Page 23 of Daddy's Little Bunny (Ivory Mountain Daddies #2)

CHAPTER TWENTY

OLIVIA

T oday was the day that Olivia was supposed to meet with Daddy’s therapist friend and her heart was racing. Not because she was scared to meet her, well not fully because of that.

Daddy had facetimed her earlier in the week so that they could speak to each other before today, so she has an idea of who she would be seeing.

Liv is more worried about having to speak about the things that are going on in her mind.

She has tried so hard to block out all the memories from that day, but Olivia knows that it isn’t healthy to just shove them down into a box in the back of her mind. Daddy said it would be okay though.

He told her that she didn’t have to talk about anything that she didn’t want to, but that Cleo was just there to help her work through whatever she wanted to share.

Daddy said to think of the visit as if it was her and Rae meeting up for coffee. Just two friends talking about stuff.

Speaking of Rae, she had been texting Liv everyday, checking in on her.

Olivia didn’t know what she had done in her past life to deserve such an amazing friend, but she was grateful every day for the funny memes and jokes that Rae sent her.

Olivia knew that she eventually would need to talk to her about everything and explain her past.

She owed that to her, considering that Rae has been nothing but accepting since she arrived in Ivory Mountain almost a year ago.

The ringing of their doorbell cut off the rest of Olivia’s thoughts.

Her heart began to race again, palms began to sweat, and her breathing was coming out in short irregular breaths. She knew right away that she was going to have another panic attack.

They had become more frequent since the incident and Daddy tried his best to coach her through them. Just like he did at night, when she wakes up screaming out from a nightmare.

Those were the worst ever. It was like Olivia could still feel David’s hands on her skin, his breath on her neck, and the pain of his knife in her side as she fell to the ground.

Nothing haunted her more than the cold dead look in his eyes. Daddy didn’t go into too much detail about how he died, but she did know that he was the one who shot David.

Once again, Olivia felt like she should feel some kind of remorse that her husband was dead, but none came. Maybe that’s something she should talk about with Cleo.

She heard footsteps making their way towards her nursery. Daddy thought it would be a better idea for them to talk in there while Olivia went about her normal day.

No clue why he thought that this would be anything close to normal, but she didn’t question him. Olivia thought that she could do this, but as she waited for them to step into the nursery she realized that she couldn’t.

Standing up she dashed into the bathroom and crawled inside the bathtub. Olivia worked on calming her breathing and heartbeat as she waited on Daddy to notice she wasn’t in there.

“Olivia baby, where did you go?”

Did he really think that she was going to speak up and answer him? She knew Daddy could be slow sometimes, but never that slow.

“Olivia Mae, tell Daddy where you are.”

She shifted in the bathtub and the shampoo bottle fell to the ground. Less than a second later, Daddy was standing above her.

“Babygirl, what are you doing in there?”

“I’m scared, Daddy. I can’t do this.”

She watched a look of sadness cross his face before he sat down on the floor beside the tub.

“Do we just need to sit here for a moment together? There isn’t any reason to rush at all.”

Olivia nodded her head before slowly reaching a hand up towards Daddy. Her world settled when he took her hand in his. This is exactly what she needed.

What felt like hours, but was probably only minutes, Olivia was feeling more like herself and figured it was time to get out of the tub and go meet Cleo. She stood and climbed over the side before dropping down into Daddy’s lap.

He held her for a few more minutes as the last little bit of tension and worry faded from her body.

“Are you ready now, Little Bunny?”

Once again, Olivia nodded her head.

“No ma’am, this is one of those times Daddy is going to require you to respond to his question with your words.”

She let out a dramatic sigh and rolled her eyes at his statement. It was always one of those times that he wanted her verbal reply. Olivia felt Daddy’s hand pop down on her bottom and she let out a yelp.

“Daddy!! What was that for?”

“You know exactly why you just got popped. Do we roll our eyes at Daddy?”

“No, sir. I’m sorry.”

“Apology accepted. Now, let's go greet our guest.”

Daddy stood, still holding Liv in his arms. She knew better than to try and scramble out of them. If she did, the pop she got would be nothing compared to the spanking she would get.

Thinking about Daddy popping her brought a smile to her face. He hadn’t once disciplined her since the attack and she would never admit to him, but Olivia missed it.

As much as she hated her punishments at times, they made her feel safe, taken care of, and more importantly she felt loved.

Maybe Daddy should speak to Cleo about his mental health since the accident, because Olivia knew she wasn’t the only one who was suffering.

Daddy placed her on the floor beside the stage where her barbies would put on a fashion show, before turning to the pretty lady who sat in her rocking chair.

“Olivia, this is Ms. Cleo. She’s a friend and someone you can trust, okay?”

“Hi Ms. Cleo. I’m sorry for running away from you.”

“It’s okay, Little one. Meeting new people can be scary. I was just as scared to meet you as you probably were to meet me.”

