Once Upon a Time

by KL Donn

  Trepidation passes through me as the other woman stomps up the steps to where I’m sitting with a look of pure malice on her posh face.

  The crack of a whip reverberates throughout the room, and it takes me a moment to realize the sound matches the stinging pain in my cheek and that Ashley has backhanded me. A stressed quiet settles over the room as she yells at me.

  “You stupid bitch! You’re ruining everything!” I have no idea what she’s talking about.

  Confused, I remain silent. Unsure of what to say or do, I press a hand to my throbbing cheek and try to shrink in my seat. The entire class watches in fascination, waiting for whatever happens next. Some of them are just as confused as me, some are only curious, others watch with pity in their stares as the freakshow of the room gets railed on. The worst is the ones trying to hold in their laughter. It’s them I try to hide from.

  “I didn’t…I don’t know…I’m sorry,” I stutter, completely mortified by the entire situation. I don’t even know what I’m sorry about when I’m the one being assaulted. I’ve done nothing wrong except fall in love with her brother.

  “Stay away from my brother, you stupid tramp. He doesn’t want your crazy ass.” Ashley snarls as she makes her way down to the two boys who had been laughing earlier. It doesn’t take long before the whispering starts, the new names spread, and rumors spiral around the classroom and spill into the hallways.

  Slut.

  Tramp.

  Gold-digger.

  New names. New school.

  Same vulnerable Cecilia Marks.

  I’m the girl forever bullied.

  Landon

  * * *

  After throwing Ashley out, I had too much pent-up rage rolling through me to go in search of Cecilia. I was in too aggressive of a mood to try and win her back, so I made my way down to the public employee gym to find Kale, one of our best contractors and a close friend, running on a treadmill. More often than not, he stays in one of the apartments here.

  “Hey man, don’t you have your own fancy ass gym upstairs?” He smirks as I join him.

  Unsure of how to even explain, I jump on the machine next to him and begin a quick pace. Not ten minutes goes by and he’s looking at me like I’ve lost my mind. I glance down to see I’ve run two miles already and barely broken a sweat.

  Shit.

  “What’s going on, Landon?” Of all the men I work with and employ, he’s the one I’m closest to. The one I consider a good friend.

  “Ashley,” I grumble as I slow to a light jog and match his speed.

  “That could mean so many things, man. Be specific.” He laughs, knowing what a problem my sister can be at times.

  Shaking my head, all I can see is Cecilia and the agony she must have felt. “I met a girl.”

  “About damn time.”

  I grin because it’s true. I’ve been a workaholic for so fucking long. “Yeah,” I agree, “it is.”

  “So, what’d Ash do?”

  Blowing out a frustrated breath, my muscles tense up. “She has been Cecilia’s bully for years.” Fuck is that a hard pill to swallow.

  “No shit.” He doesn’t seem surprised by the news. “How are you going to fix it?”

  “Fucked if I know.”

  “What’s the problem today? You certainly can’t fix the past, but today is different.”

  “Ashley said some shit to her this morning while I was in a meeting. Scared her off.”

  “And you’re here because…” Good fucking question.

  “Because I’m fucking livid with Ash, and I don’t want Cec to think it has anything to do with her. I want her to have time to calm down and be less emotional.”

  His bark of laughter stops me from speaking. “Less emotional? Dude, that’s never going to happen. Women are always emotional.”

  “Not Cecilia, she’s so fucking rational it hurts my head. The problem is she doesn’t think she’s good enough for me because of some scars, and Ash cemented that in her mind this morning.” My anger is swelling again.

  “I repeat, why are you here and not with her?” Kale stares at me like I’m an idiot, and maybe I am.

  “I need to figure out how to convince her she’s everything to me.” After all that Ash said to her this morning, I know words won’t be enough. I need to show her, and I’m not entirely certain how to go about that.

  “Good luck. I’m glad I’m not in the same boat as you are.” Kale pats my back and walks off to the locker rooms. He’s got a meeting at a job site that he’s got to get to.

