Page 45 of Levi

“Prison.” Levi stared at her.

Kinley gasped. He knew that was the last thing she expected to hear.

“Are you ready to tell me now?” she asked gently.

Levi let out a sigh. “Yeah. My… father, God, I hate calling him that. For as long as I can remember, he was always abusing me and my mother. He would call us names, say we were worthless, telling her she even gave him a son he never wanted and hated.” He shrugged as Kinley gasped in shock. “He was a horrible excuse for a human being. He was a mean drunk.”

“He hit you?”

“Plenty of times, but not as much as he did my mother. One time, he had my mother pinned against the wall with his hands around her throat. I jumped on his back to try and stop him, but then he let her go, tossed me off his back, and backhanded me across the face. I hit the floor. When I tried to get up, he put his foot on my chest and warned me to stay out of it or I’d be next. And I knew he wasn’t kidding, so even though he was hurting my mother, there was nothing I could do. She even told me to run.” Levi shook his head. “I ran to my room and covered my ears to block out the sound of her voice begging him to stop.”

“How old were you?”

“That time, I was twelve.”

“Oh my God! I can’t believe what you went through.”

“Like many women in abusive relationships, she initially downplayed the violence and claimed it was just a heated argument. She made sure to wear shirts that would hide any evidence of physical harm. But when I was fifteen, I walked into the kitchen and saw him pushing her against the wall with his fist raised. I couldn’t let him hurt her again. I had grown taller and stronger than him, so I grabbed his arm and spun him around. I punched him hard enough to knock him to the floor, then straddled him and continued to hit him while yelling, ‘now you know how it feels!’” Levi paused, clearing his throat. “But my mother begged me to stop and tried to pull me off him, out of fear of what he would do to me. But I didn’t care. I told her I hated him and begged her to leave, but she wouldn’t. So, I stayed, but I became just like him.” Kinley gasped in shock. “Not by physically abusing others, but by turning to alcohol as a coping mechanism. It numbed the pain for a while. I dropped out of school and turned to stealing or paying people for alcohol. The last time he beat her, I wasn’t there. By the time I got home, police cars were everywhere.”

“What happened?”

“The bastard killed her.”

“What?”

“Yeah, he beat her so bad that she ended up in a coma. He just kept hitting her over and over again until she lost consciousness. The neighbors called nine-one-one, asking for an ambulance and the police. Two days later, shedied.”

“I’m so sorry, Levi.”

“It was a long time ago, but at least she got away from him.”

“But you will never forget it. What happened after that?”

“When the authorities arrived, he had already fled. They asked me what happened, and I told them everything he did to us. They managed to find him later that day. For years after, I couldn’t sleep without hearing her crying in my nightmares. She didn’t deserve that kind of treatment. No one does, but she was an incredible mother. He had her so scared that she felt trapped and couldn’t leave him. Child protective services took me away and I never saw him again. I promised myself that if I ever did, I would kill him. At his trial, he was convicted to spend twenty-five years to life in prison, with the possibility of parole. Twenty-five fucking years for taking someone’s life. He has been behind bars for almost thirty years now, and I hope he never gets out.”

“Levi, I’m so sorry.”

“She should have left him a long time ago, but she stayed because of me. She needed his money to survive because he wouldn’t allow her to work.” He sighed heavily. “Wouldn’tallowher to work.” His jaw tightened with anger at the memory.

“You can’t blame yourself for everything that went wrong. It was his fault, not yours.”

He shrugged. “I was placed in foster care but ran away after only six months. I lived on the streets for a year, constantly hiding to avoidbeing found. I never finished high school, instead getting my GED. Dropping out is not something I’m proud of, but I had to keep running. There was no way I was going back to foster care. When I turned sixteen, I ended up in Clifton and found a job at a ranch and never looked back. My boss, Mr. Brown, is still one of the best men I know.”

“He had to have known you were underage.”

“He did, but he told me he could see in my eyes that I needed some good in my life, so he hired me.”

“Is he still alive?”

“Yes, but after his wife passed away from cancer, he couldn’t continue without her. He sold the ranch and moved to Idaho to be close to his daughter, he seems content. I didn’t care for the new owner, that’s how I ended up with Cody. Mr. Brown and I still stay in touch through email.”

“He showed you what a real family should be.” Tears flowed down her face. “Didn’t you have any other family you could have stayed with?”

“No, neither of my parents had siblings. My maternal grandmother died when I was ten, followed by my grandfather a year later. My paternal grandparents didn’t want me. To be honest, I was relieved because they were just as cruel as my father.”

“I can’t even imagine going through something like that. It’s heartbreaking.”

“No man who raises his hand against a woman, child, or animal is a real man.”

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