Unbreak Me

★CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX★

ZAYN
My mother. On the floor of her bedroom. Her knees pulled up against her chest. Sobbing. Her eyes meet mine as I stand in the doorway, ready to kill Dad. She shakes her head. Even though she cries, she tries to tell me it's nothing.

"It wasn't your dad, honey," She tells me. She lies. Because I see the cascading scars on her arms and her face. I see the pain in her eyes.

Why are you so weak, I want to ask her. Why do you always let him get away with it? I want to go over and pull her into my arms. I want to protect my mother from the harm my father causes whenever he's angry. But I know she hates affection. She never hugs me. Says it makes her feel uncomfortable.

Is it because I look so much like my father? Do I remind her of him?

She won't ever have to see my face, then.

"I'll deal with Dad," I tell her, clenching and unclenching my hands. "Pack your bags. You aren't staying here anymore."

Someone shook me back into reality. I realised how profusely I was sweating. I knew my hands were shaking. When my eyes fell back to Leia's arm, I felt the same urge to kill. But I was so disappointed.

"When did you become like this?" I knew my discontentment reflected in my voice.

Weak, I thought to myself. She's weak just like her. She's going to tolerate abuse just like her. She won't tell anyone how her husband treats her just like her. And when one day she has a child, she's going to neglect him just like her.

Her eyes filled with tears, because she knew what I meant. She lowered her eyes and for the first time I had the urge to force her to look up at me. I wasn't manipulated by her doe eyes. I just wanted her to have the courage to look into my eyes and see what she did to me. How she hurt me.

Instead, I dropped her wrist. Her chin wobbled and more tears fell from her eyes.

I looked up at the ceiling, raking a hand through my hair and huffed out a breath. "I never thought this would be you one day."

She sobbed. I heard the agony in her cries.

"You couldn't talk to me about this, Leia? You couldn't report to the police?" She still wouldn't meet my eyes. "Come on, give me one excuse."

"I'm not her," she whispered instead, voice thick and gravelly with emotion. "I'm not like her, Zayn."

I gave a short, sullen laugh. "Really? Because it seems like history is repeating itself. It seems like you're too weak to stand up for yourself. Too weak to tell him no."

That's when she finally looked at me, her eyes burning with newfound fury. "You don't know anything about me. Stop treating me like I'm her, Zayn. I came to you today. I came to ask for your help. He wasn't like this before."

I don't know if I can believe her. She was lying just two minutes ago. Plus, how could her husband suddenly become bad? No. I didn't believe her at all. My past experiences didn't let me take her word on it. My mother had lied about my father all the time.

I offered her a callous shrug. "How can I believe you?"

Her eyes tightened at the corners, lips pulled down lopsidedly. "I thought you said we were best friends. Best friends trust each other."

I nodded doubtfully. "How can I trust you when I can read the lies in your eyes; when I can tell there's something you're hiding from me."

It might have been an inconspicuous, one-second guilt that flashed through her eyes but I saw it. So, she was still hiding something.