Fighter {Completed}

Chapter Sixteen: You Have My Word {Ellie}

Chapter Sixteen: You Have My Word {Ellie}

"You can't keep letting him get to you," Scarlet tells me, wrapping the towel tighter around her as she enters the room behind me. "I know it's hard, but I swear, Ellie. Nothing that bastard says is true."

"It is, though," I tell her with a miserable laugh. "I'm never gonna escape him, am I?"

Scarlet sits beside me, grabbing my hands in hers. In her arms, I hyperventilate, letting the sobs take over, letting the pure panic wrack my body. The police won't help. My mother won't stop seeing him. I'm never going to escape Keenan.

"You're okay," she tells me, holding me tight. "You're alright. I've got you, Ellie. I've got you."

"I just want it to stop. Why won't they just stop?" My words are probably slurred and hard to understand, but Scarlet hears them anyway, as she's heard them a hundred times before. She squeezes me tighter, head resting on top of mine.

She doesn't offer an answer, but she doesn't need to.

Once I finally calm down, she lifts herself away from me, and heads for the bathroom. I hear the shower begin before she comes to me again, grabbing my hand and leading me to the bathroom.

"A hot shower will help you feel better," she tells me, and just as I enter the bathroom and close the door, a loud bang erupts. Loud enough to make me flinch, I open the door again, stepping out with my towel still wrapped around me.

"What the fuck, Sebastian?" Scarlet asks as he and Cole burst into the room, Sebastian's gaze deadly and furious. Something like a warning bell begins screaming in my mind, but I force it silent, turning off the shower and heading into the bedroom again.

"Who the fuck is the guy harassing you?" Seb's eyes are burning as they meet mine.

Only one word runs through my mind instantly: betrayal.

Cole betrayed me. He told Sebastian...

Holy shit, he told Sebastian!

"Answer me, Ellie. Now, dammit!" his voice is louder than he's ever used on me, making me feel like a child being scolded. Still, that one word jumps around in my brain. I pull my gaze to Cole, who stares blankly at me. My chest aches with broken trust.

I knew Cole didn't like me but... this wasn't his secret to share.

"You told him?" Even I can hear the pathetic crack in my voice, the stabbing feeling of my world crashing in on me getting the better of my voice. Cole's face drops, looking remorseful for only a few seconds before he slips his mask on again.

"It's a damn good thing he did because you sure as hell didn't!" Sebastian grabs my arm, pulling me toward him. Holding me at arms length, eyes still filled with a fiery anger. "I want the truth. Now."

Still, I can't move my eyes from Cole's stone-like face. His eyes cast harden as I feel the tears begin to fall. "I can't believe you." I shake my head. "I trusted you." Facing Sebastian, I begin to tell them the story of Keenan and I.

"We started dating in my sophomore year of high school," I tell everyone, and Sebastian lets me go. I sit on the bed, unsure if my legs can handle the weight this story will bring. Cole moves to stand in front of me, leaning on the opposite wall. Sebastian sits next to me, and Scarlet sits on my other side, holding my hand reassuringly.

"He was great at first. Brought me flowers, chocolates, always took care of me. Hell, he even punched my brother in the face for calling me fat. But... something changed. I don't know what happened, really. He just started becoming distant and he was so angry with me all the time. I thought I was in love with him, but it was all bullshit. Keenan is a sad, disgusting man who gets off on hurting women. Before I finally left him, we got into a fight. He shoved me down his stairs, and I broke my wrist and got a concussion. When he came to the hospital a few days later, he showed me these pictures... pictures of me in the shower or when I was changing. He said that he was going to post them everywhere, and that he had a friend who was good with computers. Told me he'd put them all over my school's website. I begged him to leave me alone, and he laughed in my face and told me to run." I keep my eyes averted as I see Cole grab the chair from the desk, sitting in front of me as he straddles it.