My skin starts to burn

876 42 41
                                        

How are you all doing after the 10 p.m.? I'm not OK, for anyone asking. ✊️🥲

______________________________________

Mia's words were still echoing in her mind. She would never have thought that there was a wounded soul behind that confident grin. Siobhan could have guessed that Mia had experienced similar violence to her own. In her mind, she always thought that the Knight Siblings had experienced much worse violence.

She thought of herself as weak. That, she didn't have the right to see herself as a victim. But Mia had told her the truth to her face, which she had tried to bury deep in her soul.

She was a victim.
She was a survivor.
She was scarred in a certain way for the rest of her life.

And she had to be honest with Vivian now. The woman had brought nothing but understanding and security into her life. Vivian had never pressured her to tell anything. But Siobhan could tell by the look in her eyes when she flinched again when someone made a quick movement next to her, or that she stopped talking immediately when someone interrupted her, that the nurse knew exactly what had happened to her.

When Siobhan got home that day, she mentally thought about the best way to tell Vivian. But first, she took care of Jamie. She cooked the boy something to eat and then read him a chapter from the book they had started. When the clock struck half past seven, she put the boy to bed.

Vivian was on the late shift today and wouldn't be home until nine p.m. Siobhan was now sitting in the living room, staring at the wall. But her mind was racing.

Even though she knew that Vivian had been through a similar situation with her ex-husband, the blonde was still filled with doubt.

What if Vivian judged her?
What if Vivian asked her why she hadn't left Roger earlier?
What if Vivian started to reproach her?

A black cloud formed over Siobhan and slowly began to consume her. Mia talked about her skin crawling when she was in the country for too long.

Siobhan had something similar, only her skin burned like fire. There were Roger had left his handprints, where he had touched her against her will.

A stabbing pain slowly rose in Siobhan, starting in her stomach and slowly working its way up into her chest until it erupted into a painful sob. She buried her face in her hands. She hadn't cried since the day she was almost married. Now, everything that had been bottled up seemed to burst out of her.

In her fog of pain and suffering, she hadn't heard the front door or the footsteps approaching. Siobhan felt someone gently take her hands and lead them away from her face. With her tear-filled eyes, she only saw the outline of the person in front of her, but she knew who was kneeling there - it was Vivian.

" Oh... Bon-Bon..." she spoke in a soft voice.

Siobhan fell into her arms, and Vivian held her tightly. Vivian gently stroked her back and said again and again that she was there and that she was safe now.

Only after a long time was Siobhan ready to speak. And the words burst out of her. She told of the physical and emotional violence of the assaults on the most intimate parts of her body. That, she could never leave the house without him keeping an eye on her. The constant fear she lived in. Vivian just sat next to her and held her hand as Siobhan got everything off her chest.

".... If you hadn't turned up at the Halloween ball Viv.... I would have thrown myself off the highest balcony in the villa....", she had never said it out loud before. But that day, as she stood there in front of the mirror in her wedding dress. She made a promise to herself that she would rather die than spend the rest of her life with this man.

Vivian slowly brought Siobhan's hand to her mouth and kissed it gently. " I will always protect you, no matter what happens, no matter what life throws at us.... Thank you for trusting me enough to tell me all of that."

Siobhan placed the hand that Vivian had kissed so gently on the nurse's cheek. "Where have you been all my life? I love you.."

"I love you too."

Siobhan knew that she still had a long way to go, that healing from such an experience would be long and painful. But she was sure that together with Vivian, she would get through it.

One Shots 'The nursery nurse' Where stories live. Discover now