𝐈𝐌𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐌𝐈𝐒𝐒𝐈𝐁𝐋𝐄 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄, Robby Keene

S05:E01

•~3rd person P.O.V~•
Why did her mom let her dad into their living room? Had she forgotten what he'd done? Not only to her but to her children. To Eli. They all stood in the living room. Ellie's mom, Ellie's dad, Ellie's stepdad, Eli, and Ellie. Eli had pushed her behind him, behind everyone.

"I saw the fight at the All Valley, glad you're a champ, son." Eli glared at him, his lips tightening in anger. Ellie knew that when Eli was really angry, more than normal angry, he fell silent. His lips would twitch as he thought of all of the things he wanted to do and say. "And your fight too, Ellie, that was gr-" He started to step towards her, but Eli pushed him away.

"Don't." Her dad raised an eyebrow, looking Eli up and down. It was as if her dad was thinking that Eli must've thought he was better than him. And he was. "You can't just appear after being missing for eight years and beating us for nine." Her dad shook his head, shoving his hands into his pockets. He kept looking at Ellie as if he wanted her to save him.

Ellie couldn't say a thing. The details and pictures of the day she had almost died at the hands of her father flashed through her mind. When Ellie was younger she knew her dad's behavior was abusive and she needed to get help, but she never did. She figured out at a young age that in order to get people to realize her father's abuse, she would have to die at his hands. She accepted it because she always knew she'd die by him.

Ellie remembered, with each hit, that she thought "I've lived a good life, I'm okay with dying, I've lived long enough" and she hated it. She hated remembering that sweet little girl and how easily she'd accepted death. That she was so fed up with the abuse that she wanted to die.

"I sincerely regret all of that, I had a problem. A problem I've worked on for years." Ellie gulped down her words. The words that wanted to say how his problem had caused her problems. Caused her to be the person she'd become.

How his abuse had led her to become extremely passive. His abuse had caused her to be afraid of love, afraid she'd end up in the same situation as her mom. How his abuse had led her mom to hate her. How his abuse had influenced her insecurities of never feeling good enough, and scared to never be good enough.

All of that was caused by his shitty problem? Ellie called bullshit. Her dad didn't even have the excuse that he was drunk while he did it. He was sober, for ninety-nine percent of the time at least. He was crazy, absolutely crazy, and even crazier if he thought he'd forgive them over a shitty, made-up, excuse.

"Oh, well, I guess it's all okay then. Years of abuse, hiding from you, and trauma down the drain because you gave a shitty apology and an even shittier excuse!" Eli laughed sarcastically. Her dad looked at her again, but his eyes locked with hers. Her wide, surprised, eyes.

"You know, you always were a little fucking brat." He spat bitterly at Eli, his teeth grinding against each other in anger. Ellie heard Eli draw in a sharp breath, and suddenly Ellie understood her mother's hatred towards her. Her dad always favored Ellie over Eli, even with his abuse, although it didn't excuse her mother's treatment towards her. "But Ellie," She gulped, wishing he would just go away, "you, you were always my little girl. Sweet, perfect." She couldn't move, she'd frozen again. "Especially with those letters you sent me through the years, I've read all of them." Eli clenched his jaw again, seeing how Ellie froze.

"So much of an asshole that you couldn't write back?" Eli scoffed, earning a glare from their dad.

"Your little girl?" Ellie mumbled. Eli was beginning to wonder if Ellie was thinking about forgiving him. Her voice sounded almost delirious as she came back to reality and out of her head. Her ears were ringing, like they always did when she went from inside her head to outside of it.

"Yes-"

"How could you say that?" Her dad's eyebrows furrowed as he looked at her, he thought he was getting on good ground with her. "After what you did to me, to us? You hit me, you hit Mom, and even worse, you hit Eli! You beat me so bad that I passed out! You ruined my relationship with Mom because I reminded her of you! You ruined my life! I'm scared of getting into a relationship because I'm scared I'll get with someone like you! I was a scared little girl for years because you forced me to be that way and here you come, thinking I'll forgive you because you had your own shit going on?!" Ellie shouted, her dad falling silent. "I don't care about what problems you were having, because I don't believe you were having problems. I believe that you're just fucking crazy and deserve a place in prison, now get out!" Her father glanced at their mother but realized no one was coming to his rescue or to his side, so he turned and left.

~

"Ellie," Ellie and Eli looked up from their seats at the kitchen table. Ellie had stayed over, and her mom was seeming to like her, at least a little bit. "Do you remember Aiden Fuller?" The two looked at each other, their minds racking their brains for the person with that name.

"Yeah, the boy that lived beside us and then moved in middle school?" Ellie asked, wondering why he was suddenly brought up in a conversation.

"Him and his family are moving back. Since you all are the same age, I thought maybe you could welcome him back." Ellie looked at Eli, who shrugged. He didn't mind, he didn't really remember the kid but he could pretend to.

"Sure." Ellie's mom smiled and returned to her phone call, but it seemed like she had smiled at Ellie. Not just a normal smile, but a smile aimed at Ellie. It made her heart clog with tears and plaster a smile onto her own face. Maybe her and her mom were progressing in their relationship. She hoped so.
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Word Count:1,084