One day, Maria, who was 9, had been sick all day. She had a fever and could hardly get out of the bed because she felt so bad. I’d given her medicine and fed her soup every few hours. I got up during the night to check on her and give her more fever-reducing medicine. When I opened her door, I found our foster father…..raping her.
Suddenly, everything made sense – how they only took in young girls, how shy and afraid of other people they were, why he looked guilty when I’d caught him in the girls’ rooms before and why the foster mother never wanted anything to do with the kids they got so much adoration for taking in.
I had left a knife in her room from where I had peeled an apple for her earlier that evening. I picked it up and rushed towards him, intending to kill him for raping her, especially when she was so sick she couldn’t fight back. I mean, as if her being sick made it worse, right? It was bad enough already but for some reason, knowing how sick she’d been and how little he cared about that just made it worse.
I guess thatiscrazy thinking, isn’t it?
I don’t regret it, though. And I never will. They convinced the authorities that I was mentally unstable because I had been bounced from one foster home to another before they took me in. They had me locked up for a year in that mental hospital where the staff tried to convince meevery daythat I was crazy. Sometimes I felt crazy, trying to convince them that I was sane and what I’d seen that night. I begged them to check the other girls but they ignored me.
When the foster mother came to the hospital under the pretense of visiting me – to give me her ‘forgiveness.’ All she wanted to do was make sure I knew my place. When I asked her why she didn’t protect the little kids, do you know what she said to me? She said, ‘Who do you think gave him the idea? He wantedyoufor a long time, but I convinced him the younger ones would be easier for him to control.’
Maria was raped at 9 years old becausehis wifeconvinced him I would be too much trouble. She suffered what was originally meant for me. When I turned 16, since I was a ward of the state, I could be released and taken out of the foster system. That’s when I got in touch with Bill and he helped me get my trust fund.
After college, I started the youth center downtown to help other kids in bad situations. No one else knows it’s my money that funds the whole program. I just wanted to help kids – because of how I left the other kids in that house to fend for themselves.
The problem is – he’s a big political figure now – even more than he was when I lived with them. No one will believe me now. You can bet he’s behind the smear campaign going on around me right now. And anyone who’s with me will be drawn into this mess. I can’t let that happen to you and your family, Luke.”
I don’t realize that I was frantically pacing as I explained the situation to Luke until I saw him leaned up, like a barricade, against the front door.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
LUKE
Wow.
This is some crazy shit but I completely believe her. I can see her stabbing some asshole for hurting a child and not feeling bad for it. I don’t blame her at all. And this is one more reason why I love her and I’ve fallen more in love with her in the last few minutes if that is even possible.
She knows me too well – she was only half-joking when she said I didn’t have to guard the door. She knew I had ulterior motives of getting her here. She gave me a chance to redeem myself when she announced that she had tried to kill the man but not for the reasons they stated. I could see it in her eyes – she was silently praying that I would trust her. And the way she couldn’t lie to me and say she didn’t love me? I fucking love that about her.
But when she said she had to protect me, I didn’t know how to feel about it. At first, the way she said it, struck me as funny. I mean, I’m standing here looking at this petite, beautiful woman who owns my heart. She’s built and has her feminine muscles from her own workouts, but she’s not freakishly strong. And I’m in training for heavyweight boxing and have been street-boxing for years. I routinely take on men who are over two hundred pounds of all muscle….and she wants to protect me?
I fucking love her.
I have to admit, I was a little worried when her panic level kept rising while she was recounting what had happened all those years ago. She had a far-away look in her eyes and she was pacing erratically. I didn’t think she’s consciously try to escape from me but I was a little nervous that she would take off running out the front door from a full-blown panic attack. So I quietly moved around the room until I was leaning on the door to block her, just in case.
She seems to have realized this now because she’s stopped talking and pacing – and seems to really see me. She smiles tenderly at me and says, “I’m ok, Luke. I’m not planning to bolt.”
I push off the door and walk slowly to her, trying to not look threatening in any way. She watches me approach and doesn’t move, doesn’t back down in any way. I cup her face gently with my hands and peer into her eyes. “I love that you want to protect me. I love that you shared this with me and that you trusted me with it when you haven’t trusted anyone with it before. But more than anything else, I loveyou, Andi. And there’s no way I would let you shield me and put yourself on the line. I’m with you, remember? I’m with you.”
“We’re about to have a disagreement about this, Luke,” she replied coyly and gave me her sweetest smile.
“You can disagree all you want, as long as I get my way and you don’t try to ever leave me again,” I reply with my bedroom voice.
Andi laughs out loud at this and I know without a doubt that I am completely wrapped around her little finger. All that she’s been through in her life flashes through my mind and I silently vow to her that no matter what the future holds, I will be there every day to do everything in my power to make sure she’s laughing and happy.
“Luke,” she says as she leans into me, “I’m really sorry to have to do this, but it’s for your own good.”
“What are you talkin-,” her front door opens and in walks Shane, Will, and Brandon.Oh shit, this is not happening!“Andi,” the warning is clear in my voice, “what have you done?”
She rubs her hand across my jaw, feeling the stubble of my 5 o’clock shadow and looks at me so lovingly. “I’m protecting you, Luke.”
And with that, all the guys grab me from every direction and I fight like a wild animal. A lot of good it does me – Will the Giant grabs me from behind in some wrestling move and now I can’t move my arms to fight back. Shane and Brandon have my legs and they’re carrying me towards Andi’s back door. I’m yelling all kinds of obscenities and names at all of them. Even threats to removing the important parts of their body that’s directly related to their manhood doesn’t faze them.
When we reach the back deck, I notice a rope is conveniently waiting and I look at Andi, who is grinning like a damn Cheshire cat. Shane and Will hold me down on the lounge chair while Brandon uses the rope to tie me down to the chair at my arms and at my legs. After they’re satisfied with the knots, the four traitors sit down opposite of me asChristina, Tania and Katie all file out to gawk at me and my predicament.
Laughter erupts from everyone, including me, whenChristina exclaims, “Nowthisis a party!”
Andi moves over and sits in my lap, knowing I’m unable to move my arms to touch her, and smiles that same shit-eating grin at me. “This wasjust in caseyou decided to kidnap me after all,” she laughs, gesturing to all our friends who are now pulling out food and drinks from Andi’s kitchen.
