After hugging for about a minute we all released. We looked back at the others to see them staring at us wide eyed.
" how-....how do you guys know each other?"
I looked back at Rose and nodded my head, signaling that she has permission to explain.
" So a few years ago, your grandfather and I were on a mission. After we were done in the alleyway, we wanted to walk back to our hotel. But stopped when we heard screaming. Your grandfather and I both ran towards the screaming where we found our little dove."
"She was lying on the floor while some men were beating her up and.....touching her. Your grandfather and I helped her and took her with us for a few days to heal. She never said her name, so we called her our little dove. "
"Valentina was not in a good condition when we found her, we couldn't recognize her face because of the beatings. "
"But then after a few days she needed to go back to her house for school and stuff. The few days that she was with us, were amazing. Such a sweet girl. We got to know each other better, and yeah. That's kind of it. We didn't know it was Valentina at the time because of her, excuse my language, messed up face. "
"But now when we just saw her. We kind of recognized her and now with her not beat up face, we fully realize that she's my beautiful granddaughter." She finished telling.
I looked back at the other, some of them were having tears in there eyes.
"Why're you crying?" I questioned
" h-..how did you get in that situation in the first place? Why were those men hurting and touching you?" Zane asked.
I cleared my throat before answering. " you told them about them and the stuff they did right?" I looked at dad while asking the question.
He shook his head, I sighed. "Sorry principessa we thought it would be better for you to tell. It's your story." I kinda appreciate that to be honest .
" this is going to be a long conversation, so let's go to the living room so we can talk." They all agreed and walked to the living room.
Matteo was somewhere else, he shouldn't listen to this.
"First of all, while I'm explaining I don't want any interruptions. Okay?" Agreements were heard all around the room.
"So..." dad was sitting next to me, so I grabbed his hand for support. I looked at him for reassurance which he gave with an encouraging smile on his face.
I took a deep breath before I started explaining everything. " When I was kidnapped I suppose, you can imagine I didn't have a great life. From a very young age I was required to do the cooking, cleaning, working... you know all the stuff. Over the years I got more and more to do. When I was younger I did have some clothes, but over the years I didn't get anything. The money I got from work, I needed to give that to sir and ma'am. They counted the money so I could never steal anything for food or clothes. "
"The clothes I had brought with me were clothes that I've had for a few years. I slept in the basement. The basement was nothing clean. It was just cold, water leaking, a broken/worn out mattress, no blanket. "
"If I wanted to eat, I needed to sneak out at night. Go to the neighbors' trash and hope to find something. Of course I couldn't do that much. So I ate every few weeks just a little bit to keep me alive. "
"Over the years sometimes if I did something wrong, I would get slapped but it was really from age around 8 I think it was. That the beatings and torturing started. In the attic was the play room. A lot of times, they would bring me there and what they call is play. "
"What happens there is where most my nightmares come from. I just get beat and tortured and drugged. Most of the time I can't even move after the sessions I guess you call them. "
"The friends that sir and ma'am had weren't the best either. They would drink and do drugs just like sir and ma'am did. When they came over I always knew that I wouldn't be able to go to school for a couple of days. Outside the play room was also torture. Euhm... they beat, burn, drown, hit, kick, slap, carve in the skin....me. It wasn't even if I did something wrong. It was just always. "
"When I was younger I did have bunch of friends but when the beatings started to get worse, I kind of withdrew myself from my friends. I stopped talking and eventually they did too. At school I was required to get all A's if I didn't want a tough session. "
"At school I was also called a freak for a long time, it was fine you know until they got too far and I couldn't take it anymore. One day some girl thought it would be funny to beat me again. I was already having a bad day because of something that sir and ma'am did. So when she tried to slap me, I might have broken her arm. Ever since then nobody tried to do something like that to me again, they were all ....scared. "
"I did try to get help. But nobody believed me. The police didn't, the teachers didn't. That was also the last straw for my friends back then and we fully stopped talking. There were only 2 people who believed me...Amy and Atlas. My best friends. They believed me and tried to get me help but it was useless. Eventually we stopped trying because that would only make the beatings worse. They helped me get more food and clean my wounds. "
"Everything was going good. Until Atlas had to move. It was for work for his parents, but Atlas found it to difficult to say goodbye to us so he didn't at all. We didn't have a phone or adres to keep in contact so then it was only Amy and I. "
"Until we needed to do a project for school. I needed to sneak out of the house to do that. When I finally got to Amy's house we started working on the project until sir and ma'am suddenly burst through the door. Sir had his hands around my throat so I didn't get to see what was happening. Eventually I past out from the loss of oxygen. "
"When I woke up we were back and they told me they killed them. But they didn't kill them I know don't ask me how I know because I don't know but I know that they're not dead. Amy's and Atlas' parents didn't knew about what I thought were my parents did to me. We never told them knowing that they probably wouldn't believe us too. I could see Amy's father trying to get sir's hands of off my throat but it didn't work. "
"Now after the incident with Amy everything got even worse. Every day in the play room. I could just be cooking their dinner and they would come from behind me with a knife or burn me with the pan" I said tears in my eyes while tracing the burning wound on my thigh.
"But you guys came and got me out of there. Now when I met Rose and Gio is another story. I decided to run away something I had tried multiple times but never worked. I was running and hiding when suddenly some friends of sir and ma'am were there."
"They saw me and tried to get me back but I didn't want to go so they just gave me a beating. Then Rose and Gio came and helped me. I stayed with them for a couple of days until I was healed enough. I knew I had to go back to school and stuff so I went back. I was to scared that they would find me and hurt Gio and Rose so I left. "
"When I got back, I received one of the worst play room sessions ever. I couldn't move for a few days and the session was about 3 days long of torture. I was still happy that I did it though. Trying to leave so I got to meet them." I finished telling my story.
I looked back up seeing now everyone having tears in their eyes.
I looked back at dad and climbed into his lap seeking comfort.
A few tears fell as I gently cried into his shoulder while he cooed me.
"Why you crying Val?" Matteo yelled coming in the room.