DECEPTION

Scars

Short chapter
17

Neal's POV

"If the wounds on her heart and the bruises on her soul were translated on her skin, you would not recognize her at all" - Verona Q

Anura stood in front of me with her head down, tears were streaming down her face as she stared at her feet, I sighed and got up from the bed, I grabbed her hand and intertwined it with mine whilst lifting up her chin, I gave her a small smile and wiped away her tears with my thumb."You don't have to do this if you don't want to." I told her, she shook her head at me and moved my hand.

"No I promised you that I'd open up." I nodded and sat back down on the bed, she let out a small sigh and unzipped her pants sliding it off her legs, the first thing that caught my eye was the cut she had on her thighs, it was healing a lot better and faster, I also noticed she had a bruise on the side of her other thigh, I frowned slightly as I stared at her legs, she lifted up her jacket and took it off, I felt my heart drop, her bruises seemed to have gotten worse when seeing her upper body, her skin was filled with old scars and freshly new ones, my heart ached for her." He did this?" I asked, she slowly nodded, I was trying to contain my anger, mainly for her sake, right now wasn't the best time for me to be getting angry and lashing out on Dave, right now I needed to comfort her.

When I brought her to my house she said she wanted to show me something, and I honestly wished that what she had to show me wasn't this, it pained me to know that she had to go through such physical abuse with someone she loved." You're the first person to ever see my scars, my body is so hideous now." She said with a light chuckle, I frowned at her, I shook my head and scooted to the edge of the bed, I grabbed her hand and pulled her closer to me, she stood in-between my legs, I wrapped my arms around her waist and laid my head against her stomach.

"You're beautiful, even with these bruises, they'll fade." I told her, I heard her scoff I lifted my head to look at her, she didn't look down at me but instead kept her head straight forward.

"Bruises fade but scars don't."

"Don't be ashamed of your scars Anura instead be proud of them, they just mean that you're stronger than what tried to hurt you." I looked at the old cut that was against her waist, I leaned in and gave it a small tender kiss.

"From now on I will always protect you." And that was a promise.

Anura's POV

I laid against Neal's chest as he held me in his arms, he ran his hands softly against my semi naked body while I tried to rest, I always felt calm and at peace when I'm around him, I always felt like my problems were taken far away from me, I always felt safe, I smiled against his chest as I remembered what he said to me not to long ago.

"From now on I will always protect you."

That's all I ever wanted, was to be protected and cared about, saved and taken away from that dark place.

Neal cleaned my wounds and also kissed them showing me this gentle side of him I never knew he had, he didn't look at my body in disgust when I undressed in front of him but instead he looked at me the same way he always has but with a hint of disappointment from my bruises, nevertheless he stared at me in a way Dave's never looked at me before, he stared at me as if I was the most beautiful women in the world, even with all these bruises, and when he complimented me I felt butterflies all in my chest.

I felt him run his hand against the scar he kissed, I used to hate my scars with a pure passion, every time I'd stare at my body I'd always look at it in complete disgust but now I don't have that ill feeling towards them now and it's all because of Neal, my scars tell a story, each one of them are a reminder that I was able to survive domestic violence, they're a reminder of every-time Dave tried to break me, they're a reminder of my undeniable strength.

"Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars." - Khalil Gibran.

A/n: had to hook y'all up with an extra chapter (;