Chapter Seventeen #2
When we get to the basement, she curls her nose up. “Ew. What is that smell?” she asks.
“That… you’ll get used to it,” I mutter before turning to face her.
She puts up a good front, but I can see that she is truly scared out of her mind now.
I take her face between my hands, and a tear rolls down her cheek.
“I want you to listen to me, and I need you to understand. I loved you then, and I love you now. I will not let anyone hurt you. Okay? When they come down here, I want you to go to the corner and don’t look.
Okay? I don’t want you to see any of this.
Cover your ears and quietly sing your favorite song to yourself.
Don’t try to defend me. Don’t try to do anything besides protect yourself.
If you see a way out, you get the fuck out of this house. Do you understand me?”
“Yes,” she says tearfully. “I just wanted to save you.”
“And you have done an amazing job. You are so smart and kind. You have done what no one else was willing to do. Because of you, I might actually be free one day,” I tell her. “Own your choices, Rosey.”
When the basement door opens, I point for Rose to go to the corner, and she does. I move across the room where the mattress is and wait. “Fuck,” I say quietly to myself when I see that Walter has a whip in his hand.
“Face the wall,” Walter says simply. I do as I am told because I don’t have any other choice. “You were trying to run from me, Pumpkin.”
“You left me for a week with no food,” I explain.
“So, you didn’t call your little husband?” he asks. “Don’t lie to me.”
“With what phone?” I ask. “It’s been too long. He’s moved on. They all have.”
“That’s right,” he says. He snaps the whip and laughs when I flinch. “You are replaceable. Say it.”
“I am replaceable,” I say, trying to focus on breathing. Walter and Alvin chuckle when I drop my head.
“Move, and she’s next,” Walter says before snapping the whip across my lower back. The gown does nothing to protect me from the hit. I scream in pain but try not to move. After a few more hits, I put my hands on the wall in front of me to keep myself from falling.
I am sobbing hysterically, but I can’t move.
I won’t let them hurt her. I can feel the gown starting to shred and blood trickling down my body.
I’ve lost count of the number of times I have been hit now.
When I hear them walk up the stairs, I drop to the floor crying.
Rose rushes to my side and wraps her arms around me, hugging me tightly.
I cannot pull myself out of this enough to protect her.
I should be comforting her, not the other way around.
I hate my life so fucking much, but I can’t give up now.
I thought Dominic was the only one who could pull me out of this, but it’s Rose.
She is counting on me, and I cannot let her down again.
I have to get her back to her parents. I focus on three.
Three sounds, three items, and take three deep breaths.
“I’m okay. I’m fine,” I say as I sniff back my tears and sit up. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, but you are not okay,” she says. “You are bleeding.”
“I’m okay,” I say again. “No one hurt you?”
“Will you stop?” Rose snaps. “God… We really are alike. You are so hardheaded. I know I’m a kid, but it’s not a big deal to admit that you aren’t okay. Stop lying to me.”
“Okay,” I say softly. “I’m sorry… I’m not okay. I just want to protect you. I’ve already let you down enough. If I don’t get you back to your parents safe… I’ll never forgive myself.”
“You are my mom,” she says. “I’ve known all my life that you didn’t want to give me up.
I knew that someone hurt you when you were a little girl, and that’s how I was born.
Paul and Megan told me that when you took me to the fire station, you were crying and begging them to take care of your daughter.
They made sure I understood that you wanted me, but that you needed to do what you did.
You weren’t even a teenager. What would you have done, taken me to middle school and hoped I didn’t need a bottle in the middle of gym class?
I have always known that one day you would be ready to be my mom, but I think you always were.
You protected me from the start and never hesitated to do it again the moment you saw me in that van.
Stop saying you aren’t my mom unless you want to tell me that you don’t want me to be your daughter. ”
“You’re so sassy,” I remark, making her smile. “I do want you to be my daughter, Rosey, but I don’t want you to abandon everything you know for someone you don’t.”
“I love Paul and Megan. They are amazing and have been the best parental figures ever. It’s you that they call their daughter, though.
