Bloom

Chapter-21

Zayn

I remember Stella's body sweating profusely as she chased her orgasm. She looked heavenly. The hickeys I marked on her made me so fucking hard. The taste of her pushed me on the verge an orgasm myself. The sounds she formed made my muscles clench. Fucking hell. All the hatred seeped through my pores and left my body as soon as I kissed her. Everyone other girl was just a fucking rag compared to her.

I get out of the shower when the doorbell rings. Droplets of water linger on my chest and abdomen as I wrap a towel around my waist and walk to the main door. Who the fuck was it now?

I click the lock and open the door. My eyes widen when I see Stella. Her hair a mess, her face red and tear streaked, her lipstick stained. She looks like hell but still manages to carry beauty. Coils constrict my chest. What the fuck?

She runs into my arms as soon as she sees me and starts sobbing. Whoever did this to her, I was going to kill them. I somehow feel responsible for her, like her guardian. I have to protect her from this cruel world, most of all from myself.

I wrap my arms around her shuddering frame. She lets out soft sounds and uncontrollable tears flow like a river down her face. The warm liquid touches my chest as she nuzzles deeper and automatically my hold on her tightens.

"Who did this to you?" I ask softly although I feel like fucking tearing the world down, seeing her cry.

It takes an eternity for her face to move away from my chest. She looks me at me with rid rimmed eyes, wet eyelashes and a stuffy nose. "My dad."

Those two words hook me on a chokehold. Her dad? I never knew who my real father was and I always had a longing to meet him someday, the person who made me. Even though my adopted father was fucking fine. But looking at her, imagining her dad to make her cry like the mess she was, I start to hate all dads. How could a parent see their daughter like this much less put her in such a position?

Stella's eyes bore in mine and it was enough to tell me she was hurting, bad. She was fighting demons way harsher than anyone deserves. I see for the first time, the underlying pain and terror deep in the her eyes, masked by her sweetness and kindness. I want to kill the motherfucker who did this to her and put him sixty feet deep under the ground.

"He tortured me for most of my life. But I ran away one day, leaving my sister behind." She starts to explain her story and I listen to her patiently trying to learn her deepest, darkest traumas and take them away from her.

"The day I was born, my mother went in labour for forty nine hours, it was complicated and painful. She told me I was the devil, who came to torment them, from the moment I was born, I had only brought pain and misery to them." I couldn't believe her words. Stella, the best soul I knew, could never bring misery or pain to anybody.

"When I was a little child my father used to abuse me and my mother enjoyed watching it. He'd touch me here and there and threatening to burn me. When I used to cry, he locked me in a closet for days without food or water." Shit. I thought I had it bad, not having parents and all. But what Stella has gone through is worse than the fucking worst.

"It was fine, I could bare it. But then my sister was born. She was the prettiest baby I'd ever seen, like a little flower. I didn't get to see her for days, because my mom kept her away, saying I would infect her. Then she started crying and wetting the bed at night, my mom would close her in a dark room and let her howl through the night and every time I tried to help her, she would beat me. Once, she even threw her of the roof because she wouldn't stop crying." More tears welled up at her rim.

"Luckily she only broke a bone. I took care of her most of the time, we weren't allowed to leave the house. So whenever they went somewhere me and sister would finally talk and laugh, even if it was for the slightest of time. They'd come back and lash out on us again. Hitting us, burning us, locking us. Anything and everything cruel they did to us. We tried running away but they always caught up to us." Jesus fucking Christ.