Paradisal Tragedy

by Ada Marie

  “I’ve wanted to do that for so long,” he said.

  “Please stop,” she begged, afraid of where all this was going.

  “You know you want it as bad as I do, don’t try to deny it.”

  “I’m with Matt, I like him. This is wrong on so many levels.” She hoped he cared about his little brother as much as Ryan cared about her.

  “We don’t have to tell him. It’s just you and me tonight, “He told her, in a creepy tone .

  “My brother will be here soon, please let me go,” she begged.

  “I’m sure he won’t be here for a while.”

  Cupping her face with one hand, he began to kiss her neck. She felt the feeling of disgust rise in her. How could this be happening? She didn’t want this. She wanted Ryan to come bursting through the door to make everything better. She thought of Matt, her boyfriend, someone she cared about so much. How could she betray him this way? She needed to fight for him.

  Bringing up her knee, she kneed him in between his legs, causing him to fall to the ground. When he finally released her, she grabbed her phone off the bench and then ran like hell.

  She hid in the locker room under a bench. The room was dark, so she hoped he wouldn’t be able to find her.

  “Anna, Anna,” he said when he spotted her. He grabbed her phone before she could dial a number.

  “Please leave me alone,” she begged after climbing out from under the bench and going to the opposite side of the room. He grabbed her arm and pulled her to him.

  “You’re so beautiful, God, I could stare at you forever,” he told her.

  “I have to go,” she said, but he wouldn’t let her move. He tightened his grip around her arms, causing her pain. She knew it would bruise.

  “I’ve watched you for years; I just never had the guts to get you alone until now.” He smiled. “Beautiful, innocent little Anna. You’re a virgin aren’t you?”

  “That’s none of your business,” she breathed.

  “Feisty, aren’t we?” he asked, grabbing her hands so she couldn’t move.

  “Please let me go. I won’t tell, just please let me go,” Annabella begged.

  “Shh. It’ll be over soon,” he told her, pinning her beneath him and unbuckling his pants. In that moment, she knew there was no stopping it.

  “Now, we should have a little talk before we part ways tonight” He told her when he was finished.

  Annabella said nothing; she just laid in the position he left her in and curled up into a ball. She felt the dry tears on her face. She was all cried out.

  “You are not to tell a soul what happened here. If you tell a soul, I will kill Ryan and both your parents,” he warned. A part of her wanted to call him on his bluff, but the other part couldn’t. She’d known him her whole life, trusted him even, and at this point she’d believe anything he said was true.

  Still, she said nothing, minutes passed like hours and all she wanted to do was shake this dirty feeling.

  “He’s your friend,” she whispered finally.

  “Maybe, but don’t for one second think I won’t kill him.”

  “You… why?”

  “The moment I laid eyes on you, I knew I had to have you, it was only a matter of when.”

  “What about Matt?” she asked.

  “I love my little brother, but he’s not right for you. He’s just too nice and we both know you don’t want a nice boy.”

  “I like Matt,” she argued in a soft whisper.

  “Well, we’ll see. But you have to promise not to tell.”

  She said nothing. She had nothing left to say.

  “Say the words Anna,” he demanded.

  “I… Won’t tell. I promise,” she said, trying to control her emotions.

  “That’s my good girl.” He smiled then kissed the top of her head “You shouldn’t have been here at night anyway. If you were never here, this wouldn’t have happened. You’re to blame just as much as I am, sweetheart.” Then left the room.

  Racing from the car after her brother picked her up, Annabella hurried upstairs to the shower. How could this have happened, how could she have let it happen? She couldn’t think straight, she had no recollection of how she got here.

  The tears started pouring down her face as she undressed and got in the shower. She felt dirty. She felt disgusting. She took the bottle of vanilla scented body wash, poured what seemed like a half of bottle on her white pouf and began to violently scrub her body. The memories of a few hours ago began to take over her mind. Annabella continued to scrub her body with body wash until she became red.

  Finally letting her emotions get the best of her, she sank to the floor of the shower as water poured over her body and began to sob. How could one night change her entire life? She wanted to go to her mom. She wanted to curl up in her arms and let it all go, but she knew she couldn’t do that. He’d made her promise not to tell a single soul, and her family’s lives were at stake here. She wasn’t willing to risk any of them, but more than that, she could tear apart their lives the way her life had just been taken from her. She wouldn’t do that.

  After an hour of sitting on the shower floor, she finally gained enough strength to get out and grab a towel. Wrapping herself in it, she headed to her bedroom, almost jumping out of her skin when she saw Matt.

  “Hey there baby,” he greeted her as she sat on the bed.

  “You shouldn’t be here,” she said to him, gripping her towel tighter to her. She was thankful it had been one of her bigger ones.

  “I missed you,” he said as he took a step forward and put his lips on her.

