Page 54 of Trapped With You

“This is so awful, Cade. He had no right to treat you like that.” Ella’s voice shook as it rose an octave higher. “No one has the right to treat you like that.Ever.”

I clenched her tighter against me, appreciating her words more than I could convey. “In the first few weeks of living in that shithole, it became obvious that Julius wouldn’t take care of us when he couldn’t even take care of himself. Therefore,Ihad to take care of us. My job opportunities were limited and desperate times called for desperate measures, so I got in touch with a guy who could help me put food on the table. That’s how I started dealing. It may have been unethical, but drug money was good money. I was able to buy Olivia all her necessities and to finally have something decent to eat besides stale cereal for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

“Julius hated seeing how quickly I took on responsibility while his worthless ass was rotting away. It bruised his ego tosee a kid thrice his junior be the man of the house. Therefore, he started punishing me in his own sick way.” I rubbed my hand against Ella’s arm to bring some heat to my cold fingers. “The abuse went from verbal to…physical.”

Ella froze.

Humiliation prickled my skin until my breathing turned ragged. “Julius’s insults morphed into shoves and punches very quickly. I was strong enough to fight him off, but I never did, afraid of the consequences. I thought to myself, ‘if he takes his anger out on me, Olivia is safe.’” My features twisted with torment and Ella sat up, eyes filling with moisture. “Y-You have to understand that everything I-I did was to protect Olivia. I couldn’t risk him hurting her. I just couldn’t, Ella. It was me or her. It didn’t mean that I was weak. I-I was never weak—”

“Shh…” Ella caressed my face soothingly, halting my frantic words. Tears freely streamed down the slopes of her cheeks. “You survived a horrible situation as best as you could. You’re not weak. You never were. Please don’t think otherwise.”

I wasn’t weak. I knew it, though I didn’t realize until now how badly I needed to hear it aloud. Fromher. Ella’s words began to slowly heal the parts of me that felt broken.

“Julius gave me these scars two weeks before I moved in with the Remingtons.” I gestured to my scarred arm. Ella sucked in a sharp breath. “I had just finished tucking Olivia in bed when Julius stumbled into the house minutes later, completely drunk and with a bottle of Jack. He spotted me on the staircase and started throwing insults. As always, I took his verbal assault. I was used to it. I didn’t care. But when he raised his voice, I got worried it would wake up Olivia, who’d been sick all day. So I…I finally talked back for the first time. I told him to ‘shut the fuck up’ and he lost it. He walked up to where I stood, smashed the bottle against the banister, knocked me until I fell flat on the stairs and then…”

“No, no, no,” Ella chanted on a tortured whisper.

I inhaled a shuddering breath. “Then he carved me, Ella. He pinned me under his weight and scraped the broken ends of the bottle against my skin like it was a chisel and I was an inanimate object for him to inject his brutality in. He relished my agony and laughed like a lunatic while I screamed and begged for him to stop.”

Suddenly, my mind was transported back to that night where he altered me forever. I felt as though I was right there, under the mercy of that devil as he cut me up like a fucked-up piece of art.

It was Ella’s sob that drew me back to reality. I watched as she clamped a hand over her mouth, barely stopping her cry of pain. “Oh, God.”

“Olivia woke up from my screams and started wailing. Eventually, the neighbours heard the commotion and called the cops. I thought I was going to die on that staircase.”

“Cade…”

“By the time the ambulance and cops arrived, I had fainted from blood loss. The next day in the hospital, I was informed that Julius was behind bars and social services had contacted the Remingtons about me and Olivia. They immediately took us in and the rest is history. Finally, the universe gave me a miracle. My life changed in the blink of an eye and here I am today. Healing, not so broken, and confessing all my secrets to the prettiest girl I’ve ever seen.”

The last bit was meant to uplift the mood.

Ella only cried harder. I wiped her tears with my thumbs. My girlfriend was clearly an empath. When her cries wouldn’t cease, I hugged her tight and laid my chin over her head. “Please don’t cry, Ella. It hurts me to see you like this.”

In this moment, she was my lifeline.

I wasn’t capable of letting her go.

Not now.

Not ever.

There was a time when I wished I’d died with my parents in that fire. It was morbid, but it was true. Back then, it felt like my life was over.

Thinking back to those dark days and where I was now, I was grateful life gave me a second chance and new circumstances with an amazing family who cherished me infinitely.

And I reminded myself that every hardship and obstacle changed the course of my fate and led me to this incredible girl right here, weeping in my arms and looking up at me with so much love that it undid me.

“I can’t help it.” She buried her face in my neck. “The thought of you in pain breaks my heart. I’m sorry, Cade. So sorry you had to go through that. I wish I could pay Julius a visit in jail and hurt him for hurting you.”

When she laid her palm against my beating heart, as if ensuring it was there and alive, all the toxins from my past ebbed away. “Thank you for hearing me out,mo chuisle.”

Her glassy eyes blinked up at me with softness. “What does that mean?”

“My pulse,” I murmured, bestowing a tender kiss to her lips.

She sighed. “That’s so romantic.”

I smiled and pressed my forehead to hers. “You gave me a nickname in your language. It was only fitting that I give you one in mine.”