They have always called me their granddaughter.
Always. I introduce them as my grandparents, and when people ask about my mom, I tell the truth.
I say that my mom was hurt when she was eleven, and that’s how I was born.
I tell them that you weren’t ready to be a mom yet because you were still being hurt.
I say that one day you’d be free, and I’d finally get to meet my mom. And you know what?”
“What?” I sniffle.
“No one has ever judged that. I told my therapist that, and they told me that one day you’d know that it was safe enough for me to be in your life,” she says.
“When we get out of here, I want us to get to know each other,” I say, wiping my face.
“Does that make Dominic my stepdad?” she asks.
“You might make him cry if you call him Dad,” I laugh. “He doesn’t look like it, but he’s a big softy.”
“He and Matt both are,” she says.
We both abruptly jump up when we hear the basement door again. I push her toward her corner while I back myself into the opposing corner. Alvin has a bat in his hands, and he looks angry. Walter isn’t with him this time.
“Where is Walter?” I ask. When he grins at me, I realize that Walter doesn’t know he is down here. That’s bad.
“Don’t look so scared, Myra,” he says, stepping closer to me.
“Dad,” I yell out.
“You shouldn’t have done that, Myra,” he says. Dad comes stomping down the stairs.
“What the fuck are you doing, Alvin?” Walter snaps. Alvin is still looking at me with an evil grin on his face. “I told you neither of them is dying. Are you fucking listening to me?”
Walter grabs Alvin’s arm, and everything unfolds so quickly.
Rose and I both scream when Alvin suddenly turns and swings the bat, hitting Walter directly in the face.
Walter drops to the ground with a thud, and Alvin continues to wail on him until his body is limp and his head is crushed.
Blood and brain matter are all over the floor now, and I am in complete shock.
When he turns to me, I know what he’s about to do.
I drop to the floor and curl myself up to try to protect my head.
“Stop!” Rose screams. “Don’t hurt her!”
Shit…
I panic when Alvin steps away from me and turns to Rose.
I immediately jump up, but he’s got her backed into a corner.
That’s when I see it. Walter came down here with the whip, thinking he was going to have to punish me again.
I snatch it up and hit Alvin as hard as I can across his back.
Instead of hitting Rose, he turns on me.
I swing the whip again, and it slices across his face, making him scream and drop to his knees.
The bat is dropped in the process, and Rose grabs it.
Alvin launches himself at her. When he catches her ankle and screams as she is pulled to the ground.
Something breaks inside of me, and rage pours out. Everything is coming in flashes as I hit Alvin. He screams so loudly it’s deafening. I don’t stop because he might go after her again. I can still hear her screaming. Why is everyone screaming?
Arms wrap around my body, and I turn to direct my rage to whoever snuck up on me.
I am quickly brought to the ground and pinned with my arms above my head.
I yell, scream, and thrash my body to try to get out from under them.
I can’t focus on anything but the panic.
That is, until warm hands cup my face as I stay pinned to the ground.
A gentle melody cuts through the rage and fear, letting me calm down.
When I realize that it’s Rose softly singing “You Are My Sunshine,” I start crying. I sang that song to her on repeat until the moment I handed her over. I’m sure Paul and Megan told her that, but it calms me just as fast as it did Rose when she was born.
“Come on, Mom, sing it with me,” Rose urges. I force myself to sing with her through broken cries. I realize I am no longer restrained, so I sit up and wrap her in a hug. We continue to softly sing until I stop crying. When she pulls back, I realize Dominic and Matt are sitting with me.
“Dom! Matt!” I nearly scream as I throw myself into Dominic’s lap.
“I’ve got you,” he says as he pulls me to his chest to cradle me.
“Is he dead?” I ask after a moment.
“Oh yeah,” Naomi laughs. “He is dead.”
I turn, and my eyes go wide when I see what I have done. “Did I… Oh my God,” I say. “I don’t remember…”
“He grabbed my leg and pulled me down,” Rose says. “The second he got his hands around my throat, you started hitting him. He came at me so fast, but you were much faster.”
