Marcus laughed. A laugh I used to love. Now it felt like poison.
“No chance. She’s clueless. Dumb enough to fall for me. Doesn’t even know I only kept her around to get revenge on her mother.”
My ears rang.
“That scar she was so ashamed of?” he continued in Italian. “That was me. I was behind it all. I had her kidnapped. I let them rough her up. She should’ve known what it felt like to lose everything.”
I froze, mouth dry, breath caught somewhere in my chest.
Seth sounded stunned. “You let them do that to her? She used to be so beautiful, man.”
“She deserved it,” Marcus spat. “Her mother ruined my family. My mom died because of the stress her mom caused—being my dad’s mistress. So yeah, I made sure her daughter would suffer. That no one would ever want her. Now she’s broken. And stuck with me.”
The mask on my face wasn’t the one I had just removed.
My entire world crumbled in that moment—not because I was no longer beautiful, but because I had loved a monster with every shattered piece of my soul.
Each sentence that left Marcus' lips felt like another wound—deeper, sharper than the scar I had worn for years. The kind of pain he inflicted couldn’t be stitched shut or numbed with time. My chest heaved with silent grief, my insides twisted like knots, and my hands clenched so tightly I thought my bones might shatter.
I wanted to scream. I wanted to ask him why. I wanted to crumble right there. But I stayed still. Instead, my thoughts were dragged back to that terrible night—one I had buried under smiles and masks for half a decade.
It was supposed to be a quiet, uneventful evening. I was walking home after completing a group project at school, the kind that drained your energy but left you relieved when it was over. The neighborhood was silent, streetlights casting shaky shadows as I made my way forward. My backpack sagged from my shoulders and I clutched my phone tightly, thumbs flying over the screen as I messaged my mother that I’d be home soon.
Then, without warning, everything changed.
A van screeched to a stop beside me. Before I could process what was happening, rough hands dragged me backward. I struggled—kicking, clawing, screaming—but they were too strong. A cloth smothered my mouth, a sickly-sweet chemical stench overtaking my senses. My body collapsed into darkness.
When I opened my eyes, I was no longer free.