Path To Resolution (Fighter's Den, #5)

Chapter 16 - Wolfe

*TRIGGER WARNING: this chapter contains mild content of sexual abuse. Please read with caution or skip select scenes entirely*

Sister? Melanie had a little sister?

I try to search her eyes but she's squeezed them shut, as if fighting off a memory. This is the first time I've ever heard of her having a sister. All I can do is stare disbelievingly as she continues.

"She was too young to remember Mom and Dad when they died in the crash. I mean she had some memories but they didn't last too long because she'd been what, probably five years old? I was eleven at the time and I'd somehow seen the worst parts of life before I even hit puberty. My world was ripped out from underneath my feet but I held it together for her. Rebecca. She was all I had left. We were both too scared and alone. I would have done anything to protect her and...I did."

A breath shudders out of her and she snatches her hand out of mine, crossing her arms and leaning back against the headboard. Her eyes are still closed but the tears are coming steadily. I can't shake the feeling that she's about to tell me something that will change everything.

"For the first few months after our parents died, we were sent to different group homes but no one wanted to keep us because we came in a pair. It was hard enough that I was a pre-teen but Becca...she was deaf. Meningitis when she was three. No one wanted us because we were too much to handle."

That explains the ASL. I release a heavy sigh as I try to imagine an eleven year old Melanie scrambling to keep her family together. At least I had Gramps when I lost my folks. I was in lucky in that regard. Who did Melanie and her sister have?

"Then we got lucky. Finally caught a break about five months later. Mom's sister got in contact after her and her husband were living abroad. They changed homes so many times no one could find them at first. All the addresses were mixed up but they were finally located and came to get Becca and I. We finally had family to live with. We moved in with Aunt Susan and Uncle Gary immediately. They were loaded. They had a really nice home and Becca and I got our own rooms and they even started learning ASL for her. It almost made losing our parents bearable. I felt like I could breathe again because Becca wasn't my sole responsibility anymore. I had help and I could be a kid again. Everything was pretty great for a while."

She pauses then, her breath catching as she places her shaking hand over her mouth, that same haunted look returning to her eyes. My heart drops to the floor because I just fucking know what she's going to say and I don't think I can hear it. A few moments pass before she gains the composure to speak, swallowing hard.

"One night..." A sob escapes her before she can finish her sentence and she ducks her head, inhaling and exhaling large breaths. I want to tell her to stop, tell her that she doesn't have to do this right now, but she holds a hand out like she knows what I'm about to say. She wipes at her eyes and sits up straight, putting her game face on. "One night while I was asleep, the door to my room opened. At first I thought it was Becca because she liked to sneak in to sleep next to me but it wasn't her. Uncle Gary...he sat next to my bed and petted my forehead and started telling me how much he loved me. Sweet Melanie. That's what he called me. He always did love my name. We'd been living with them for about a month so I didn't think anything of it. But then when he got into bed beside me and I asked him what he was doing, he said he was showing me how much he loved me. I knew it was wrong, I felt this awful feeling in my stomach, but I didn't stop him because I didn't quite understand at first. He took his time, putting his hand between my legs first and then inside my pajamas and I was frozen with fear. I wanted to stop him but I couldn't."

My stomach drops.

Fucking bottoms out and churns with the most intense nausea I'm surprised I don't throw up because Jesus Christ, I'm going to be fucking sick.