Page 71 of Twisted Obsession

I’d noticed her slight head tilts and had assumed it was something she did, like a tick. Finding out what it really meant ripped my heart from my chest. I didn’t want to accept that she’d been beaten so brutally that she’d lost a part of one of her senses.

The knowledge led me to believe that she wasn’t telling me the full extent of the brutality she’d suffered. The marks on her body revealed more details. Her wounded gaze reflected the pain she’d endured. She’d condensed three years of her worse nightmare into a short story. Her voice reined in my attention.

“After that day, I could hardly stand to look in Sorio’s face. Each time was like reliving the horror he’d inflicted upon me. Each time I faced him, it pulled at that tethered thread of hope that strung me together. I still cry about it. I still get angry about it. I pray that I’ll someday be able to live peacefully with it, but I haven’t reached that point yet. When the memories haunt me, I fight them, but they still win. He’s dead, and he still beats me. His abuse remains alive within me. I force myself to think around the mental pain and the phantoms of the physical pain as well.”

She glanced at me and kept her gaze pinned on mine. She’d done a good job of keeping herself from crying. However, she’d managed to turn me into a fucking piece of stone. I sat frozen as images of her abuse swirled in my brain. I’d heard and seen horrendous shit. However, listening to what had been dumped all over someone you cared about was a humbling eyeopener.

Regina’s story had clawed its way into me, raked out my insides, and ripped them apart. She didn’t want pity from me, and I’d do my best to treat her like the strong woman she’d become. But how in the hell was I supposed to be the pillar of strength she needed when all I wanted was to kill every last person that knew Sorio had raped her?

“They spared no expense when it came to medical supplies and equipment. I had access to them all, so I’d fixed a syringe for Sorio. I filled it with Propofol. I still have it. Each month, I’d refill the syringe, ensuring the drug was always fresh. My plan was to give it to Sorio, knock him out and throw him into the incinerator. Over the years, I had multiple chances to exact my revenge, but each time I faced him, all I could think about was him on top of me and invading my body. I’d chicken out, too shaken to do anything except take his taunts and flee from his presence.”

I could take this part of Regina’s story better, her plotting to kill that motherfucker.

“After four months at the farm, I found out that I would be given breaks every six months like I’d earned paid time off or something. The first thing I did on my first break was go to an escort service. I couldn’t wash the ordeal with Sorio from my head or off my body. So, I did what I stupidly assumed was the next best thing.”

A crease lined my forehead. Whatever she’d done, couldn’t have been good.

“I wanted someone to come after him and wash him away from my body, to screw him out of my system. That’s when I discovered that I didn’t experience satisfaction from sex anymore, but it didn’t stop me. I wanted the ghost of his presence inside of me gone, and I didn’t care what I had to do to make it go away.”

“I’m so fucking sorry, Regina,” I blurted, unable to hold back any longer. “It just occurred to me that this is why you wore jeans all the time. Then my sweats. If I’d known this—”

“You didn’t do anything wrong, Ansel,” she assured me. “You’re the first man that has gotten me to enjoy sex again. You have no idea what it means, that I can still enjoy it, after what he did.” She squeezed my hand. “You’re not going to stop, are you? Because of what I’ve revealed to you?”

“Ansel,” she called when I took too long to answer.

“No, I won’t stop, but you have to tell me, Regina. You have to tell me when I take shit too far. I was mad as hell when you spoke that damn safe word, but now...”

“Ansel, I don’t want you to think that I’m so broken that I can’t handle what you have in store. I’m a lot stronger than I may look or even act sometimes. I’ll let you know when something is too much.”

I nodded, pulling my lips into a tight knot as her story continued to blow my damn brain apart. Cradling her into my chest, my hand moved with gentle ease up and down her arm.

“Regina,” I called, keeping my tone light and gentle.

“Yes?”

“Who else knew about what that motherfucker was doing to you?”

A knowing expression appeared on her face when she lifted her head and glanced at me.

“I’m not telling you. You’re going to find them and kill them.”

This woman knew me a hell of a lot better than I assumed she did. “Fucking right. Anyone that sits around and allows shit like that to happen doesn’t deserve to be breathing. I need to kill somebody, Regina.”

She placed her head against my heaving chest. The tremble in her body remained, indicating that her distress over having to tell her story remained.

“You don’t need to kill anyone. You’re sympathizing with me. I sense that you know my pain. That you’ve suffered my pain. Allow yourself to experience something other than pain and anger. We are two people that have been marred by the circumstances of our past, Ansel. We have so much in common that us coming together can’t be a mistake.”

Her words edged away a bit of my tension.

“Neither one of us has parents. I sense that your pain was as intense as my own, to the point where your anxiety makes you commit violent acts. The woes of our pasts left their marks, and although they aren’t necessarily good scars to have, they have taught us the true definition of strength. How to survive. How to overcome impossible situations.”

I’d never had more respect for another individual than I had right then for Regina. She had divulged to me her harshest truths. A situation that would have killed a weaker being. Now, even at her most vulnerable, she’d called on the provision of strength she owned to soothe my stormy mind.

I eased my body down, taking her along with me when I stretched out on the couch. I would be the strength she tapped into when she needed it, not the other way around. I cast my gaze at the ceiling, and I folded her into my chest until her trembles subsided into smooth, deep breaths.

I wasn’t going to let this shit go, and I think Regina knew it. It may not be next week or next month, but I would hunt down every last person that knew, saw, spoke of, and talked about what Sorio did to Regina. They were going to meet the Reaper. Their souls already belonged to me. They just didn’t know it yet.

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