Chapter 29
“What is your name?”
I can’t. I can’t…
I gasp with the word on the tip of my tongue, as the syllables scream in my head to be spoken.
But it hurts so much.
My body throbs with a pain I can barely process.
I just want to sleep, to eat, to be treated like a human being and not a…
“Dog. You are a dog.” The man says before shocking me again, and I twist into such a position my back screams in protest.
“Dog.” I repeat, sobbing.
My throat is so sore now, my body too broken. I know I’m a disgrace, that I should have fought better, fought harder. If I had my father’s courage, if I had my mother’s strength… but I have none of those things.
I am not brave.
I am not courageous.
I am a fool. A stupid fucking fool.
I sob harder and the sound is wrong, it’s distorted. My hands reach up to that awful tearing in my throat and I wonder if I did something serious, something permanent.
I keep my face down, keep my eyes averted. The man beat me again today.
He fucked me too, fucked me with that thing. He shoved it up my arse too. He brutalised me so badly it hurts to breathe. I don’t know how to process it, how to reconcile myself with the fact that this is my life. This.
Why did Antonio even buy me if this was all he wanted? Surely my pain and suffering was not worth the fortune he paid?
I shudder, curling up into the dirt. That’s what I am now. Dirt. Less than dirt.
I am nothing.