Reckoning: A Twisted Love Standalone Novel (Twisted Love Duet) by Ellie Sanders

Author:Ellie Sanders [Sanders, Ellie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-12-17T00:00:00+00:00

Sofia

We’re in my room. Koen’s room technically.

I’m sat on the bed. Again. And Koen is beside me, his arm wrapped around my shoulders to keep me upright.

Neither of us has spoken. Neither of us has said a word.

I can hear the clock ticking away what feels like hours.

Does he find me repulsive now that he knows there’s physical evidence of my abuse? Evidence that can never be erased. Can never be removed.

“Who did that to you?” He asks quietly, gently.

“I, I don’t remember.” I say. My voice sounds so meek. So pathetic.

“None of it?”

“Not their faces. I remember hands, I remember smells, the stench of their sweat as they…” My chest heaves at that admission and I think for second that I might just puke.

“You knew it was those men the other week.” He states.

“Yes, some faces I recognise. But most of it’s a blur.”

He frowns and I wait for him to repeat what the damned therapist said, that it’s better I don’t remember, better I try to forget. As if it’s that easy.

Only he doesn’t.

He just sits there, as if he wants to give me this moment to gather my thoughts.

“Do I disgust you?” Though I force them out, they sound like a whisper and I’m so fearful of what he’ll say, if he’ll say yes, if he’ll tell me that I’m everything I believe myself to be. Tainted. Degraded. Unhuman.

“Why would you?” He growls.

“Because of my body, because of what they did to me.”

He pulls me back, lies me flat on the bed and undoes the robe, baring me to him. I flinch but, before my terror can truly takeover again, he leans over and plants a kiss. It’s soft. Delicate. So light I barely feel it but I know he’s done it.

He plants another.

And another.

He’s kissing my scars. Kissing all those awful reminders. All those words they carved into my flesh.

“What, what are you doing?” I stammer.

“You have the body of a warrior. You bear the scars of so many battles.” He says meeting my gaze. “Someone should give your body the honour it deserves.”

My tears erupt out of me. I wipe one away but another takes its place. “I’m not a warrior.” I whisper. Warriors are brave. Warriors are courageous. I’m a coward. A pathetic, weak, useless person who couldn’t even save themselves.

He soothes me, he brushes away my tears with his thumb as my sobs grow louder.

“It’s over.” He murmurs. “They can never hurt you again.”

“It’s not.” I reply. “It’s not over. As long as my body carries these scars, as long as my head remembers, I will always be there, in that room, trapped.”

He growls, “That’s not true. You might not forget but you can move past this. You can reclaim everything they stole from you.”

I shake my head because that sounds as possible as me sprouting wings and flying to the moon.

“Sofia, it just takes time.”

“It has been time.” I snap. “It’s been over a year.”

“And maybe it will take longer, maybe it will take five years, ten even.

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