The Night I Was Saved

Chapter Fifty-One

"Again!" Hero demands, his green eyes encouraging me to repeat that exact punch of moments ago. "Same placement, same strength."

I nod, wiping the sweat off my forehead with my arm as I let out a long breath. The boxing gloves are heavy on my already soured arms, but the drive to get this done is bigger than the pain. I feel strong, stronger than I ever did before. For the first time, I feel that what happened to me isn't an option anymore. For the first time, I know how to fight back, and for the first time, I feel like I would dare to do so.

Pulling all the strength that's left in my limbs together, I lift my arms, holding them in front of my face just like Hero taught me. And then, I pull out, slamming my fist against the boxing cushion that Hero's holding up.

"That's it!" Hero exclaims, his eyes shining and his two dimples fully on display. "One last time. Come on, give me everything you've got."

"I can't," I breathe, my cheeks hot. That last punch was everything I've got left in me for now.

Hero's been giving me self-defense lessons for about a month now, and for a week he's thrown in some kickboxing as well. He says it'll be good for my confidence, and it'll help me to blow off steam. I was skeptical, but I have to admit it feels amazing, even though I can hardly lift Daisy because my muscles are sore.

"Yes, you can. Come on, one more," he urges, nodding his head too. He's just as sweaty as I am; his brown hair is hanging over his forehead, his cheeks red. He's not wearing a shirt, and his chest is red too, a thin layer of sweat also coating his skin. "One more and we're done. Think about yesterday. Come on, Jo."

Yesterday. Immediately my mood turns down, the salty taste in my mouth rising. If there's anything I don't want to think about, it's yesterday. I don't want to think about it, I don't want to talk about it. Frankly, I want to pretend it never happened.

Yesterday, the day I'd dreaded for months, finally arrived. The true start of my battle; the first day of trial. I was nervous, but because my lawyers Florence and Gigi, and Alice and I had gone through every possible paragraph and turn of the trial, I felt confident and prepared. I knew my story, knew what he did to me, and mostly, knew for whom I had to do it.

For me and Dais.

Unfortunately, nothing could've prepared me for one moment. That moment in court when I saw him again. The man that took me when I was just a little girl and forced me to do things I wouldn't wish for my biggest enemy. The man that used me, abused me, and lend me as if I was his. The man that stole my childhood and life. The man that broke me beyond repair. Leonard.

The moment he walked in, all the air was sucked out of me while I felt the floor disappear underneath my feet. The moment he searched for my eyes, I was paralyzed, not able to think of anything we'd discussed prior. Gigi advised me not to make eye contact with him and I tried, but I quickly discovered that the power he had on me is still there. I couldn't do anything but look at him, and it broke me all over again.

His glassy eyes took me back to the moment I last saw him. He'd looked at me with disgust, his gaze dropping to my swollen belly one last time before he threw some towels on the floor and left without a word. I had no idea what was about to happen to me, but he did, and he left me.

The way he bared his yellow teeth in a sinister smirk that I recognized but others did not even see took me back to that dirty, old mattress. How he sat in the corner, watching with that same smirk, as they did their worst to be. And he never helped me.

His voice that -although very briefly- sounded through the speakers of the courtroom. There was no trace of remorse in his tone, no trace of shame. It was just as hard and flat as I'd always heard it, and even though he didn't say it out loud, I could hear how called me 'Josie', over and over and over again.