The Forsaken Truth (Marvel's Avengers)

Mean Old Woman

WARNING: Mentions of abuse.

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"So you're 19, and you've never had a boyfriend?"

"No."

"And you've never been in love?"

"No."

"And you've never, not even once...  ever, ki-"

"Mom!" I butt in, face heating up. "Please stop! That's not important!"

"I mean, I basically told you that people think I'm a superhero and that I'm actually living with three of them."

She waved me off like I had just told her about the weather.

"Yeah that's great. But, seriously?" She squinted. "You've never dated anyone?"

I stared at her blankly. "N-O."

"Huh." She leaned back, crossing her arms. "When I was your age-"

"Yeah, no." I covered my ears. "Can we, like, skip this part? I don't wanna hear anything about your age."

Mom offered me a playful eye roll, looking very amused by my flustered self.

"Fine then. I'll not talk about it OR your non-existent love life anymore."

"MOM!"

How rude... I did have a love life. It's just that it's fictional...

"So, how's Owen and Keira? I don't think you've spoken about them at all."

Though her tone was innocent, the question wasn't, and I found myself freezing, suddenly bombarded with memories that flashed by like images on a passing train.

"Mom..." I mumbled softly, facing her as I took her hands in mine. "There's something I need to tell you."

She inclined her head, scrunching her brows and I sighed.

"Dad is in jail."

I watched as she processed the statement before her frown melted away into an expression of shock.

"What?"

"Yeah... because of me."

"Aylin, what do you mean?"

I exhaled, avoiding her eyes. "You know how he was always short tempered?"

She nodded.

"Well, after you were gone... it only worsened. And he became very, uh, aggressive with everything. Every thing I did was watched over, he practically dictated my life. If something I did was out of line, he'd hit me, throw things, and stuff. But I kept quiet."

I shrugged. "I could deal with it."

"Keira knew, but she was too scared to intervene. I didn't blame her of course. She was just a teenager. But... things went really out of control one day."

I paused, taking a deep breath to recollect my thoughts.
"We were out for dinner, the three of us, in a rare moment of normalcy. And dad was also in a partially nice mood... Until the waiter happened to spill a cup of tea over him."

"An honest mistake, really." I frowned. "But dad didn't think so. He was enraged, and even as the waiter apologized profusely, he pounced on him."

"Like a literal animal, mom... He was on top of him, punching him left and right until the guy was bloodied and bruised. That was the moment I realized that he'd really gone insane. He'd spiralled into someone that, I feared, there was no coming back from."