  She couldn’t do it. All she could feel was her rapist.

  “Stop!” she screamed at him.

  “Bella, what’s wrong?” he questioned in his concerned boyfriend tone.

  “I can’t do this, I can’t.”

  “Can’t do what?”

  “Us.”

  “Why not? I know I haven’t been around, but I’ve been sick. That doesn’t negate the fact that I love you though.”

  “It’s not you, Matt, it’s me. I’m not breaking up with you, but I just need a little bit of space right now.” She explained.

  “I can understand that I guess. You’ll call me?” he asked.

  “I promise.”

  “Okay.” He left.

  Annabella never called him. She avoided him for the rest of the time she lived in Tampa, and then she moved away, not even giving him notice.

  She couldn’t face the brother of the man who’d raped her, no matter how much she cared about him. The resemblance was there. She saw him every time she looked at Matt. From that day forward, she’d vow to never let anyone in again. She’d never trust anyone. She’d take this secret to the grave no matter how much she was hurt inside.

  She’d live her life in hell, but she’d never tell another soul.

  Twenty-One

  Annabella sat in her room as thought about the past few months. It had been two months since she was completely honest with Travis. She felt the weight of the world lift from her shoulders. It was like she could breathe again.

  It had been so long since she was able to be completely honest and open with someone that she forgot how comforting it felt to not be alone. She remembered the day she told Travis about the rape as if it was yesterday. He didn’t look at her with pity, regret, or disgust. He just looked at her with a look that said he wanted to make her pain go away.

  After the tears and all her confessions, he promised to find a way to make her feel safe. He vowed it. He took her to a shooting rage and taught her to shoot. He wanted to make sure no matter what that she’d never feel as vulnerable as she did the night she was taken advantage of.

  As she stood in front of the mirror that stood by he
r dresser, she felt happy. She couldn’t explain it, but after finally being able to completely open up with Travis, it felt like the past couldn’t control her anymore, and he couldn’t hurt her anymore.

  “What are you doing sweetheart?” her father asked, coming into her room.

  Annabella became nervous as her father came to sit on the futon. They still hadn’t made up. He was still dead set on trying to tear her from Travis, but she wasn’t going to budge. She wasn’t going to let her father take her happiness away. Travis saved her life, and for that, she was going to fight for him until the day she couldn’t fight anymore.

  “What do you want Daddy?” she asked, irritably.

  “I guess I deserve that. I came to talk about Travis,” he said.

  “You can save your breath if that’s what you’ve come to talk about. I don’t want to hear it. You can go now,” she told him, walking to her desk to sit down.

  “I came to apologize, Bella.”

  “You did? “ She couldn’t contain the shock in her voice.

  “I did. Baby come sit. I’m sorry for everything. I have nothing against Travis. In fact, from what I hear he’s a decent young man. I just love you so much and I want to protect you from everything. You’ve been so distant and broken for the past few months, and I didn’t want him to hurt you any worse than you already were,” Nicholas told her as she scooted her chair closer to him.

  “Daddy, Travis isn’t going to hurt me. I know that you’re afraid of that but he’s helped me so much in the short few months that I’ve known him. He’s good to me. He treats me so well. He likes me a lot and I like him just as much,” Annabella commented as she thought about all the times she’d spent with him.

  “Bella, you’re my little girl and I guess I have to accept that you’re growing up. More than that, these past several months I’ve seen you change into someone completely different than who you used to be. Whether you want to admit that you were in pain or not, I know my little girl and I know when she’s hurting,” Nicholas told his daughter as he took her hands in his. He knew deep down that he’d been wrong, but he was too stubborn to admit that. He had nothing against Travis. He just didn’t want to see Annabella suffer any more than she had to.

  “Daddy, Travis is different. I feel safe with him. He wants all my burdens to be his as well. He makes me happier than I’ve been in so long, and I don’t want to give that up, I can’t give that up. He’s saved my life, and now I’m going to fight for him just as much as he’s fought for me in my darkest days,” Annabella announced.

  “And that’s all I’ve ever wanted for you. The past few months, I’ve been very unsupportive, and I know that. I just love you so much and the thought of you growing up scares me so much. I don’t want to let you go. I want you to say my little princess forever,” he confessed, his eyes soft.

  “Daddy you don’t have to let me go. Not yet anyway. I love you so much and I was really hurt when you weren’t there for me. You’ve always been my rock and then one day you just weren’t anymore. You kept trying to tear me from Travis. And then you made me feel like you didn’t want me to be happy, like my happiness didn’t matter anymore. “

  “Sweetheart, I don’t ever want you to feel like that. I never want you to feel like your happiness doesn’t matter to me, because it does, it matters more to me than anything else. I know that behavior says otherwise, but I made a mistake. You’re my little girl, my only little girl, and that’s what makes it so hard to accept the fact that you’re dating. With Matt it was different. He was a good kid and all, but I couldn’t see that lasting. There was just something about him that made it impossible to see you with him forever. Travis, on the other hand, I can imagine… With him, it’s pretty serious.” Nicholas spoke with a tone in his voice that made Annabella want to run into his arms and tell him that he’d never lose her.

