She's Broken

Chapter 10

Chapter 10

                ‘Dear Kathryn,

                You haven’t been answering my letters, sweetheart, is there something wrong? I know me being in here is hard for you. It’s hard for me, too. But don’t worry about me, there’s no need to. I have that picture of you under my pillow, I look at it every night and you help me get through this, help me get my release.

                The other guys in here still say I’m a rapist, but it isn’t rape if you enjoy it, right? I know you enjoyed it, playing hard to get was your little game. It went too far, you know. All the screaming and yelling for help, I enjoy role play but not that much. I just want you to understand that was the reason that I struck you, which was the only thing that you ever did wrong, my sweet.

                You’re not answering my phone calls, either. I’ve been ringing every other day and Mum answered yesterday. She told me to go to hell so you obviously didn’t apologise for me, which you will be punished for when I get out. Trust me, kitty Kat; you’re going to regret that. I can’t have my family hating me so if she still doesn’t forgive me, we’ll run away together. I promise.

                Love, Finn x’

  

                “I’m going to punch him so hard that his head slots into his shoulders,” Carter growled, pacing in front of me. I raised an eyebrow with a smile. He’d been ranting about Dean ever since he set foot in my house that morning, telling Eli on the way that his brother was a jerk and thanking him for knocking seven bells out of him.

                “You’re not normally this violent,” I commented and reached back behind me. The book was comfortably slotted between the sofa and the coffee table so took a bit of care not to rip the paper when I took it out. He tried to peer over my shoulder but I frowned, so he stopped and sat down next to me.

               

                “I didn’t expect a present, Kat. If anything, I should be buying you a present after what went down,” he muttered, giving me a sad look. I returned it with a pointed look of my own and put the carefully wrapped present on his lap.

                “Happy belated birthday.” He kept on with the sad look so I sighed and folded my hands under my legs on the sofa. “Carter, it’s fine, honestly. I’ve had to deal with people like him since it happened, this is nothing new,” I assured with a shrug. Carter wasn’t convinced, he shook his head and put the present aside for a moment so he could move.

                “It isn’t fine, Kat, you had a panic attack, which is far from OK. And it’s my responsibility as your best friend to look after you, I didn’t do that,” he said through a sigh. I rolled my eyes and shook my head.

                “You were there, Carter, you stood in front of me. I don’t know why you’re beating yourself up about it because you did all you could. Now shut up and open the present,” I said flatly, picking it up and placing it on his lap again. He grunted but didn’t argue with me as he opened the paper and grinned.

                He held the book up into the light and then looked at the back before flicking through a few of the pages.