Taming 7 (Boys of Tommen, #5)

by Chloe Walsh

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...