Page 108 of Shattered Silence Duet

“Yeah, like how you can speak? Or why you couldn’t?” Max blurts out, only to grunt as Atlas whacks him in the chest.

“What?” he says, rubbing his chest with a grimace. “We all want to know!”

This is part of my story I was planning on sharing with them anyway, so I decide to type it out and get it out of the way. So far, nothing I have said has pushed them away, hopefully this wouldn’t either. They didn’t believe my dad leaving was my fault… and maybe they’re right.

“After my dad left, my mother started to change. It was small things at first, like locking me in my room for the smallest reason or sending me to bed with no dinner. It didn’t take long before it became more physical.”

The app speaks my words as I motion to Max for another drink. Laying it out like this is hard, but I need them to know.

“That’s when my mother started hurting me. It began with small shoves and light smacks to the back of my head. But pretty quickly, it escalated to her hitting me. And it just got worse and worse as time went on. And if I ever fought back, it got so much worse.”

I pause to take another drink while the app reads it out loud and I watch their faces darken with anger the more they hear.

“When I started asking to go to school, she implied I was four years younger than I really was. But I wasn’t stupid. I knew how old I was and I knew my birthday. When I turned ten, and she claimed I was six, I told her even six-year-olds get to go to school.”

I clutch my throat, thinking about the next part of my story.“That’s when she decided to pour bleach down my throat for speaking against her. It was one of the worst feelings I can ever remember. I vomited for hours, and I’m not even sure how I survived it. She threatened worse if I ever spoke again. So, I didn’t.”

As my words are spoken by the app, I glance at them all. Their faces show varying degrees of anger and sadness. I take another deep breath before finishing this part of the story.

“I tried to speak a few times in the early years, but it always resulted in me throwing up, so I thought maybe something was damaged permanently. Until now.”

“You haven’t spoken in eleven years because of her?” Atlas growls.

I nod.

“Where—where is she?” I ask the question that’s been bugging me since I woke up. They told me nobody has seen her, but I have to ask again, worried she’ll come to finish the job.

“We don’t know. She left after attacking you and hasn’t returned since. Jeff was arrested because he was in your home when we found you. But the police need to confirm he’s innocent of anything before they release him. Are you saying he hasn’t harmed you at all?” Gideon asks gently.

I turn to the phone and type my answer.“I wouldn’t say that,but he wasn’t in the basement when this happened.” I gesture to my body.

“What did he do?” Atlas growls.

I glance at Jasper, remembering the morning he found me sitting outside, crying. It was the day I met the rest of these guys.

“The day I met you.”The app speaks as I point to Atlas, Ben, and Dom.

Jasper speaks, filling in the next part. “Max and I found you sitting against the fence, crying. What did he do, Angel?”

“He cornered me and tried to touch me. My mother came in and stopped him, and I ran out of the house. That’s when you found me.”

“Malishka.” I look at Atlas again.

“Your arm?” he asks, looking both angry and scared of the answer.

I bite my lip and look down. Dom places his fingers under my chin and lifts my gaze back to Atlas as he whispers, “be a good girl and answer him.”

I swallow the lump in my throat, then type my response.“I was a few minutes late getting home from school. She was mad. She had Jeff hold me down on the counter, in my underwear, while she used a…”I hit the speak button, feeling queasy about typing the last word.

“Used what, Malishka? Tell me,” Atlas says, his voice almost a whisper.

A wine bottle opener. One of those corkscrew ones.Dom sucks in a sharp breath behind me before I press speak, obviously reading over my shoulder.

“What? What did she type?” Tucker asks anxiously. I can’t do it, it feels like too much, so I appreciate when Dom raises his finger to pressspeakhimself.

I watch Atlas as he listens, his eyes grow comically wide, simmering with anger.

“She… She twisted it in?” he asks, grinding his teeth.