Your Healing Touch

Chapter 25

Ezekiel

As she opened her mouth to speak, the whistle of the tea kettle interrupted her.

She jumped, than hurried out of her seat to turn it off while I cursed lowly. Quickly, she prepared her tea then returned to her chair.

Staring at the tea cup clutched in her delicate fingers, she began, "My mom married Charles when I was 15. From the start, he gave me a weird vibe. He was controlling, but my mom thought it was cute," Jasmine rolled her eyes as she spoke. "She thought he was being a good dad, showing me that he cared."

She paused, taking a sip of her tea before she continued. "About a year after they got married, my mom was diagnosed with colon cancer. She underwent treatment for two years. During that period she spent most of her time at the hospital or in bed, so Charles and I had to interact much more frequently than we had previously. He started giving me strange looks and...making comments about my appearance that made me feel uncomfortable. I brushed it off because my mom was getting worse and worse so I wanted to focus on spending time with her."

Her middle finger, which had been tracing the rim of her cup over and over, stilled. She took a deep breath then resumed, "She died the summer before my senior year of high school."

A tear trickled down her smooth cheek and, "I'm sorry," slipped out before I could stop it. She gave me a half smile as she wiped her face.

"My mom's parents were the only family I knew of and I never saw them until she died. They didn't care about her or me so I had nowhere else to go and no one to stay with besides Charles. I was uneasy about living with him but I was also naive so I figured since I only had one year of school left, it wouldn't be so bad," Jasmine shook her head and gave a humorless laugh.

Sitting here in silence was killing me. I wanted to ask her a million questions but I knew she had to get everything out first.

"Following my mom's death, he started...touching me in ways a man should not touch his step daughter," her voice was barely above a whisper.

My fists slammed down on the table. I was close to losing it and she'd barely begun. I needed to get myself under control. She was watching me wearily, her breathing a little faster than normal. I'd scared her with my reaction. Placing my hands on my lap I gave her a short nod to keep going.

"He started out seemingly harmless enough...extra hugs, light caresses, a kiss on my cheek. Then, then he got bolder. He would grab me roughly, grope me, make me sit on his lap and even come sleep with me in my room in the middle of the night. Whenever I fought him he would get so upset and...and it didn't help me, at all. So I...I stopped fighting him after awhile. I let him do whatever he wanted."

Had he...

Rage. I couldn't even think it. Thinking of my sweet Jasmine enduring such cruel treatment made me want to destroy everything around me. I had to stay under control.

She covered her face with her hands for a few moments. In that brief break I fought to maintain my composure. That bastard molested her! He should have protected her and cared for her when her mom died. Instead, he took advantage and scarred her. Forget arresting him, when I saw him I was going to fucking murder him! Realizing my breathing was becoming labored, I took a deep breath to calm myself enough to hear the rest of her story.

"I tried to go to the sheriff's station, but I got sent home. They didn't believe me because they knew Charles personally and he was, 'an upstanding member of the community'," Jasmine bitterly recited. "I didn't know what else to do so I stayed. I stayed and beared it until I couldn't anymore."