Colton's Miracle ✔️

24. Beyond Broken

TW: mention of abuse, violence, and murder. Read with Caution.

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Colton:

"Colton, calm down." Dave tries with me again, but I can't do that. How can I calm down when my Lily left?

"I don't fucking understand what happened, Dave. We were fine. We were happy. And then she suddenly had a panic attack and she wouldn't let me come close to her or talk to her. She was afraid of me, so fucking frightened. And then she just left."

I thought that I would never see anything worse than the pain and fear in Lily's eyes when that drunk asshole came to the shop last night.

But I was proven deadly wrong because what I've seen in her eyes this morning is so much fucking worse. Lily wasn't just afraid. She was looking at me like she fucking knew I was a second away from killing her. She was that terrified, that certain that her end is near, and will be by my hands. Mine. Lily truly thought I was attacking her somehow.

What is it that I've fucking done to have her so afraid of me? To think that I was capable of doing something like that, and to her out of all people?

Have I ever been violent with her? Too rough? Have I ever yelled or raised my voice at her?

I have, haven't I? I have when I saw that bastard at the diner touch her and I beat him unconscious. I was too violent and I yelled at her when she tried to convince me that I shouldn't have done that.

But she wasn't afraid of me then. She was hurt because I was a fucking dick, unable to show her how much she means to me, but she wasn't scared of me.

"Do you know what triggered it? Her panic attack?" Dave's question shifts my attention somewhere else, and the scene plays before my eyes again, this time focusing on the knife I had in my hand, confirming my suspension further.

"The knife." I answer him quietly, my heart refusing to believe that she has a history with knives.

It's her fucking father, I know it is. I knew he hit her hard enough to leave her with scars, but to think that he fucking cut my Lily makes me wanna dig him out of his grave and kill him myself.

How fucking could he?

God, what has she gone through?

Lily, the new girl who is so excited to be here and start a new adventure, the one whose smile never leaves her face, always radiant and utterly beautiful, the one who tries to make everyone her friend and compliments every person she meets even if they're undeserving assholes. That sweet, happy Lily is beyond broken.

And I would've never fucking noticed.

"Why would a knife give her a panic attack?" Dave frowns, the gears inside his head working to find a plausible answer but when the doorbell rings, we both share a look before I hurry my way to the door, praying that my Lily has come back to me.

I pull the door open and lose a breath at the sight of her. She looks so beautiful yet so incredibly small, her eyes fogging with shame and guilt, and I want nothing more than to gather her in my arms and save her from this evil world.

But I can't. Because for the first time since I've met Lily, I'm scared to touch her. I don't know if she's still afraid of me, and the last thing I need is to terrify her again.

So swallowing my need to touch her away, I step back and open the door further for them to walk inside.

"We'll be in the living room." Ali says softly, glancing at Lily before giving me a small smile and walking past me to grab Dave's arm who was standing behind me. She drags him to the living room while Lily shuts the door quietly.