Trauma of the Forest (Meadema)

~ Chapter 19: Facing Consequences? ~

Warning: This chapter contains sexual assault. Decide for yourself if you want to continue reading or possibly skip this chapter.

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Then suddenly: *BANG, BANG, BANG*. She shot up in her bed, another new day and another knock on the door. Her hope for Katie had almost disappeared immediately when she heard the clatter on the floor, although it sounded different than usual, less muffled or something.

She took up a lying position again, still tired from the rather sleepless night she had had, that food would come later. She had no desire to start the day at all. What was the point? What was the point of fighting? Everything she did seemed to come to nothing. Katie had been called, but whether it had all actually gone through, she didn't know.

The clock showed that it was 9am, quite early compared to the previous morning delivery, which had not really arrived until 10.30am. Did they have a different schedule? Would Viv have to endure the atrocity more often today? Had they heard the phone call after all and were the men going to move today, with Viv? Again dozens of questions, to which she couldn't find answers.

She looked at the photo on her bedside table, the one she had brought from home, the one she always had on her bedside table at home to feel a little bit at home here too. Her and Viv, looking straight into each other's eyes, a picture taken in Greece overlooking the sea. Oh, how she loved this photo, perhaps her favorite. Her hands around Viv's waist and Viv's hands over her shoulders, staring into each other's eyes.

She still remembers exactly how she felt the moment the photo was taken, by Lars, her brother-in-law. Viv's eyes sparkled like never before. Her smile radiated nothing but love. Her warm hands felt like a warm glow on her body. Oh, she would do anything to look into Viv's eyes one more time, to touch her one more time, to hold her in her arms one more time, to kiss her soft lips one more time.

She picked up another photo of Viv, which was next to the photo of them together, one of the hundred selfies Viv had taken on Beth's phone, which she had specially printed out. She always told Viv not to do it anymore, those selfies on her phone, complaining that her storage would run out. But how glad she was now that Viv had taken this one and printed it out, brought it here with her, that she had something to draw her energy from.

Oh, how she wishes she had her phone right now, to look at all those selfies of Viv. She would give her entire fortune to have her phone, to see all those pictures for the first time again. As if they were all just taken and Viv was happily lying in bed at home, where about 98% of the pictures had been taken, while Beth herself was in the shower. As if they were brand new and she would get some kind of confirmation that the whole thing was fake, that nothing was going on.

She couldn't help it, but big tears rolled down her cheeks. How different was the situation now, than all those times she lay on the bed with Beth's phone to take selfies? She picked up the velvet red box again, it had to be opened. She couldn't do anything else. She had to have something new from Viv, something that could give her new energy.

Carefully she slid the lid off the box, revealing a necklace with two rings, engraved with their initials and their wedding date. A lump shot through her throat. Her Viv. Who had spent so much money on her? Who had bought her a necklace, completely made of gold. Was she really worth so much to her?

She clicked it around her neck and brought the charm, two rings intertwined, to her mouth and kissed it. And then suddenly, her eyes caught hold of something else, the lid, more specifically the inside of the velvet red lid.