“He killed Walter,” I say to Naomi. “Why… I don’t understand.”
“Let’s get you out of here, and we can talk, okay?
” she says. I nod, and Dominic stands with me in his arms before carrying me upstairs and out of the house.
Dozens of people are standing around, so he takes me to Naomi’s truck.
I am wrapped in a blanket, sitting in Dominic’s lap with my legs across Matt.
Rose is sitting beside Matt, also wrapped in a blanket.
“Where are her parents?” I ask Naomi when she gets into the front. Natalie and Trish are in the back behind us, but leaning forward.
“You are my parent,” Rose frowns at me.
“We are meeting them at the hotel,” Naomi says. “Rose, why did you do that? You could have been hurt.”
“Save it,” Rose says. “I’d do it again.”
“Like mother, like daughter,” Matt chuckles.
“Did I hear correctly that you two finally… I have to remind myself there is a child present,” I say, making Dominic smile.
“Yes,” he says. “About a month ago.”
“Tell them what you told me,” Rose says. I narrow my eyes at her, and she grins. “Tell them, or I will.”
“Tell us what?” Dominic asks.
“I… gave up,” I say. “I thought too much time had passed, and you all had moved on from me. Knowing you two connected worried me because… I’m replaceable.”
“Myra Rose Mercer,” Dominic scolds. “You are my wife… Shit, you are a wife to both of us. We love you so fucking much. We never stopped looking for you. We were not whole without you, and we never would have been. You are not replaceable. I don’t give a fuck what that asshole told you.
Matt and I were able to connect because you gave us the courage.
It was you who brought us together like that.
You were the very first thing we mentioned after.
No matter what we did or how much time passed, your absence hurt just the same.
I don’t ever want to hear you say that again, do you understand me? ”
“Yes,” I sigh.
“Not good enough. Say it,” he says.
“All of it? You said a lot,” I say.
“Myra. Say it,” he says again.
“I am not replaceable,” I say with a frown. “Happy?”
“No. Again,” he says.
“I am not replaceable,” I say with more firmness in my tone.
“Good girl,” he says before gently kissing me.
“Ew. Naomi, Mom is kissing Dad,” Rose says. Dominic pulls back and snaps his head in her direction. “What? Don’t look at me like that. She is my mom, and you are married to her. That makes you my stepdad. So is Matt. I think that makes Natalie and Trish my stepmothers.”
“I… What?” Dominic asks, almost tearfully.
“See? I told you he might cry,” I say to Rose with a smile. Matt leans up and kisses me, making Rose fake gag.
“Start from the beginning,” Naomi says. I go through everything from the text to being kidnapped to running, and Rose being there.
I make sure to be as detailed as possible with her.
If she is letting Rose be here for this, then it must be alright.
I avoid going into graphic detail, though, unless it is about what they looked like.
No one needs to know exactly how I was raped.
When I’m done talking, everyone but Naomi, Rose, and I are teary-eyed.
“Am I in trouble for bashing his brains in?” I ask.
“No,” she says. “We were there for a lot of it. We only stopped you when you started to hit the concrete. I can’t exactly put in a report that I let you continue to smash his skull in, so it will just be written down as self-defense.
No one is going to want to see that go to court because then they will have to admit that they knew he was up to no good and still let him be in the courtroom. ”
“When can I go home?” I ask.
“We have a flight out first thing in the morning,” Naomi says. “We flew here, so I’ll fly y’all home.”
“I… am exhausted and hungry,” I say.
“You’ve lost weight,” Natalie says. “I am concerned about that.”
“As a doctor or as a friend?”
“Both,” she says. “You are malnourished.”
“Well, I also didn’t eat for the last week, so I’m sure that’s where most of the issue is,” I say. “Mostly, I’m just tired. I haven’t slept but maybe a few minutes at a time, but I gave up after a while.”
“All of you need your sleep,” Naomi says. “Let’s go to the hotel. There are clothes there for you to change into.”
“It’s over?” I ask.
“It’s over,” she smiles. “Let’s go.”