restored love

26

OLIVIA

"Who told you to stand on a chair heavily pregnant?" I ask my best friend.

I haven't even been gone for more than two weeks and she has already hurt herself. Alyssa decided to put up her Christmas tree and she stood on a chair to decorate it. Only for her to fall. For fuck's sake.

"Well, I'm fine." I knew she was smiling from the other side.

"Ezra is mad at me," she whispers as if he was in the same room as her.

"Understandable." I huff. She could have seriously hurt herself.

"You should have told me to put the tree up. You're heavily pregnant Alyssa." I hear Ezra speak from the other end.

"Well we learn from our mistakes, don't we? Plus Tristan said I'll be okay. The baby is alright." she says back to him.

My heart drops at the mention of his name. Holy shit. "Well, that's good news." I manage to reply.

"Yeah. I can't believe you aren't spending Christmas with us." she huffs. "Christmas is supposed to be spent with family. You are our family."

My heart warms. "I know. Daisy wants to do something simple this year." I lie.

I don't think Daisy or me were in the Christmas spirit this year. I hear frantic knocking coming from my front door. My brows furrow. "Alyssa I'll call you back," I say, ending the call.

I look through the peek hole and see my dad. I roll my eyes and open the door. "Yes."

He didn't give me any chance to register anything as he pushed me back inside my house, slamming the door shut. I did not notice the bottle of alcohol in his hand until now. I gulp as my hands trembled out of unease.

Don't show him fear.
Don't show him fear.

I clench my fists tightly. "What are you doing in my house?" I ask as confident as I could sound.

God forbid Daisy comes downstairs. She should never see this side of him. "Who do you think you're talking to, little girl?" he growls at me, his words slurring.

Hearing him call me little girl used to make me feel scared because he would only say that before he beat the living shit out of me but now those words made me so furious.

"Don't come into my house and order me around like this." I walk to the front door opening it. "Leave," I demand.

He stalks towards me, slamming the door shut. My cheek snapped to the side, and I felt an intense ache in my cheek. I bite down on my lower lip to stop the tears from welling.

"Oh, my God." I hear someone cry out.

No Daisy.

"Daisy go back to your room. Now." I order, my eyes staying on my father's.

"Olivi-" she tries to plead.

"Now," I demand, shifting my eyes to meet hers. She was standing at the top of the stairs, tears were running down her cheeks and her cheeks were slightly flushed.

I hear her footsteps fade away as I glare at the man I once called my father.

"You hit me in front of her. Well fucking done. Why the fuck are you here?" I ask.

He takes a swig of his alcohol. "She left me," he yells.

Oh. So Natalia finally came to her senses.

"What does that have to do with me?"

"You said something to her. She said you told her to be wary of me," he growls.

"Yes because you're an abusive asshole," I yell back.

He punches me in the face and I groan as I fall to the ground. He began to kick me. I felt another punch across my face, I roll to my side and spit out the blood that pooled in my mouth.

"You're just a fucking whore." I hear him shout at me.

His punches never stopped or they did but I just lost feeling of it. Through my blurry eyes, I could see him. He was so angry. He was saying something but I couldn't hear over the piercing siren.

"No no no." Daisy's voice cut through the sirens in my ear and suddenly I was able to stay conscious.

I try to focus my eyes on wherever her voice was coming from. Daisy was standing at the top of the stairs again. The thought of him touching her forced me to try to fight.

"Daisy." I manage to breathe out, and with every breath I inhaled, I felt a sharp stabbing pain in my chest.

"Go upstairs before I hurt you." I hear him scream.

I roll on to my side before slowly standing up. I limp closer towards the stairs but I couldn't walk up them. No matter how hard I tried.

"Go to your room and hide under your bed. Put your earphones in and don't move." I try to instruct her, the words flowing out of my mouth so easily.
Deja-vu hit me suddenly.

"Oh God Liv." she cries as her eyes wander over my face.

"I'll be okay. I promise."

I wasn't going to be okay. I could already feel my body crashing on me. The strong pain in my chest just meant that he had cracked a few of my ribs.

She runs back up the stairs and when she disappears, I turn back to him.

"Don't touch her. Hurt me all you want but not her."

He pushes me and I trip. My head hit the hard stairs. My vision hazed. He may have stopped hurting me but I don't think he did. I just couldn't feel it anymore. My body was giving up.

The darkness surrounded me but all I could see was him. The light in the darkness. My only happiness. "You're a fighter Olivia." he says with his beautiful smile. "Never a quitter."

With those words, I felt like I failed him because I couldn't even fight to stay conscious anymore.