Caged Birds ✔️

Chapter Nine

Sam's P.O.V

Now lets fast track to our second biggest fight. It occurred months after the first one.

"What happened after the first fight?" Jenna askes in concern, "You said you hurt your back, were there any visible marks?"

"Soft tissue damage across my spine" I avoid eye contact, "...the date finished at ten thirty pm..."

The date finished at ten thirty pm, way past my curfew.

This date included having some fun in the backseat of his Range Rover Evoque. The car was brand new at the time, he never let me drive it...

"Is that why you stole it?" Brody interrupts.

Jenna looks over to with wide eyes.

"You stole his car!" She cries.

"You're getting ahead of the story," Angie says.

I nod "I'll get to it, Jenna...When I came home I knew I was going to be in trouble..."

I found my father and his sister's husband in the living room, bonding over the church. Noah was upstairs with my sisters.

"Where have you been?" My father asked firmly, glaring at me with his intimidating eyes.

His grey hair slicked back as if he were apart of the mafia. He wore a white T-shirt and a pair of old slacks.

"I was out with Anna" I lied.

After many years of living with a controlling psychopath, I become pretty good at lying and covering my tracks. Unfortunately, that taught me to lie to everyone in my life - including Matt.

"I didn't give you permission to go out" my father yelled with hatred in his eyes.

My uncle sat on the sofa, observing. I took a few steps back, away from my father.

His eyes screamed bloody murder as he chased me across the living room. My foot got caught on the leg of the coffee table, tripping me over. I laid on the floor, looking up at my beast hovering above.

He removed his belt from his pants and lashed me.

The first strike was across my thigh, it sent a shooting pain up my leg. The second was a burning sensation across my arms. The third was against my face, that one made me scream at the top of my lungs.

I was beaten that night with my father's belt, in front of my uncle, my cousin Noah and my sisters (who were watching from the staircase).

I had lost count of how many times I was whipped but by the end of it, I couldn't move. I laid half-dead on the living room floor with my cheeks stained with tears and blood.

My face, arms, legs, back and stomach were covered in painful bruises. My cousin had to carry me to my bedroom, I was screaming in pain the entire time.

My father hit us for power, to show the world that he was the boss and had full control of his daughters. He was always the most violent in front of other people.

If I fought back, he would have hit me harder, it wouldn't be worth it.

I couldn't tell anyone about the abuse or else all hell would break loose. My siblings and I didn't even discuss his torture with each other.

I cried myself to sleep that night like I did every night that I wasn't with Matt. Matt made me feel safe, his presence allowed me to forget about everything going on at night, very few people in my life could do that.

The next morning was Sunday, which meant church. My family were Mormons that prayed before eating every meal and went to church every Sunday.

My father was a hypocrite. He believed that swimming at the beach was forbidden but beating your kids to the point of severe injury was okay.

I prayed to God every morning and night to release me from the cage that I was locked in.

That's what I felt like, a bird locked in a small cage.

I went to church in crutches that Sunday. If anyone asked, I were to tell them that I was hit by a car — after all, that's how I looked.

My sister Diana was now Twenty-One years old and dating one of the alter boys from our church. His name was Luca Hamilton. Like the other boys that helped my father, Luca wore caramel colours dress pants, a white button-up shirt with a red and yellow tie.

I was popping pain killers throughout the whole service as an attempt to numb the pain.

When mass was over, my body flooded with relief — I didn't need to act as though I wasn't in pain any longer. Diana and I walked slowly to the bathroom. It was locked so we went to the handicap toilet out the back of the church. No one ever went back there.

When Diana opened the door, there he was. Luca Hamilton kissing Michael O'Connor. She began screaming and crying, stepping back.

"Diana, I'm so sorry" Luca cried. "I couldn't tell you...I was scared that your dad would find out and kick me out of the church!" He explained.

"Luca, you're going to hell and not because you're gay but because you're a liar and a cheat and a phony" my sister's sobbed, walking quickly away from her boyfriend.

Luca was the first person I knew that left the church of Mormon.

I know that he hurt my sister and all but I understand why he did what he did. However, no one else could. His parents disowned him soon after.

After that happened, I knew that I had to get out of the church and out of that town, but I also knew that if I were to do that, I had to make sure that I was never found.

"What happened when you saw Matt at school?" Jenna asks.

"Well, I couldn't go to school Monday because of the pain that I was in...When I came back Tuesday I was high on pain killers and planned to avoid everyone" I explain. "Matt ended up noticing when he drove me home and I knew that I had some explaining to do...but..."

"But?"

"But I didn't..." I admit, "I did what my father had trained me to do if someone were to ever ask...I lied...That could have been my way out, Jenna...If I had told the truth then, then I could have been free...instead of hurting so many people along the way..."

My eyes welled up with tears at the thought of what happened on that day. My body is flooded with regret and hatred for myself.

The sinking sensation in my gut begins to subside when I guzzle down my glass of champagne, looking over to Bobby who stands behind the bar.