  While I continue my workout, I wonder if giving Cecilia time to herself will do me more harm than good. I know I can’t go to her until I’ve worked off all my anger and hopefully, come to some sort of decision on how to win her back.

  And I will win her over.

  There’s no doubt in my mind that Cecilia Marks and I are meant for forever.

  Chapter 8

  Landon

  After spending yesterday at war with myself, I decide I need to see Cecilia for myself. I need to speak to her, tell her how I feel, and that whatever Ashley conveyed to her about us is a lie.

  The first thing I notice as I enter the building where I met Cec for the first time is crude comments coming from groups of students.

  She’s such a whore. She deserves everything she gets.

  I can’t believe she’s fucking so many men.

  I heard she was found with a professor in a closet.

  The football team has been bragging about how her mouth sucks like a Hoover vacuum.

  Each one makes me sick to my stomach for whoever they’re talking about. It’s hard to believe college kids, adults, have nothing better to do than gossip so viciously. Spreading so much hate is childish. When I was in school, we never had time for that shit, and if that’s what they’re doing here, then obviously the standards for learning have plummeted.

  The farther I wander into the school and down the hallways, the nastier the remarks become. When I come upon a group of people, my sister standing in the middle of what looks to be her friends, I get a sinking feeling in my gut. When her amused stare meets mine and guilt flashes as she darts a look to the door she’s standing by, I know something is wrong.

  It’s then I realized that all the comments and insults I’ve been hearing are about her. Cecilia, my girl. And if I guess correctly, it’s because my sister did something far worse than scare Cecilia from my apartment yesterday.

  Storming up to Ashley, I crowd her against the wall whispering only loud enough for her to hear me. “You did this, didn’t you?” Turning her head, she refuses to answer me. “You hate this girl so much you would choose to ruin her for what, popularity?”

  Still, she says nothing.

  Not in defense, not in acknowledgment.

  “You’ve always been a lot of things, Ashley Powers. Spoiled, selfish, a fucking airhead, but never, not once did I figure you for cruel. You are—or were—beyond this. Why? Why would you do it?”

  Her eyes are glued behind me as I hear the creak of a door opening. Turning, I watch as a broken-down person walks out of the classroom. Clothes torn, bruises shine on the parts of her body I can see. Exhaustion weighs heavily in her face.

  My body freezes as I realize who it is. “Sweets?” I whisper, my voice cracking with pain. “What happened to you?” I ask softly as I walk over to her. She flinches when I reach to put my hand on her back. Fuck, my heart contracts with agony.

  “Who are you?” An older woman standing with her demands.

  No question. “I’m Cecilia’s fiancé, Landon Powers. What the hell happened to her?”

  “Seems she tripped down the stairs.” The way she says tripped leads me to believe something else has happened.

  “This bruising, though?” I stare in her horror at the multitude of colors on her face. Some of it looks older than a few minutes or even hours. And she definitely didn’t look this way when I left her at my place.

  “She says it started yesterday,” the
woman explains.

  Lifting Cecilia’s chin gently, I force her to meet my stare. Her ordinarily dark brown orbs are dull, flat; the life has been sucked free from her. My heart breaks for her. For her suffering.

  I’ve done this. This, everything that’s happened is my fault.

  I should have come sooner. Listened to my gut instead of being fucking stubborn. I could have stopped her hurt.

  Spinning around to face Ashley again, I demand, “Who? And don’t you fucking lie to me, Ashley.” She freezes at my question, looking anywhere but at me. A horrific thought enters my mind. “Tell me you didn’t do this?” She’s a lot of things, but physical assault? Shit.

  Crossing her arms defiantly, she glares at me, and I have my answer. Her friends begin to back off as they realize how fucked up the entire situation has become.

  Movement from the side catches my attention, and I turn to see the jock from a couple days ago stalking towards us. I’m prepared for whatever bullshit the kid has planned. I’m not prepared for what he says though. “She didn’t personally do it.” He nods towards one of Ashley’s friends, indicating that he was the attacker.

