Bound by Justice

-CHAPTER 25-

VALERIA

It's night now and the kids are tired from today's activities. Maïra yawns as she rubs her eyes sleepily. Mira is curled up on the couch with her eyes drooping close and Diego is sitting next to her mumbling incoherently as he fights sleep.

"Diego, it's time to go now," Ava whispers to him softly.

"Can we stay longer? I still want to play," He responds, almost yawning from the fatigue.

"We'll come back again, but it's already late now so we need to go," Ava answers, helping him get off the couch.

"Okay," He agrees and turns to Mira who has fallen asleep. "She's cute." He mumbles and I giggle silently. Oh, young love.

Ava helps him wear his shoes and she grabs her bag. I accompany them with Alison. Diego almost stumbles as we make our way out of the building. He's so tired that he's walking with his eyes closed.

Strapping him in the car, he immediately falls asleep and Ava gently closes the door of the car. She looks at us and says,"Thank you so much for inviting me today. We had so much fun and Diego had such a good time with the twins. It made me really happy to see him play with other kids."

"Of course. We all had a good time today and we should do this again," I reply, hugging her.

She turns to Alison, "It was nice to meet you Alison. You are such a nice and brave person. I hope that we can stay in contact after you leave and become friends." There's a tiny blush on the tips of her ears.

She doesn't know that Alison is leaving to go see her family and will leave the city tomorrow to be relocated to a safe place because her life could be in danger if she stayed here for too long. I told her that Alison is moving to another country and we wouldn't see each other for a long time.

"Absolutely. I don't have many friends either and I would love to be friends with you," Alison replies and we all hug each other.

After saying goodbye to Ava, she drives away and we return back to the penthouse. In the living room, I gently wake the twins up and guide them carefully to their room to put their pajamas.

"Good night," I whisper after tucking them in bed. I make sure the warm duvet covers them well before turning off the light. It's becoming more and more cold so they need to be well covered when they sleep. I don't want them to catch a cold.

I close the door and go to my room to take a shower. The water feels good against my skin and that's when I start rubbing my skin. I don't want to feel Henry's disgusting hands on my body anymore. I don't want to feel the crawl in my skin, it makes my body feel like it's not mine. I don't want to belong to him, I'm not his possession.

My skin starts hurting, but I don't care. I need to erase it. I need to remove it. It doesn't belong here. After some time, I burst out crying. It's so hard, it's too hard to forget. Why can't they go away? I don't want it. I want to feel normal again, I want to feel clean and untainted, but I know it's impossible. What's done is already done.

An hour later, when I finally get out of the bathroom, my skin feels numb. But not the kind where you feel nothing. This is the kind of numbness where the pain is still existent, but you force your mind to ignore it. To forget that it ever existed and just move on as if nothing ever happened.

Putting on my pajamas, I go down stairs to make myself a cup of coffee. Just for tonight, I will stay awake. I've been fighting my nightmares for the past month, but I don't think I can fight them tonight.

While waiting for my coffee to be ready, I sit at the counter and stare into space. I'm in my headspace, where my life doesn't feel as though I will hurt myself at every turn or step. Where my life doesn't feel as though the adversity will crush me no matter how hard I fight it. Where my life doesn't feel as though the wave will wash me away before I even have the chance to stand on my feet.