across my back. Every hit brings new pain. I can tell I’m bleeding from the copper smell in the air. Anna continues to scream as our father beats me.
I can only lie here and take it.
“Stop,” another voice says. It’s my mom. I manage to lift my head to see her standing in the living room, glassy-eyed but on her feet.
Father does stop his assault on me, turning to face Mom. “Go back to bed, Elizabeth.”
“Stop hurting our daughter,” she says. “Just stop, Pavel.”
“Please stop,” Anna begs, kneeling beside me. I have no energy to even look at her. My back is on fire.
I think, for a moment, my father will resume his beating, but thankfully, he drops the belt. “I have a mess to clean up,” he growls before storming out of the room.
Mom sways on her feet before dropping to the couch, hard. “Oh my god,” she says more to herself than to me.
“Nina?” Anna whispers, shaking my arm. “Nina?”
“That’s what I tried to protect you from,” I tell my sister, forcing the words out. Even talking is hard right now.
“Your back,” she gasps, her hand hovering over my back. It must look bad judging by her expression.
“We need to clean the wounds,” Mom says, standing up and staggering forward. “Come on. Anna, help Nina up.”
Anna does her best to help me stand. Even though Father didn’t hurt my legs, I feel like I’m walking through cement with every step. I slump onto the toilet seat, letting my mom and sister take the top of my nightgown off.
Anna gasps as Mom winces.
“How bad is it?” I ask, my voice groggy.
“You won’t need stiches, so there’s that,” Mom says as she grabs a rag out of the towel cabinet. She wets it with water and begins to clean my wounds. I hiss with every touch.
“Anna, grab the large bandages,” she instructs my baby sister. Anna hurries over to the medicine cabinet and grabs the first aid kit.
“Here.” She hands them to Mom.
It amazes me how they work together to help me. I’m at my most vulnerable. I’ve never been this tired, scared, angry, or exhausted in my life. My marriage is over. My father finally beat me with his belt. He’ll go after Antonio, and Antonio will go after him, meaning only one will survive this whole ordeal.
