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She studiedover her as she laid back on rabbed the robe for her to put on I didn’t want to see the evidence of herwhatever it was, for some reason, that little bump pissed me the fuck off

When she was sitting up and well covered, I placed the tray across her lap “Eat” Even that she was skittish about until I threatened to feed her myself When she’d eaten as h, I put the tray back on the table

Sitting on the bed beside her, I placedbut essentially caging her in “I need to knohat’s going on with you I’ to hurt you, but I need to know” She sed hard and looked down at herself before the tears started again

“My papa, he is a very good e Proud, ot even worst, and I was getting a very nasty feeling in ut

“There is this family; they are well to do, wealthy, yes? But ood he says, stay away little Sofia”

She drifted away fro raised by a doting father after her mother had died, the wild and carefree childhood in the hill country, where she grew up in the old city Her stories of picking wildflowers, and parties, and plays in the village square sounded so far removed from my reality as to not be believed

I listened as she laid the foundation of the life she’d led before co I wanted to knowa blow

“I had listened to papa like always I stayed away fro them, especially the eldest as he seemed more of the troublemaker than the others” She sed hard here and pulled at the blanket I’d thrown across her lap

“He said these things whenever he would pass me by in his fancy car, but I paid no heed After all, there were prettier girls in our little village Girls ould’ve gladly returned his affections, but always he see me…”

I was getting a pretty good idea where this shit was going, and the anger was all but full-blown I wanted to cry for her, wanted to go back there to her village and stop what I was almost certain she was about to describe to me, but I couldn’t

“Papa was late getting home; I don’t knohy that day of all days It wasn’t always that the Ricci were out and about in the village; they preferred the city; there waswealthy men” Her silent tears broke my heart as they fell from her eyes

“But that evening, he was there He soe I was at the stove I thought it was papa when I heard the breathing behind me…”

She started to shake then, and her eyes were no longer focused; she’d gone away in her head I listened and died a little as she told of the brutal attack Of being taken down to the stone floor there in her father’s kitchen and violated, of her father coer

He’d sought justice for his only child, but there was none, not for the poor farainst the most powerful family in their little part of the world When she told e a feeeks later and grinning, I al mind

Then she’d found out she ith child by her attacker and o face her demon in his den She’d been ridiculed and sha with her life when the animals tried to beat the child out of her

“Papa, he was never the same after the day he found me, but when he learned of what they tried to do, he becaether and made a plan” Her eyes flew to mine then as if she’d said too much

“It’s okay, I won’t repeat what you’ve toldyou can tell me that will eance if someone hurt one of his kids or his wife; trust me, I understand