Taming 7 (Boys of Tommen, #5)

by Chloe Walsh

Why can’t you see me? Death would be better than this. It hurts. I was already dying on the inside. Make it stop. My insides were already ruined. Make him stop.

Claire Biggs had a lot of things. My back. My attention. My heart. My soul. Yeah, she had all of me and that wasn’t an exaggeration.

I could sew this girl to my skin without causing her an ounce of harm, then I would do it in a heartbeat. That’s how vital she was to my life. How essential she was to my existence.

Gibsie, It is to my deepest shame that I write this letter. Words can’t express how sorry I am for the pain that my lack of belief has caused you. I let you down. I understand that now, and if I could go back in time to that night, I promise I would take you at your word. I would protect you from him. I have no way of making this better for you, or redeeming myself in essence because the bottom line comes down to the fact that I was supposed to protect you and didn’t. My biggest fear of all is that you won’t believe me when I say I didn’t know. I guess that’s a hypocritical statement to make when I did the very same to you. You told me and I didn’t listen. You were a young child who trusted his favorite babysitter enough to disclose the horrendous abuse you had been enduring at the hands of your stepbrother, and that babysitter chose to let her teenage hormones blind her. To say that I had rose-tinted glasses on when it comes to Mark is an excuse that I won’t give you. Not you, sweet boy. The fact of the matter is that I didn’t want to hear it. I didn’t want to see what was happening. I had this incredible blind spot that I couldn’t see out of when it came to him. But I saw tonight. When I walked into your bedroom to check on you and found him pinning you to your mattress raping you, I think I died inside. Your eyes. You looked so broken. So defeated. You weren’t making a sound. Your tears were as silent as my voice, and I am so sorry for that. I don’t know how I’m suppose...

Curled up in a ball on my bed, I watched as he stood over me and zipped up his school trousers. He wore the ones the older boys wore. The boys who went to secondary school. “You know the score, baby brother.” Sitting down on the edge of my bed, he pushed my hair out of my face and reached between my legs. “Keep your mouth shut and I’ll keep going easy on you.” Trembling, I didn’t dare answer him or look in his direction. I knew better. I knew what happened when I didn’t behave. When I didn’t give him what he wanted. “Good boy. You’re always okay, aren’t ya?” He stroked my cheek and then stood back up. “I’ll see you tomorrow night.” I waited until my door was closed before checking myself over and pulling my Power Rangers pajamas bottoms into place, shuddering when my hand emerged with the familiar sight of blood…

“All the things he did to my body.” Feeling lifeless, I stared blankly ahead, feeling the tears trickling down my cheek. “I didn’t want any of it, Johnny.” “I know you didn’t, Gibs…” He

And I would forever stand with this boy. After all, taming 7 had been the adventure of my lifetime.