Page 112 of Shattered Silence Duet

“Hello, Mina. I would say it’s nice to see you again, but it isn’t really under these circumstances.” I give her a tight-lipped smile to be polite.

“I’m glad to see you’re finally awake. We’re going to need to take your statement about what happened now.”

She pulls out a pad of paper and hands it to me, as I reply, “okay.”

She looks at me in surprise. “You can speak now?”

“She seems to have broken through that barrier since waking up,” Ben tells her, holding my hand. “But she can only speak one or two words at a time, and shouldn’t overdo it.”

“Well, that’s good news, at least. Are you ready to tell me what happened?” I nod at her, wanting to get this over with.

“Shall we clear the room out so you can talk to me in private?” she asks quietly, sitting in a chair beside me. But I shake my head, I don’t want them going anywhere, and I want them to hear the story too, I’d rather not repeat it.

Using Ben’s phone to type my message and have it read aloud, I tell them all exactly what happened. From the moment I stepped into the basement and she called me a whore, to her stabbing the knife in my shoulder and telling me if I survived the night, there would be a first aid kit waiting for me upstairs. I don’t leave out any details, and even though I have tears rolling down my cheeks as I type, it feels good to finally tell someone. Not only that, but they look angry on my behalf.

When I finally finish, I realize mine aren’t the only wet eyes in the room. Nobody says anything as each of them takes turns giving me a hug.

“Thank you for giving us all that detail. We were already looking for her, but with this information, we will get a warrant out for her arrest immediately.”

She turns to leave, but Jasper stops her. “Wait! What about—” His eyes dart to me for a moment and he licks his lips nervously before looking back at her. “What will happen to Jeff?”

“We will be releasing him right away, as, based on the statement we both just heard, he had no part in this.”

“He might not have helped, but he was still in the house while it happened, knowing what was going on. Besides, he’s helped hurt Mina other times,” Jasper says, almost begging for them to arrest Jeff, too.

“Is that true, Mina?” I swallow nervously, afraid of where this was heading, and nod my head quickly. She steps back up to the side of bed and pulls her notebook back out as her partner opens his phone up, likely to record the conversation again. “Do you want to tell me what happened? Maybe start with the date, even approximate?”

I use Ben’s phone to type my message and read it aloud.“You guys don’t have to stay for this.”I instantly see the frowns on their faces and feel guilty.

“Do you want us to leave? Because we will if that’s what you want,” Tucker asksgently.

But I shake my head.“You might not want to hear it, but you can stay, if you want to.”I can’t decide if I want them to stay or not. This is a part of me that I didn’t plan on sharing with anyone, but if the police have to know, I want the guys to know, too. The more they understand about me and don’t leave, the more I think I could truly trust them.

“I’d like to stay,” Ben says quietly. The others quickly agree, so I take a deep breath and recite what I can remember.

“It’s happened several times. Sometimes he surprised me when I came out of the bathroom. A couple times he came to me in the middle of the night.”I hit speak so I can see how the guys react to it. I can see their faces pulled tight with a mixture of worry, fear, and frustration.

“He liked to touch me, in places he shouldn’t.”

Speaking out loud, I start to ask, “how much detail…” I trail off, hoping she understands my question.

“That is fine for now. That’s enough to charge him with the sexual assault. Did he hurt you physically as well?”

I type my response.“Yes, he helped my mother do this.”I point to my arm.“He’s pushed me a few times and hit me twice.”

There’s relief in not having to actually say the words out loud, but hearing them spoken by the robotic voice on Ben’s phone still causes tears to form in my eyes.

“Is that enough? Can you charge him with physical assault, too?” Gideon asks, clenching his jaw.

“Yes, that’s more than enough to charge him and keep him in custody until a trial can be held,” the officer tells us, and I sigh in relief at knowing that at least one of my abusers was off the street.

She leaves and each of my guys silently comes over and hugs me, kissing the top of my head with pained looks on their faces.

When they finally finish hugging me, Dom is the first to break the silence. “Alright, Kitten, why don’t we get you dressed so we can get out of here?”

“Do you look at me differently now?” I whisperas I look up at him. He immediately drops to the bed beside me, grabbing my hands.

“What? No! Of course not, that thought shouldn’t even cross your mind. No matter what you've been through, it won’t change the way we look at you.”