Page 149 of Mine to Worship

“Good that we got used to sleepless nights, huh?”

He makes good on his promise to worship every inch of my skin, and I don’t complain once.

He gathers me in his arms and kisses me. Spent in the most delicious way, we reach our bedroom.

“You could get pregnant again,” he says and places me on the bed.

“No, not for the next two years. I have an IUD.”

“When?” he asks, his brows furrowed, as he climbs in bed next to me and I remember I forgot to tell him. Damn baby brain!

“When the doctor checked me, and you were with Kira. It slipped my mind.”

A pensive expression clouds his features.

“Let’s enjoy her for the time being, and us as a trio.”

Kian lowers his head to kiss me. “Whatever you wish, angel.”

“I already have everything I wish,” I say dreamily.

He makes sure of that.

The next day at the breakfast table I say, “I am ready, and I want the trial behind me.”

“I’ll call the lawyer.”

After digging deeper, Jason found five more of Robert’s victims, two before me, and three after me, but I was the only minor he had attacked. In the home office, I read the affidavits of the other women with tearful eyes and blasting anger. He turned their trust into blackmail, the physical and emotional manipulation going so far, one victim didn’t realize he had raped her until years later.

Kian reads over my head the declarations, his body tense with every new sentence. My pent up anger only dissipates when the lawyer comes over and says, “The process won’t take long with all the incriminatory evidence. I’ll see to it that he won’t be acquitted but sent to prison.”

She exudes professionality in her power suits, her knowledge and authority present in every sentence.

“I don’t care as long as he pays for his crimes.”

“I am proud of you,” Kian says when the lawyer leaves.

Robert’s trial starts and I stare right into his eyes, my shoulders held high. I want him to see and watch me, the person who brought him here, to pay for his misdeeds. I am regaining my power, and I owe it to every woman out there and to my daughter to live in a world free of at least this predator. I’m in the gallery until I am called to give my testimony.

“Mrs. Reyes, do you swear to tell the truth and nothing but the truth?”

“I do.”

I recall that night in my mind, and all the small gestures before that. It was as if he was preparing me for his touch. I shiver, repulsion making my stomach turn.

“May I say something else, Your Honor?”

“You may.”

I stare Robert right in his eyes. He didn’t break me. I take a lungful of air and finish. “The time to bear and fold it inside your hearts, letting it consume you like a sickness is gone. Every victim wishes to throw away the key and never relive it, it’s understandable. No one wants a repeat of a nightmare, nor to be labeled as a victim.

“It’s time we reclaim it back, by reversing the roles and instead become survivors, powerful, independent women who give themselves the chance to trust again, to heal and move forward by pointing at the abuser and reclaim the power back.

“Men can control themselves. It is not our responsibility but theirs, and a woman’s body is her own. No means no, and every unwanted touch leaves a scar, so don’t look away when you see someone who needs help and more, you can stop it by raising your voices. It took me years to escape that night, to feel less dirty, while asking myself what I had done wrong. Wondering if it was my fault. It wasn’t, not even for a second. Permission has to be granted every step of the way, and it goes both ways.”

When I end my statement, Kian’s gaze holds mine in support, pride, adoration.

“Thank you, Mrs. Reyes. Now, honored jury, you’re dismissed for deliberation,” the judge says.

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