Page 51 of Teach Me How To Fly

“I remembered my uncle, Sylvian,” I said with a lower tone of voice.

Maksen tensed behind me as his hands gripped me more.

“And what did you remember about him?” he asked.

I gulped, feeling how my knees were going to abandon me at any second.

“I can’t tell you. I can’t. I’m ashamed of myself, of this body, and everything he did to me,” I cried out the words, and the moment I wanted to get away from him, he pulled me back and buried his face in the hollow of my neck.

“Would it be easier if I asked you the questions and you just answered with a yes or no?”

I remained silent for a few moments, thinking about his proposal, and then, I nodded and wiped off my tears. He inhaled deeply into his lungs, and with a quick movement, he turned me around to face his eyes. The way our eyes met almost caused all the oxygen in the room to be consumed by a deep burning fire.

“Did he make you do things you didn’t want to do?”

I nodded, feeling my heart ache in pain. A spark of fire hit his black irises and I knew he was angry. Not at me, but at the entire situation. My mind kept contouring all those memories when my uncle was taking advantage of me.

“Did he touch you where he shouldn’t have?”

Fuck.

I nodded again, the tears running down my face in salty streams. He gulped and put his hands on each side of my face, pinning me with his eyes.

“Did he do it more than once?”

I nodded a lot, feeling how my heart was breaking into millions of pieces. I wished I wouldn’t have to say yes to those kinds of questions, but it was the reality I lived.

“If he isn’t already dead, I promise you I’ll kill him myself, Annalise,” he whispered and caressed my face with his thumbs. “Even though it can’t erase your pain away, it will make you feel better. I will fucking end his life, trust me when I say it.”

“I don’t want you to kill him, I want you to help me understand why it happened to me. What did I do wrong for him to hurt me so much,” I whispered and I put my hands on his.

“A child could never do something to instigate that treatment. He was unstable, a maniac, and a pedophile, Anna. You did nothing wrong, and nothing is wrong with you.”

His words were like stitches to my wounds, but the pain wasn’t going anywhere. I was just dealing with it.

“It was horrible,” I said, making a little pause. “Once I stepped in this house and I saw the hallway, everything came to me. And once I opened my eyes and saw the ceiling of this room, the memories flooded my mind, and I remembered everything,” I added and sighed deeply.

“Your father knew something if he forbade us from coming here. Your aunt told me this,” he replied and his answer made me furrow.

“I remembered something about you too,” I replied, chewing my inner cheek.

“What?”

“You always gave me one of the flowers from the vase in the hallway, and Sylvian always came and took you away from me,” I explained, and his mouth opened in shock. “You were nowhere to be found, and everytime he was doing things to me, you were missing. But then, when he was done with me, he suddenly brought you back like nothing happened.”

“A-And what was I doing? Did I say something to you?”

“No. We both kept silent like we didn’t even know each other.”

Just like we did now. We kept silent as we tried to better understand our blurry past.

“Did Sylvian do something to you too?” I asked and put my right hand on his shoulder.

He looked down at me, and I saw how confused and agitated he was by the way his look changed.

“He might’ve, but I can’t remember any of it.”

“Maybe Sylvian is the man from our nightmares, Maksen. What if he?—”

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