Sins and Reborns

Chapter eighteen

GRACE

Tuesday arrived sooner than expected. Lately, days had flown by faster than months in the summertime; no time to lay out in the sun and bathe the warm glow on. Work had to be done. Work implied going to Mr Mayer's again, despite my protests, but luckily my first day had passed rather smoothly.

The look on his face when he had seen my head was extravagant. The frown on his face took over, creasing every wrinkle, and twisted it so he looked uglier than before. He had been a slightly attractive man before he had done what he did (which included him putting his filthy hands on me, and saying to never tell anyone), but now there was not the smallest attractive feature on him.

A man who chooses to take an unwanted woman shall be kept in a shallow grave with rocks thrown at him from other women; his body burned alive later so he can see the damage and be dragged to hell.

Those words I had not read from the Bible or any books, but that was a thought that had crossed when I felt Gerald's hands on me.

After the accident, I had merely forgotten about the incident with him. My thoughts were too preoccupied with Connor, and what he had done. Yet, after I had met with Connor and his friends, thoughts from that night had begun to surface. We were sat at the dinner table, saying our prayers when my father cleared his throat. Something about that created a pounding in my head.

At first, I thought it to be nothing, but when he adjusted in his seat, it painted a clear picture. It played out like in a big movie as my fork stopped and my face paled. Then, I excused myself to the toilet. They presumably thought it to be from my head, but it had actually come from deep within me.

After I emptied my stomach into the toilet, I scrubbed my hands repeatedly. It might have been an attempt to erase Gerald's touch, erase the feel of my hand on his crotch. Later, I lay in bed, wide awake, even as Wes crawled into my bed again. While I held him tight to me, my stomach cramped again.

Both of our pains were concurrent.

Sadly, Wes' pain was only physical – if that even made it any better.

At the Mayer residence, I had to repeatedly excuse myself to the restroom. How could I bear to be there when he was sitting in his office like nothing had happened, watching me like a predator?

The excuse I gave him about the accident was the story I had told all around town: I fell and hit my head in the park; the tiredness wore me down and I slipped into darkness before I was saved. The story was believable enough that no one dared to question it.

Gerald believed it straight away which was better than my parents. They were still in doubt but none of that really mattered – as long as I got away with it for now. I had to fight back the urge to coward away when he patted my shoulder and said he was glad I was fine.

Throughout the workday, I avoided him at all costs. When it was time to go home, he still tried to touch me, but I luckily made it out of there in time. The idea of his rough hands on me was enough to make me go into haywire. He wasn't very pleased with that, but because his wife seemed to be near more often now, he made no protests to it.

So, on Tuesday night, at ten p.m., when everyone had gone off to bed, and I had told Wes to stay the night in his, I was searching through my closet. The closet only consisted of old, long dresses, and not much else. All the skirts were too long and flimsy too. None of my clothes were meant for parties.

The sauna party had been different because I could wear what I wanted since it was going to be taken off anyway.

In the end, I chose to go for one of the dresses. The sleeves were too loose and thin. There was meant to go a T-shirt under it, but I decided to skip that. When I took a look in the mirror and saw my bland white bra through the front, I almost ripped it off. Thankfully, I stopped myself and climbed out the window instead. The ladder was too fragile under my fingertips, but I made sure to not make any noise.