Chapter 11 (Vicky's POV)
Damn that man and his mouth.
I swear either he talks with his sexy accent or he uses it for other things, he always makes me a wet mess.
I have no idea how I will survive my vacation with him and not become an s*x addict.
I put the shower as cold as my body can take it and hopefully that will help for a while.
I pulled off Andrew's T-shirt and stepped under the shower. The cold water makes my head clear of my s***d craze.
Damn it woman! I scold myself. Keep it together. You knew how he was and you also knew you could not by any means fall in love with him!
And I do remember. His words ring in my head even now, months from now.
We were on our evening video call and were just joking around about partners and what kind of person we could fall in love with, talking about a perfect person for ourselves.
Suddenly, he became really serious and told me: "But honestly, I will never again fall in love. I promised myself that after my first and last serious relationship. No way will I ever put myself through that kind of pain again."
Up till today, I still have no idea what happened between him and his ex. He never speaks about her.
But it's not like I can blame him. I haven't told him everything about my ex either. I have a feeling he would follow me back to Slovenia if he knew how deep my abuse went.
My ex was kind and charming in the beginning. I really thought he was my end game.
But then, as time flew by, he changed. Suddenly he didn't like my friends, my job, my outfits or even the way I looked. It started small. He was complaining that I was on my phone all the time speaking to my friends and he felt like he wasn't enough etc. So, as a good girlfriend, I take his opinion into consideration on cutting back on my time I spend on the phone.
In time, I stopped going out with my friend for our usual drinks once a week because he didn't like me being around other males. With time, my friends caught on and started asking questions, but by then it was already too late for me. I was tangled deep in my web.
My ex made sure I had no one to turn to once the beatings started. By that time, he made me quit my job and take responsibility as a full-time stay-at-home girlfriend. I wanted back my independence so badly. But I was scared. Scared of him and what he was capable of doing to me.
One day, he came home drunk and started accusing me of cheating on him, lying around about him, he was insulting me and just when I thought the worse was past, he started hitting me. To him, the only limit was to never hit me in the face because people could see. So he beat me till I was a bloody mess and left me in the middle of our living room.
He left the house shouting at me about how it was my fault, that I should just be loyal and this wouldn't happen. When he finally locked the front door behind him, I managed to get myself on all fours and crawled to our bedroom and dug for my phone which I had to hide from him. My original phone was always with him and he gave it back only when my mom called me, but I could never talk to her in private, because he never left my side when I was on the phone.
I dialled 112 for an emergency, told them my condition and address and a few seconds later lost consciousness.
I woke up days later in a hospital, with so much pain I wanted to scream, but I was thought in the last few months that I never made a sound when something hurts.
Nurses told me I had broken ribs and a broken collar bone, also my leg was cracked and my left wrist would never work the same because they had to repair it.
But worst of all was a huge scar on my right thigh that I have no idea how it got there. Doctors explained to me it was caused by glass, because when they found me I was surrounded by pieces of glass.
Until this day, I still have no idea what happened in between me losing my consciousness and the EMT team rescuing me, but to be honest, I don't care anymore. The scared tissue only reminds me of things I survived and lived through.
It makes me believe I am a strong woman that will never again bow to anyone.
After I was discharged from hospital, I finally got up the courage to tell my mom everything. She was crying the whole time while I told her everything. She took me back and put me in my old bedroom. I found myself a new job as a waitress near mom's house, and started going out with my friends again. I even rejoined social media accounts where I also found Andrew, so everything was good and I was enjoying my life.
had a few months of peace and quiet from my ex but suddenly weird things started going on around me.
My car alarm would go off in the middle of the night, things started disappearing from my room. At all hours, I got calls from unknown numbers, but when I answered there was no one on the other side.
I got paranoid and was always watching behind my back.
I was scared to think it was my ex trying to control my life again. But I told myself that was impossible. He didn't know my new number, he never came around my mom's house. So how would he know? I didn't even put anything on my social accounts.
Until one evening, I was walking home from work and he confronted me.
He started dragging me by my hair to the other side of the street, but lucky for me, my friends were only then walking out of the restaurant where I worked and they ran to my rescue. Ethan and Chad beat him up and gave him a shot of his own medicine while Jessy, Mandy and Rachel made sure I was OK.
I could never thank them enough for saving me that night and for the fact that even when I pushed them away they never gave up on me.
A few months have past since that evening and I still feel shivers run through my body at thoughts about that evening. And not the good kind.
I was glad I had the best friends. And even though everything wasn't peachy in my life, it led me to Andrew, so I couldn't really complain.
But I do need to put up my walls around him.
Because I promised myself I would never ever again change myself for anyone. Especially not a man. Even if he was as handsome and nice as Andrew. The end result was not worth it.
Losing yourself was the ultimate price I was not willing to pay. Again.