Olivia raised her eyebrows at her statement. Adults didn’t get scared like that. They were big and strong and could face the world head on.

“Would it be okay if I just sat down beside you and played barbies? ”

She took a second to think about Ms. C’s question. There was no harm in them playing together and Olivia always had more fun when Daddy played with her, so she didn’t think this would be any different.

“I think that would be okay.”

Ms. C took off her shoes and climbed down beside where Olivia sat before picking up one of the barbies.

“That’s Sugarplum! Daddy always plays with her when he hangs out with me.”

“Oh! Then she must be a very good barbie! Let's see, what outfit should we put on her for the show.”

Olivia felt Daddy press a kiss on her head before she heard him slip out the door closing it behind him.

That was something else that they had discussed about Ms. C coming over today.

Everyone thought that it might be best for Daddy to sit out this first session so that Olivia would feel free to bring up anything at all about her past.

Liv knew that it was probably killing him to sit out there, but it was for the best.

She knew that if Daddy heard about some of the horrible things that David used to do to her he would want to kill him all over again. Olivia shook those thoughts from her mind and continued to dress her barbie, Lemon Pop, for the show.

Forty-five minutes had passed as Olivia and Ms. C, who told Olivia that she could call her Auntie C if she felt comfortable, played with the barbies.

“Olivia, can you tell me a little bit about your relationship with David. ”

She tried to push down the panic that was rising up again. Olivia needed to face these memories in order to manage them or they would forever run her life.

“David and I met when I was nineteen and a sophomore in college. He had just graduated from the police academy. We met at the coffee shop that I was working at during that time.”

Auntie C continued to play with her barbie as Olivia worked through all of the emotions and memories that were running wild in her mind.

“At first, I turned him down. I wasn’t looking for a relationship at the time and was just wanting to focus on school.”

“What were you studying?”

“I hadn’t settled on a major yet. I was just working on my pre-reqs, but I was considering being a nurse or a physical therapist.”

“Both are good career choices.”

“Anyways, David eventually wore me down and I agreed to the date. From there on we were an item. In the beginning of the relationship, David was the sweetest guy I knew. He always bought me flowers to work, opened my door, let me vent about my classes, and was my sounding board for all the problems I faced. He really was the perfect southern gentleman, until he wasn’t. ”

Olivia closed her eyes as the memory of the first time David hit her played out in her mind like it was a movie on the big screen.

“Take your time, Liv. You don’t have to face it all today. This isn’t a sprint and we don’t have to continue to talk about it at all, we can just go back to only talking about the fashion show.”

“No, it’s okay. I know I need to get through it. I want to be able to have a future with Miles and that will be hard if I don’t work through the trauma that David brought me. ”

Auntie C hummed at her words but didn’t say anything else. Taking another deep breath, Olivia continued.

“The first time David hit me, I didn’t know what to expect.

We had just picked up take out at the local Mexican restaurant.

When I placed the order, I made sure to tell them that David didn’t want guacamole on his burrito.

When he opened his box and the guac was there, he backhanded me and blamed me for being too stupid to place the order correctly. ”

Tears were running down her face and snot had begun to drip out her nose. She felt Auntie C get up and head into the bathroom before she returned with tissues.

“I should have left then, but I was weak, and I loved him. He bought me a huge bouquet of flowers and the biggest box of Twix he could find and gave them to me the next day. I figured it was just a fluke accident and that he didn’t really mean to do it.

David had a lot of stress on him at work and sometimes it bled over into our homelife. ”

“I want you to know Olivia, that you aren’t weak. You are one of the strongest women that I know. No one should have gone through what you did, but you came out the other side stronger than before and I’m proud of you.”

“I was stupid and shouldn’t have stayed, but he convinced me that it was a one time thing and that he would never do it again. I shouldn’t have believed him because it never stopped. For two years he would hit and kick me, call me names, and make me feel like garbage. I was too weak to leave him.”

“But you did. You got out and ran. You made a way for yourself, Olivia, and that’s something to be proud of.”

“The last time he put me in the hospital, I ended up needing to have emergency surgery much like I did this past time. They had to remove my spleen because he had kicked me so hard it ruptured. Of course, the hospital records show that I was in a car accident. The anger that he had that night will haunt me forever and I knew that, if I didn’t get out, I would never escape.

I knew that, the next time he lost his temper, I wouldn’t end up in the hospital, I would end up dead. ”

She felt Auntie C’s arms wrap around her as she cried about the woman she once was. Letting out all the emotions that had built up over the years.

Olivia didn’t know how much time had passed, when she felt herself being lifted in the air and settled in the crib.

She felt Daddy press a quick kiss on her lips, turn on her nightlight, and quietly shut the door behind him, as they slipped out of the room.

Olivia drifted off to sleep, feeling lighter than she had in years. She knew that she had a long way to go, but with Daddy by her side and Auntie C rooting for her, Liv knew that she could do it.