TWENTY-ONE.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE - Reese

I walked into the C&O board meeting to get the conference room ready for one of our biggest deals. A deal that meant so much to my boss.

I set up the tables, fixed the projectors and dragged my pale pink polished nails across the glass Italian table to check for dust. Luther loved it when everywhere was pristine, hence why I checked the coffee maker, disposing of cups and snacks who knew how brief this meeting was going to be.

I felt his presence even before I could see him, the effect he had begun to have on me, the hair behind my neck stood while my skin frizzled with goosebumps as he took gradual but steady steps towards me. He placed his hands around my hip and dragged me towards him, my back pressed firmly to his friends, and I felt his erection instantly as he nuzzled my neck.

“You look good, Reese ,” he purred, hitting the soft spot behind my ears. “You know I won't mind having you right now?” He continued, knowing what was coming next I turned around and pressed my body to his making myself comfortable between his legs.

“It's already ten AM, Mr. David will be here soon. After the deal is sealed I will make it up to you.” I promised.

He groaned as he detached himself from me making his way to his usual chair as he made himself comfortable. I sat beside him as we waited for our guest to grace us with his presence. We wouldn't keep an important guest waiting, would we?

The door squeaked open as men in suits rushed in, Mr. Luther and I stood up to exchange pleasantries and that was when I saw him. The man behind my nightmares, the man who ruined my life, the man who separated me from my family. A man whose doom I kept praying for. David Wilson—my uncle.

I knew my face was pale as my boss nudged me softly to shake David's stretched hands? But could I? Even after all these years.

I quickly ran out of the room, Luther matching right behind me only to be stopped by me, David.

“Let's continue business Luther, you know women, maybe she was having one of her mood swings.”

I slammed the door to the restroom shut and bolted it. I stared at the mirror to see the woman I had become, the woman I tried so hard to be but one thing was still there I could never change the past.

The claws from my past sunk deep into my flesh and were a trigger to my past when I was eight—during our six weeks summer holiday, I decided to spend it at my favorite uncle's abode. David was my mother's brother, he was that uncle who bought me a whole lot of chocolate and twirled me in the air till I was above everything.

Uncle David was that uncle who always dressed up as Santa to give us every Christmas present, we would giggle and laugh at everything. During the first week of my stay with uncle David and his wife aunt Lilly, he made it a habit to read to me every night, we made it a tradition till things began to change.

He came into my room one night and met me eagerly waiting for him to continue from the chapter we stopped last night.






|FLASHBACK:- Trigger warning; rape. Please skip if you're not comfortable with this topic.|




“Uncle, do you think Jane might find Anna?” I asked, handing him my storybook, as he made himself comfortable on my bed.

“I don't know, pretty Reese ,” he kissed my temple. “But what I know for sure is tonight, we are going to do something more fun, like a game.” he grinned, making my curiosity perk up.

“Is it like twenty questions or bingo?” I inquired as I counted my fingers.

“No Reese , it is more of I tell your body a secret and you keep them to yourself only.” He whispered.

“Okay.” I nodded meekly, making my two ponytails bounce.

He lifted me and placed me on his lap since he was my beloved uncle. I saw no double meaning to what he did. so I sat patiently as I waited for him to tell me this secret of his ditching our nightly ritual. His hands found their way to the band of my pants as he pulled them, I became alarmed instantly but then he hissed.

“Shush!” He whispered. “Remember it's a secret Reese , and as Catholics secrets are sacred you don't tell, am I clear?” He pressed while I nodded. His hands found their way to where my Dad had always told me not to let the boys in my class touch, a place where daddy said my right was, was uncle David trying to take my right? I was lost in my thought till I felt a sharp pain as his finger slipped into me with his other hand muffling my cries And that was the beginning of Uncle David's torture.

Every night he snuck into my room and told the same secrets to my body, secrets I couldn't voice out. At the end of my summer breaks, he convinced my parents to let me join one of the schools in his city, which my mother agreed to wholeheartedly. It became a routine, every night disguised as storytelling. From one finger to two fingers. I became withdrawn; I ate less, spoke less, and started to hate everyone around me—I was angry.

At the age of ten, he said I was too big for two fingers, he increased them to three. I was still keeping secrets. I was not like other kids in my school, I became scared of men in general, what if they did what uncle David does to me every night?

On my fourteenth birthday, he came into my room holding a cake and a package.

“Happy fourteenth my Princess,” He grinned. “Today is going to be a very special day, here. . . make a wish before I tell you what I got for you as a gift.” The glint in his eyes was mischievous. I only made one wish, for someone else to be aware of these secrets.