  Angry beyond anything I’ve ever felt before, I narrow my eyes on the duo and tell the woman with Cecilia, “Call the cops. I want them all charged with assault.” I see Ashley open her mouth to say something and talk right over her. “Ashley included.”

  “What!” she screeches. “Landon, you can’t!”

  “I can, Ashley. You crossed a fucking line today. I warned you to leave Cecilia alone, but you stepped in it when you scared her off by filling her head full of bullshit and lies. Now, you spread these disgusting rumors and have her fucking assaulted? I don’t fucking think so. It’s about damn time you face the consequences for your shitty actions. Starting today.”

  Turning my back on my sister, I walk tentatively towards Cecilia in the hopes she doesn’t flinch away from me again. I can’t fucking deal with that. Her eyes widen as I approach, confusion bright in the big orbs. “Landon?”

  “I don’t care what she told you, sweets, none of its true. Not a single word. What we shared was special, and I’m telling you now, nothing is ever going to change that.” My vow is vehement. I mean every word, and I need her to believe it.

  Wrapping an arm gently around her shoulders, I hand the other woman my card with all my contact information on it and tell her to have the cops contact me when they’re through with my sister and her punk-ass friends.

  Guiding Cecilia outside to my waiting car, I help her settle in to take her home with me. After making a quick call to a doctor I know that does house calls and explaining that Cec doesn’t need the probing a hospital would require unless necessary, he agrees to meet us at my penthouse. The drive home is quiet, and I keep wondering what she’s thinking.

  Cecilia

  * * *

  Lost in my own head, I don’t pay a lot of attention to my surroundings. I feel more like I’m moving in slow-motion. As if I’m watching myself. I know I’m in Landon’s car because I heard him speaking to someone before we started driving, but I have no idea what’s happening. I don’t even know if I care.

  I’m having a hard time associating myself with life moving around me right now. A lack of interest holds me hostage, and I wonder if remaining in this stasis isn’t better for me. Being locked in my mind, away from the cruel taunts and the pain of being assaulted, has left me to watch as a bystander, feeling nothing but pity for this broken girl I’ve become.

  Everything that’s happened over the past two days has brought forth my deep-seated belief that there is no good left in humanity. It’s gone, extinct, and I doubt it’s ever coming back. Students that don’t know me gathered around to watch and see what was happening. Students that do know me and understand what has happened all my life turned their backs and walked away.

  The students who have tormented me my entire life laughed as though me being beaten was comical. They acted as if me being brought to the lowest point in my life before I broke was the funniest thing in the world.

  Not for the first time as I was lying on the cold floor did I wonder if I’d be better off dead. The pain would be gone. No one would miss me. And for once, I’d be free.

  The sad thing is, all that’s holding me back from ending it all is that I’d hate for these cruel beings to find someone else to target. To find a new punching bag and torment them.

  In order to save the innocent, I’ve become the damned.

  As Landon pulls into the parking garage, a sense of déjà vu hits, and butterflies rock my belly. I watch as Landon exits the car and comes around to my side to help me out. We walk slowly to the elevator that leads directly to his penthouse, and as it stops on his floor, I can’t help reflecting, “Back to where it all began.”

  I see hurt briefly flash across Landon’s face, but it’s gone so quickly that I’m not certain if it was there at all. I have a hard time feeling bad because if not for Landon, his sister wouldn’t have attacked me so viciously in recent days. She would have gone on her merry way, and I’d have been left alone.

  Over the years, I’ve watched as the woman became increasingly bitter and angry with a vindictive streak a mile wide. I’ve always feared what would happen if her cruelty were aimed at me. I suppose, now, I know.

  With his hand on my back, I follow as Landon leads me to the couch facing the window where he’d so thoroughly loved me previously. My heart cramps as I remember how he made me feel in those passion-filled moments.

