Page 3 of Beautiful Revenge

Ten Years Old…

“You were a good girl tonight, Briar,”Daddy says to me before he walks out of the room, leaving me to cry in peace.

God, why does life have to be so unfair?

I cry into my knees, holding them close to my body as the pain reverberates through me. I don’t like this life. I don’t like my daddy, and I don’t want to be here anymore.

I want to run away and live with Devon and Dylan. Their family is so nice. I would love to have people like that in my life, but it’s a fairytale to me. Unattainable and unrealistic.

Once the pain has eased enough and the tears have stopped falling, I stand up to clean off and get dressed before sneaking out of my window like I’ve been doing for the past two years.

I always run to their house down the street on the really bad nights. They’re my comfort and safety net. Without them, I think I would give up on this life. There’s this overwhelming need inside of me to just shut everything off, and it’s so tempting to give in to it when the pain is at its worst.

But I can’t. I can’t because when I start to let go of everything inside of me, their faces are all I see. Reminding me there is light in this darkness. In this hell I call a life.

I knock on their front door, and their mom opens it, smiling at me.

It’s a sad smile. I think she can see the lies I tell and the pain I hide, but she doesn’t ask me. She tried once when I first started coming over, and it was bad. I broke down and just lost it before running away.

I ran to my new favourite spot, and the boys found me quickly.

“Hi, honey. How are you tonight?” Sylvia asks as she pulls me into a small hug.

“I’m okay,” I whisper. It’s not a lie. I hate outright lying to her. It’s just mean, you know? I’m always okay in the end, as long as I can seethemafterward.

Her sadness tells me enough. She knows I’m not okay, but she can’t do anything when I don’t tell her the truth. And I can never tell her the truth because Daddy would hurt her.

He’s said that before, shortly after he realized I had made friends. He told me if I ever said anything to anyone about how he loved me, he would make them go away. I don’t want them to go away, so I keep my mouth shut.

“They’re upstairs, honey,” she tells me, allowing me to leave and keep my secrets locked inside.

“Hey, princess. You okay?” Devon asks me when I walk into their room.

I love coming to their house. It’s almost like a different world or universe. A realm where everyone is sweet and kind and gentle. The exact opposite of everything in the reality I live every single day.

“Fine,” I whisper. They know it’s a lie.

I’ve confessed some of the things that happen inside my house behind closed doors, but I begged them not to tell anyone. So far, I think they’ve kept that promise.

Tonight was worse, though. It wasn’t just Daddy this time. All the times he swore he loved me I could almost handle the pain… not now.

“You’re lying, Brie,” Dylan whispers, tears in his voice as he uses the nickname he gave me.

He’s so gentle compared to Dev and me, and I love that about him.

“I know,” I say under my breath, shaking the emotions from my head. “But let’s pretend everything is alright. Please?” I beg, and he swallows before nodding.

“We can do that, princess.” Dev slings his arm around my shoulder and pulls me into a side hug. “But we aren’t watching some girly crap this time, Briar. It’s your turn to watch our guy stuff,” he says, and I roll my eyes.

“Sure, whatever you say, Dev.”

He and Dylan both chuckle as I climb on the bed between them to watch whatever movie they’re going to put on.

DYLAN

She’s hurting,and I hate it. She’s ten years old. She shouldn’t have to go through everything she is behind those doors.

I can’t believe she was able to talk us into not telling anyone, but Dev and I decided that telling our parents could put her in even more danger, so for now we keep her secret.

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