witness protection // holtzbert

three- revelations

"Witness protection?" Erin screeches. "What? How? Why?"

"Okay I'll tell you, just please calm down," Holtzmann laughs despite feeling completely overwhelmed by emotions at the fact that for the first time ever she is about to reveal the biggest secret about herself. "It's because of my ex, Declan."

"Wait I thought you were gay," Erin interrupts, immediately regretting speaking at all. Holtz just shoots her a small smile before continuing.

"I got with Declan to try and deny my obvious feelings for women." Erin nods and looks down, ashamed of her outburst. "When I first met him he was the most charming man I'd ever come across. After a very short time of being together he proposed and I immediately said yes out of some obligation. We got married a few months later and I moved into his huge house. I didn't like it much though, it was like, clean." Erin giggles at Holtz. "In the beginning of the relationship he was supportive of my work but once we began living together and I started destroying valuable things in his house he totally lost it." Holtz takes a deep breath.

"You can stop if you want," Erin says, respecting how hard this must be for her friend. Holtz just shakes her head, insisting she continues.

"It started off as him just calling me names, but then it began to get physical. One night he threatened me with a knife and I managed to calm him down but that's when I knew it got to far and I'm not an idiot so I contacted the police. It turns out he was worse than I thought. Although there's no proof there's allegations that he beat a girl so hard she's now in a wheelchair. I ended up moving cities and for a few months I was free. But then he found me. Again, the police caught him but it was clear I wasn't safe. I changed my name, moved again and bam. End of story." Erin just stares with complete  and utter shock at the brilliant engineer whom no one even thought was human, capable of human feelings.

"So your name isn't really Jillian Holtzmann?"

"Nope," Holtz says popping the 'p'.

"And you were married?"

"Yep."

"Okay."

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Okay so this was super short and a bit boring but it was more supposed to be informative of Holtz's past.

Now for some reader input: what do you think Holtz' real name should be?