Page 16 of Saving Love

“I already told you I never knew my parents,” she whispers. “I honestly don’t remember a lot of my early childhood, but I think that’s for the best. Some of my first memories are around seven. I had my first real birthday party with a cake and everything. My aunt and uncle never gave me things like that. I guess that’s probably why I ate way too much and got sick to my stomach. I threw up all over the kitchen table.” She pauses, then lets out the breath she was holding. “That was the first time my uncle hit me.”

"Baby, no," I murmur, bundling her up impossibly closer to me. I want to cover her, shield her from every bad thing. For now, however, all I need to do is listen.

“He always had a violent streak. For a while, Uncle Terry was a professional boxer. That helped get some of his rage out. Until he started taking steroids and got banned from the competitive circuits, that is. All that anger had to go somewhere.”

She shrugs as if that’s just the way life is. It kills me that she just accepts this as part of life. I suppose in her experience, it is.

“Mostly, he directed the violence toward my aunt. After a few years though, she started fighting back. I guess Uncle Terry needed an easier target. Since then, it felt like it was both of them against me. I know they didn’t ask for a kid, and that my mom forced them to take me in, but I don’t think…” Blakely exhales and then takes a deep breath, and I can tell whatever she’s going to say next has never been spoken out loud before. “I don’t think I deserved that treatment. It wasn’t my fault for being born. It wasn’t my fault that my mom abandoned me. It wasn’t… it wasn’t my fault. It wasn’t my fault,” she repeats again, softer this time, almost like she’s whispering it to herself.

“That’s right, sweetheart,” I encourage. “It wasn’t your fault.”

She nods and sniffles, the first tear falling down her creamy, porcelain cheeks. I hold her through it all, whispering words of comfort. “I’ve got you,” tell her, kissing her temple and forehead as I rock my girl back and forth.

Blakely straightens up after a while, readjusting and then snuggling back up against me. I comb my fingers through her hair, waiting for her to continue.

“Last week, my aunt and uncle announced that they’d like to have a clean slate with me. I’m almost twenty-one, and I really thought they were starting to see me as an adult. They told me they rented a cabin out here in the Smoky Mountains for a little vacation. I wanted to believe they had changed so badly, I was blind to the trap they were setting.”

Christ. Twenty-one? I knew my girl was younger than me, but thirteen years younger? No matter. My resolve to protect and cherish her is more solidified than ever.

“Uncle Terry was drinking less, and my aunt hadn’t been as cruel in the last few weeks. Somewhere deep down, I knew it was too good to be true. But what choice did I have?”

“Hey,” I whisper in a soothing tone. “You don’t have to justify anything or get defensive,” I remind her. “I believe you. I know you did the best you could at the time.”

Blakely relaxes a bit, nodding against my chest. “We arrived at the cabin and had a great dinner. My aunt didn’t even comment about my weight or yell at me when I asked for seconds. It was such a different side of her, which should have been the first clue something was wrong. Sure enough, an hour later, there was a knock at the door.”

I furrow my brow, not expecting that turn in the story.

“My uncle answered it, shaking the hand of the older man standing in the doorway. As soon as the stranger’s eyes locked onto mine, a pit opened up in my stomach, threatening to swallow me whole. I’ll never forget the way he stalked toward me, the predatory look in his gaze making my throat close up in panic. I vaguely remember through the haze, my uncle informing me that this was my new role in the family. I didn’t understand at first, but then the bigger picture materialized. He and my aunt were…” She pauses, swallowing thickly before continuing. “They were selling me for sex to earn money to get them out of debt.”

“Jesus fucking… Blakely, did he touch you? I need to know who I’m killing and who I’m merely maiming. Fuck it, I’m killing everyone,” I grunt.

"He didn't get a chance to do anything. I squeaked out that I had to go pee and then made a mad dash to the bathroom. My aunt pounded on the door, telling me I was being rude and I better be ready to make up for it when I came out. With the door locked from the inside, I quickly heaved the one window in the room open, stepping on the toilet and hoisting myself up and out, landing like a brick on the ground."

“And then you ran,” I finish for her, finally understanding where she came from and why she was terrified of her own shadow.

“Straight to you,” Blakely adds. I find myself smiling even though my woman just told me the most upsetting, awful tale about her life.

“And now I’m keeping you,” I murmur, tucking her head under my chin as I continue to hold my baby and rock her back and forth. I’m so damn glad she survived so I could meet her. For the first time ever, I’m also glad that I survived everything so that I could be here to love and care for my Blakely.

I’m already mentally going through the contacts I’ve made over the years, trying to think of who can get me more information on Blakely’s family. She told me their names, and I know they live in one of the neighboring towns at the base of the mountains. They won’t be too hard to track down, especially since her uncle used to be in a professional boxing league. Once we find him, I’ll pay him a little visit and give him a taste of his own medicine before calling the cops on his ass.

The moment is interrupted by an obnoxiously loud banging at my front door. Blakely yelps, but I’m right here to soothe her anxiety.

“I’m sure it’s one of the guys,” I tell her. “Stay right here, I’ll be back in a second.

Throwing on a pair of shorts, I make my way to the door right as another round of knocking begins. “Yo, Cass, are you in there?”

Sure enough, it’s Huxley. I open the door just enough to peek my head out. “What’s up?” I ask, my voice a little rougher than I meant.

“What’s up? We haven’t seen you in like three days. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” I tell my friend.

“That’s it? No explanation?”

I shrug. Huxley stares at me, and then his gaze drifts until he's looking behind my shoulder. The little smirk on his face lets me know exactly what he saw.

“You got a woman in there with you?!” he exclaims.

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