“Well,” Waverly says, taking a shot too, “I guess it’s a good thing we’ve got a lot of shots and all afternoon.”
Cheers to that.
I swallow the burning shot down as the other two ladies do, too.
This should be interesting.
“WAIT,” WAVERLY SAYS, sitting beside me, leaning in close, swaying a little as she does. “You were stuck with that man for like five years?”
“Yep,” I say, taking another shot even though my head is swimming from the amount of alcohol we’ve consumed in the last few hours. “Cohen had me sent away, and I ended up in the hands of a man who wasn’t so nice to me, but the problem was when I tried to get away, I had absolutely nothing. I had no home, no job, no money and ended up on drugs, on the streets. I found myself going back to him, being the only thing I knew. He could be cruel, but he kept me safe. I guess you pick your battles, huh?”
“Why didn’t you run away, find a job, and start somewhere new? Or come home?” she asks, her eyes wide.
“Because I had nowhere to go. I had no family left to run to, my aunt had died. I was literally stuck with nothing and no one – there was no way I could make it back here, I was thousands of miles away. Not only that, but I had no money, no experience and quite frankly ... I was broken. I was just so broken.”
Waverly’s face softens and she leans in closer, putting her arm around my shoulder. Zariah left us about half an hour ago when Kendric came to get her. She had only taken a few shots but told us she can be a messy drunk and didn’t want to have anymore. She made us promise we’d stop `soon, but we’re touching upon evening now, and I feel like we’re only just getting started.
“I’m so sorry, my gosh. I can’t imagine what that was like. I hear the stories about the girls who were with Dax and I think wow, they had it so hard, but what happened to you ... it was awful. How did you get back here?”
I laugh softly. “It was quite funny, actually. The man I was with, Vaughn, hired a woman to clean his house. She was British and travelling around the world, you know, a tourist I suppose. She worked in each town for money, doing whatever she could, and he hired her as a housemaid for six months. She and I, we became friends. When I told her my story, she helped me get out of there and took care of me until I got home.”
“Seriously?” Waverly gasps. “That’s incredible. Where is she now?”
“She is traveling around. I hope I’ll see her again one day because I owe her my life. She saved me during a time when I honestly thought I was going to be stuck in that hell hole forever.”
Waverly’s face softens a little. “The man who had you, was he horrible?”
“If you call beatings and rape horrible, then yes, he was. It wasn’t all the time, though. More often than not, he let me have free reign over the house. I cleaned and cooked, kept the gardens in order. It was doing that that gave me the confidence to run. The first time I ran, I wasn’t prepared. I ended up on the streets on drugs, like I said. I also got attacked, and that’s when I knew I had to go back or I’d be killed. I certainly hadn’t thought my plan through. So, I went back.”
Waverly’s face is a mix of shock and horror. “I’m so sorry. I can’t even imagine what that must have been like.”
“Well, going onto those streets showed me there was worse out there. I stuck with what I had, and when I returned to him, he treated me a little better. If I did as I was told ...”
I tremble at the beating he gave me when I returned back to that place after being on the streets. The way he grabbed my hair, slammed his fist into my face, threw me against the wall and told me that if I ever tried to run again, he’d kill me. That night, I tried to kill myself. I tried so damned hard, but he got me to a hospital in time. When I woke up, I was determined to get out of there, even if it took me years.
I would find my way home.
But I’d be smart about it.
I wouldn’t go out onto the streets alone again, not without a plan.
I started stealing his money, stashing clothes in a secret spot at the house when I was cleaning, I stole little bits of money and put it away. I had a plan. I had one thought in my mind.
I was coming home.
No matter what it took.
Waking up in that hospital, with my wrists bound, I knew I could either decide to die, or I could fight. I decided then that I wanted answers and I was going to come home and get those answers.
So fight I did.
“Anyway,” I say, shaking the memories from my mind. “I’m not there anymore.”
“No, you’re not, but it wouldn’t be easy to get over something like that.”
She’s right. It isn’t.
Most nights I have nightmares.
Some days I struggle just to feel anything but numb.
Still, I’m here. I’m here, and I’m not giving up yet.
“No, it isn’t. It broke many things inside me, but I’m slowly piecing those things back together.”
“Is it true Cohen was the one who sent you away?”
I nod, my heart hardening at the very sound of his name.
“I can’t believe he would do such a thing,” she whispers, shaking her head in horror. “I mean, there had to be another option.”
“Apparently, there wasn’t.”
“I’m sorry, Aviana.