  “Cecilia,” he murmurs, kneeling in front of me, my hands held lovingly between his. “I’m so sorry, sweets. I should have come for you sooner. I shouldn’t have waited. I thought you needed time to work through your own feelings. I needed to let my anger cool down; I didn’t want to scare you.” Wiping a hand down his face, I can see how much pain he’s in, too. “I still don’t know what exactly she said to you. I wish I did. I wish I’d never left. I swear to you, Cecilia, I won’t let anyone touch you again.”

  I can hear the promise in his voice, feel the agony in his words. I want to believe him, my mind almost does, but my heart? My heart aches so much. While Landon hasn’t done anything to actually hurt me, his actions have. Because of his feelings for me, I was put in the middle of something so agonizing, I’m not sure I can find my way out of it.

  Averting my gaze, I watch out the window as clouds float in the breeze, birds fly high, and the sun shines so brightly it’s blinding. I watch and I wait, and I wish for another life. A life in which I’m not this ugly, broken girl, but a perfect replica of who Landon could really love and be with.

  Landon

  * * *

  I watch as the light in her eyes fizzles out and dies. In that moment, I know I did this. I know that I, Landon Powers, thirty-one-year-old entrepreneur, owner of multiple successful businesses, one of the richest men in the state, am the lowest form of life that humanity has to offer. I made Cecilia question what little self-worth she had left.

  I can’t take my gaze off her while we wait for the doctor to get here. I need to know if she’s still in there. If the girl who gave herself so freely to me is still present. I need for her to come back to me. She had so much fire and passion deep inside her core. I’d only gotten a small glimpse, and I want it all.

  Every little spark, the giant flames and all of her anger, I want it. Lord, do I crave her anger more than anything else right this moment. It would show me she’s still got some life left in her, that she’s fighting to break free.

  My phone chimes and I’m forced to take my eyes off Cecilia as she watches out the window. “I’ll be right back,” I tell her, standing. I kiss the top of her head and breathe in her spicy cinnamon scent.

  Buzzing the elevator down for the doctor, I wait impatiently, needing to set eyes on Cec again. Her stare hasn’t left the window where I’d taken her innocence, marking her as my own.

  “Mr. Powers,” Dr. Ganes greets as the elevator doors open, and he walks off.


  “Thanks for coming.” I offer a hand to shake.

  “How can I help you today? My assistant didn’t have very many details when she called me.” Because I didn’t offer any.

  “My fiancée, Cecilia, was tripped at school today, causing her to fall down some steps from what I understand. I’d like to be sure she’s alright.” I don’t have all the details myself, so I can’t offer many.

  Walking back towards Cecilia, I take a seat beside her as Dr. Ganes sits on the table in front of her. As he pulls out a stethoscope and blood pressure cuff, he begins to talk to her.

  “Cecilia, I’m Dr. Ganes, would you remove your sweater please, dear?”

  Her wince at his question alarms me, and she raises her blank stare up to me, raw fear and excruciating pain in the chocolatey depths.

  “Cecilia?” I try to encourage her to tell me what’s wrong.

  “Please, don’t make me,” she begs, her lower lip trembling as a lone tear rolls down her cheek.

  “Talk to me, sweets. Tell me what’s going through that beautiful head of yours.” I try to encourage. When she remains silent, I hedge. “Is it the scars? He’s a doctor, he doesn’t care what they look like, only that you're healthy.”

  “Landon,” she exhales slowly. “I don’t want it to get worse.”

  Anger storms through me like a tidal wave that she fears even the doctor will make fun of her. My feelings now are worse than ever before. Even after devouring her after just meeting her and hearing that punk insult her, this rage is nothing compared to that.

  After one magical night together, fucking Ashley had to ruin it. I need to fix the mess I’ve made for us in order to earn her trust back.

  Cecilia

  * * *

  In all the years of being tormented and bullied, physical abuse hasn’t been much of an issue. I’ve been shoved around before but never have I been punched, kicked, or stepped on the way I was today as I was falling down those stairs after being tripped.