He held the package out and emptied the bag packs of different varieties that fell off. “What are these?” I asked naively.

“Condoms my dear, are condoms.” He grinned, making my stomach churn. I hate the smug look on his face, the man I had grown to hate.

“What are they used for?” I inquired, my heart beating at three-hundred and sixty times per minute. My feet were already cold and my face pale pink as I expected the worst.

“Something I'm going to show you, well let us get to business!” He retorted as I pulled off my cloth, a routine I had gotten used to. I lay on the bed naked waiting for his finger as I have done in the last seven years but no—he pulled off his trousers making me gasp in fear as I turned towards the other side of the bed.

I knew exactly what this was, I was no longer eight, I had tried to read books about my situation to know enough that I was being molested. "Don't do this, uncle David." I pleaded as he spread my legs wide.

“What are you scared of? You will enjoy it like my fingers.” He hissed.

He raped me and only stopped when a voice boomed from behind. “What in heaven's name is going on here!?” Aunty Lilly, who was my uncle David's wife had shrieked, uncle David pulled out of me while I dragged the duvet over my chest, as I sobbed silently from the agony that rushed into me after he pulled out. “Can someone explain to me what happened here?” Aunt Lily simmered.

“I think I'm under some kind of aphrodisiac influence, she gave me a piece of cake to eat and I thought you were Reese , Reese what have you done?” I watch my uncle lie effortlessly. I couldn't find my voice to defend myself, a voice I lost when I was eight years old.

Just with that little lie, aunty Lilly believed her husband even without questioning me first. “You whore! How could you do this? He is your uncle!” Auntie Lilly raged as she dialed on her phone who I assumed were my parents.



|FLASHBACK ENDS|

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She revealed to them what I did and asked them to fly to town very early before she sought justice herself and killed me. Uncle David led his wife outside and bolted my door, trapping me inside, that night like every other night—I cried myself to sleep.

But this night I cried for the woman I was ever going to be. I never really had a mother-daughter relationship with my mother. Everything I did was always wrong in her eyes. She never liked me, maybe that was the reason she pushed me away. She and auntie Lily both believed I seduced uncle David into doing things with me. I was punished when I went back home. My father had no say, nobody asked if I needed to be tested or if I needed therapy.

I graduated high school and moved to a college far from home. One would think with time, I would heal but I only got worse. I couldn't make friends I began to crave sex or fingers that would plunge into me. I couldn't stay without having any, I became a sin to my body. I met men who were just ready for it but there were no strings attached. I became what psychologists called a nymphomaniac.

I was advised to meet a therapist, I got one and ended up sleeping with him, which was the reason why Luther's contract meant nothing to me. I was broken, I was in pain, I felt mentally unstable, and I was not confident any longer. I was a sex addict who was ready to give my body each time I craved to have sex.

The knock on the other side of the door brought me back to the present, how long have I been hiding here?

“Reese , are you okay?” My boss's voice was laced with concern.

“I'm fine, Sir.” I acknowledged.

“Well if fine, are you leaving our million dollar deal like that? Anyways you can come out now, they are gone,” he voiced without thinking twice. Luther raised his brows itching with worries. “You want to talk about it?” He asked. “I assumed Mr David is an acquaintance, you won't tell me what happened?” he queried again, getting a hint.

“No,” I answered back with my lips pressed into a thin line.

I lied. I didn't want to bare with Luther. I didn't want to be vulnerable even though I was.

Luther caged me between his body and my desk, he took in an air full of my scent as he trails his hands on my curves. "Did you perhaps give him what you are giving to me too?" He pressed, making me shiver as bile rose to my throat, I controlled it with all my powers.

“Talk to me, Reese ,” he hissed as his tongue worked magic towards my neck, making me right my hands in a fist as he worked his lips down to my already unbuttoned checked shirt.

I shivered at his touch, as I tried to panic from my thumping heartbeat.

It wasn’t from what Luther was doing to me but a reminder of who I was in the hands of my uncle.

The memories of how uncle David used to lick me up flashed before my eyes as Sam's finger find its way in my pants, it reminded me of how uncle David used to touch me beneath how he shut me up whenever I cried at how I migrated from fingers to two from three of his fingers to when he decided I was old enough. Sam's present torture reminded me of the nights I couldn't sleep without getting touched.

“Stop,” I whispered as I held up his hands.

“What?” he asked, puzzled.

“I don't want to do this right now,” I whispered, trying all my best not to break down.

“What did that man do to you?” he raged.

I tried to plead.

"Reese Quinn, get on your fours now." He commanded but this time, I did not concede.


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