Page 3 of Ensnared By Silence
It should upset me that those two hateful people were murdered. It didn’t.
I should be worried about what was going to happen to me. I wasn’t.
With each step away from the trailer, my heart grew lighter. One day, I would move past all the pain and humiliation I endured. Until then, I would keep my secrets shoved into a dark box deep in my soul, where they couldn’t hurt me.
I was a few houses away when the whooshing sound erupted, followed by an enormous fireball shooting into the sky. I fell to the ground and blackness overtook me, filling me with peace.
Chapter 1
Six years later . . .
Graduation night wasfinally upon me, and the freedom I felt from finishing was exhilarating. For years, I fought to put my painful past behind me, and to experience something as normal as high school graduation gave me hope my future would be better than my history.
My boyfriend, Tucker, and I joined a small group of our friends for the evening, sharing a limousine and having a carefree night. Selfies, a bottle of champagne to share complements of one of the parents, music that made us dance and sing out loud, and a night I knew I would remember forever. The ceremony was over at four and after dinner with our families, we all got together for one last night of fun. I’m sure everyone would cut loose tonight, and I silently promised myself I would go with the flow.
Tucker and I had been dating for almost a year and I would miss him when we went away to college. He was attending Stanford, and I got a scholarship to a small college in middle Tennessee. Even through all the memorable times we shared, we never got to the point of love. I was incapable of opening my heart to anyone, and while we were great friends who enjoyed hanging out, his parents mapped his future out for him before birth.
He was the son of a powerful businessman, and there were certain expectations of him. None of them included me, and his family wasn’t shy about getting their subtle digs in. My foster parents were working-class people, and while our house was nice by any standards, especially compared to the shitty trailer I grew up in, it was nothing compared to the mini mansion he lived in across town. It was not a secret they thought someone like me wasn’t good enough for their son, but neither he nor I were looking for long term.
I didn’t hide where I came from, but I glossed over the worst of the abuse I suffered, choosing rather to tell everyone my parents died in a house fire and I was left alone. Technically, it was true, and I was grateful no one pushed the story too far. Usually, I got a look of pity that made me internally roll my eyes, but that was better than the shock and disgust they would show if they knew the entire truth.
I was placed in a home two hours away from Portstill and the dreaded Flats. My foster parents were good people who did the best they could for me and the three other kids they took in. My birthday was last month, and school was finished, so it surprised me they let me stay. Most foster kids were kicked out on their eighteenth birthday and left to fend for themselves in a world they’re unprepared to handle. My foster parents genuinely wanted the best for us.
They were a far cry from the trailer in the Flats and my horrible father. After they released me from the hospital, I was placed with them and they were patient while I adapted to the changes. They took their time with me, helping me learn to trust again, and after a couple of years, it felt like a real home.
My case worker, as well as the Portstill Police, questioned me multiple times about what happened that night. All I’ve ever said was “I don’t remember”. Eventually, they stopped asking, realizing one of two things—either I really didn’t remember, or judging from the healed wounds, and the new and old bruises that covered my body, I wasn’t going to say. Whoever the man was who slayed the monster I called ‘Dad’ was a hero and I would never utter a word about what happened.
I lucked up with the free-spirited foster parents who gave me a home for the last five years. They told me I could stay until I left for college but that I would always have a home with them. They were good people, but couldn’t afford to adopt us, depending on the state checks to give us a safe and supportive home.
“I can’t wait to get back to my house,” Tucker purred into my ear, kissing along my neck as the driver dropped off the last of our friends after hours of partying on one of our classmate’s land. There was a bonfire and close to a hundred people showed up to dance, drink, and cut loose. He nuzzled against me, pulling me from the depressing thoughts of the past. “I’ve been dying to shove my dick into you since I saw the dress you wore to the ceremony. Such a naughty girl flaunting your ass at me all night.”
I wasn’t a naughty girl, but I let him think I was. Tucker thought he was the person to claim my virginity a few months ago, but that ship sailed when I was eleven years old. Sex with Tucker wasn’t something I was afraid of, but it wasn’t something I really enjoyed either. Faking it became the norm, and I slipped on the seductress mask as I replied.
“He needs to drive faster,” I whispered against Tucker’s lips and I felt him smile against me. “I can’t wait to taste you.”
Tucker slipped a hand down the front of my strapless dress, exposing my breasts and groaning against my neck. Plucking at my pebbled nipple, I turned and kissed him, whimpering into his mouth as he moved to my other breast, twisting and pinching the tip.
