La Arquitecta

Chapter 17

After the meet a greet session that had been marred by the unwanted appearance of David Hernandez, Seth had driven himself and Zelina to the arena for that night's live event.

Gladly, during the journey, she had gotten over the worst of the shock of seeing her ex. Seth had again been struck by her awe-inspiring inner strength. He really didn't know how she did it. But he had also played a part in keeping her calm, he knew, just by being there. She felt safe with him. She was safe with him.

Now that they were at the arena, Seth had gone and found an empty dressing room where he could sit and call Hunter in privacy.

Apparently having heard that something had happened at the meet and greet, the boss had called both Zelina and Seth already, during their drive to the live event. Seth had told her not to answer, saying that he would call Hunter back later. Recounting her awful story was not something he had been willing to do with her sitting next to him. That would definitely have upset her, as would telling the story again herself.

"Hello?" Hunter said when he answered Seth's call after three rings. He sounded a little irritated, presumably about the unanswered calls.

"Hunter, it's Seth."

"Yeah. I tried to call you earlier. What happened back there? I know security had to drag someone out, and Zelina was upset."

"Hunter, I have something very unpleasant to tell you. That's why we didn't answer earlier. I can tell you this more easily than she could, but I didn't want to do it in front of her."

"Okay," Hunter said sounding concerned now instead of annoyed.

"The thing is," Seth began, stalling for time to choose the right words. "The guy who showed up today is an ex-boyfriend of Zelina's. She dated him back when she was nineteen. There was one night they went out partying, and ended up back at his place. She was unnerved by how he was acting towards her, so when he started coming on to her, she said no. That was when he changed, as she described it." Seth paused, finding it tough going to get through the story. He could totally understand why she had been such a mess that night when she had described it all to him.

"He forced himself on her?" Hunter asked, voice hard with anger. As the father of three daughters, that was no surprise at all.

"Worse," Seth found himself saying. "He pinned her down on her front on the bed. She was trying to fight him off, so he tied her hands behind her back. Zelina said she was so scared by that, she froze. She couldn't have fought him off even if he hadn't tied her up. But she did try and yell for help. That was when he took one of her knee high socks and used it to gag her."

"Jesus Christ," Hunter muttered in disgust.

"She said she couldn't cry out; could barely breathe. She had to lie there while he raped her, and she said she was expecting him to kill her when he was done, so that she couldn't tell anyone about it."

"Fucking animal," Hunter growled. Then he seemed to make a realisation. "Shit, we had her tied up and gagged on the show the other week."

"Yeah, it was that night she told me this story," Seth said, feeling himself choking up at the memory. "She was in a real state about it, as you can imagine."

"Why didn't she say something? I'd have changed the scene for her."

"I know you would," Seth assured him. "But she couldn't face talking to you about it, and she also didn't want to be seen as someone who causes problems and is difficult to work with."

"No one would have thought that," Hunter objected.

"I know that. But I'm telling you what she was thinking. Anyway, that's what this piece of shit did to her. He let her go afterwards, and she ran from his house. But she was too scared of him to say anything to anyone, so the cops were never brought in."