  “Daddy, it’s very serious. I can do something with Travis I haven’t been able to do for so long, and that’s be myself,” she explained. The last thing she ever needed was for her parents to find out the truth of that night.

  “You should invite him over for dinner sometime this week. Then, we’ll get to know him and see if he’s right for our Bella,” her father told her before kissing her on the cheek.

  “Daddy, thank you! Oh, thank you so much!” she cheered. She loved that her father was finally coming around.

  “Baby, anything for you. Now, what do you say to a good old fashion run, like we used to before we moved here? I have the day off from the hospital today and I thought I could spend it with my baby girl.”

  “I’d love that Daddy. And I’d love to spend the day with you. I’m glad you’ve decided to give Travis a chance the way you once gave Matt a chance. Daddy, I love you so much,” Annabella said as she moved into his lap, like she did so many times when she was a kid. It was different this time; she wanted to hold on for dear life. She now knew what it meant not to have a father, like Travis, and she’d do whatever it took to always make sure her father was present in her life.

  ***

  Travis sat at the kitchen counter of his kitchen as he waited for his mother to come back downstairs. She’d told him that she needed to talk to him about something important, and the statement didn’t sit well with him. The last time she said that to him was when she was telling him that his father left. He remembered that day as if it was yesterday. He remembered the pain that stabbed right in his heart, as well as the tears that never stopped flowing.

  More than his own pain he remembered the pain of hearing the cries down the hall as his mother cried herself to sleep every single night. That was the first time he ever felt hatred for his father. How he could hurt the one woman who gave him everything was beyond him.

  “Trav,” Casey said as she grabbed a coffee mug and filled it up. Her blonde hair was held up in a ponytail, and she wore one of her fancy court suits. It was a black skirt with a white shirt, and a black overcoat as a jacket.

  “What is it Mom? What’s so important?” he asked, cutting straight to the point.

  “I just want to say something before I tell you anything. Try to be open minded about this,” she started as she stood from across where he sat.

  “Just spit it out, Mom. Rip the Band-Aid off. I know it’s bad, or at least something I’m not going to want to hear, so just tell me what the hell it is,” Travis snapped. It was very rare when he would snap at his mother, but he needed her to just get on with the point of all this.

  “Your father wants to see you,” she finally said, after many moments of silence.

  Travis said nothing. He just stared at his mother. His father wanted to see him? After four years with barely one word, now he wanted to come back into his life? Was his new life not enough anymore?

  Travis didn’t say anything as his mother continued to talk about how his father stopped by her office, gave her his number and begged for her forgiveness. He couldn’t believe any of this was happening. He’d finally gotten his life back on track.

  “There’s one more thing that you should know, Travis,” his mother told him as she snapped her fingers trying to get his attention.

  Blinking in surprise, he shrugged off his thoughts. “What is it Mom?”

  “He has another family. Of course you knew he was married, but what you didn’t know was that he has kids, other than you. Three of them,” Casey told him nervously.

  Kids? He could be a father to those kids, but he didn’t have the decency to be one to him? Bastard.

  “How old are they?” Travis asked.

  “Two, four and five.”

  “Five? He only left four years ago,” Travis said as the painful realization set in “He had another kid when he left?”

  “He did. Travis, you have to know that he loves you. No matter what he’s done, this is your chance to repair your relationship with him
. Don’t let this get in the way of that.” Casey was actually defending him.

  “Excuse me? Are you seriously defending him? After everything he’s done, you’re going to stand here and tell me to give him a chance?” Travis asked in disbelief. How could she of all people be defending him?

  “I know it’s hard for you to understand, but he thought it was what was best for you,” she said.

  “Just stop,” Travis said, moving from his chair and throwing it across the room. “I heard you cry for years after he left. Every single night. How can you stand here telling me to give him another chance?” Travis questioned, trying to figure out his mother’s motives.

  “I believe in forgiveness, and so should you.”

  “I don’t believe it in where it concerns him. He had a kid, Mom! A kid before he even left us!” Travis started. He had one more painful realization. “You knew you, didn’t you? You knew that he had another child before he left.”

  Her silence gave him the answer he needed. How could she keep this from him? How in the world did the one person he trusted and believed in the most in this world, betray his trust? His parents had been lying to him for the past four years.

  He’d expected this from his father. His mother was another story. She’d always put him first, always there for him when he needed her, Casey rarely ever lied to him, but now he’d found that she’d been lying to him for the past four years and it sent a pain right through his heart.