4 YEARS AGO
Lillian was 12.
She understood what Markus was doing to her body when she was younger and still does.
She seeked refuge in her imagination and computer to escape her reality.
She avoided people at school and at home and people isolated her too. Not that it bothered her a bit. She liked it that way.
Humans are disgusting anyways.
The girl she saw on the night of her 7th birthday turned out to be Max's girlfriend.
She tried approaching Lillian a few times but left her alone as Lillian just gave her one word answers.
"Something's wrong with her." Lucy- Max's girlfriend- said as she cuddled up to Max.
Max yawned and pulled her closer.
"You're just thinking too much." He said kissing her forehead.
"Children don't just scream because of a nightmare and go entirely quiet the next day. Something happened to her." She argued.
"You think Markus has something to do with it." Max asked after a few minutes.
"I remember seeing him go upstairs a few times when I went to grab a bite." Lucy confessed.
"Wait." He said startled, his eyes widening as he thought of something. "You don't think." He said unsure.
"Well.. I'm not sure." Lucy said hesitantly, scratching her head.
"You know what. Just forget it." She said covering her head with the comforter.
"No. You have a point. Lemme see if he took advantage of my sister." He said deep in thoughts.
Lucy peeked her head out and looked at him with a wide grin. He looked at her questioningly.
"You said 'my sister'. You are coming around." She said feeling proud of him.
"All thanks to you. I don't think I'd have seen her as my sister if not for you." He said pulling her closer to him.
"Now don't worry your pretty head about it. Let's go to bed. I will ask Nancy tomorrow if she has a clue." He felt her nod her head against his chest and felt at peace.
AT THE END OF THE WEEK
"Lily, your brother wants to have lunch with you." Nancy shouted opening the door to her room.
Lillian grumbled in her half awaken state.
'Oh how I wish everyone just disappeared.'
'I'm ready to kill everyone. All you have to do is just say the word.' A girlish voice said. Amanda- King's girlfriend.
'No one's killing anyone on my watch.' King said bending his elbow in an obtuse angle with his index finger pointing at the ceiling to make a point.
With all the scenarios created inside her mind and thousands of made up characters only these two stuck around.
'Buzzkill.' Amanda said in boredom.
'You weren't saying that-'
'I'm outta here.' Lillian cut King off.
She went to the bathroom, brushed her teeth and went downstairs to where Max was seated and sat across him.
"Hi sweetie." Lucy said from the other side.
'I still have doubts how she became your brother's girlfriend.' Amanda said crossing her hands over her chest.
King nodded. 'She's too sweet.' He said candidly.
Lillian muttered a small 'hi' under her breathe as Lucy served her her breakfast. Nancy usually does that, she brings it to her room though.
She took a bite of the toast as Lucy sat down beside her brother.
"I fired Markus." He said out of nowhere.
'Alright...and.' Amanda said raising her eyebrow.
'You should've been born into this body instead of me.' Lillian thought.
'Oh please Clarissa. I would've accepted that offer if you were a mermaid.' She said flipping her hair.
Clarissa. That's the name she goes by in her dreamland as Nancy and lucy started calling her Lily. Disgusting. They didn't even ask her permission.
Lillian hummed in real life to her brother.
'Why are they telling you they fired him.' King wondered out loud.
"If you run into any problem you can tell me. We are family after all, we stick together." Max said reaching out to touch her hand. Lillian snatched her hand away from his.
'Alright. Why the fuck is he being like this.' King asked making a disgusted face.
'So they can steal her inheritance.' Amanda asked more like stated.
Her mother wrote a will in case she died due to child birth and set a trust fund for her and her brother which they can access as soon as they turn 18.
But it couldn't be further from the truth as Max would be taking over his dad's company once he turns 25 and, well, then he will be a millionaire if not a billionaire.
There's no use being 'family' to her.
Once again Lillian hummed, exasperating her brother.
'Tiny steps, baby steps.' He placed a hand on his chest and told himself, calming himself.
"You're safe here." Lucy said looking at her with a gentle smile.
'Why is she smiling.' Amanda asked covering her mouth in disgust.
'You need to stop reading crime fictions.' King stated making Amanda shrug.
"What's going on." She asked looking at them with no emotion.
Her classmates call her weird because she always has a RBF even when she thinks she doesn't.
Lucy and Max looked at each other and looked at the girl infront of them, who was sitting with her arms folded over her chest.
"We know he raped you." Lucy stated looking sad.
"Alright." Lillian said getting an idea of where this is going.
"Alright? That's all." Max asked perplexed.
"Yea." Lillian dragged, tilting her head.
"Do you wanna talk to someone about it." Lucy asked hesitatantly but hopefully.
"No." She said and stood up from the chair, grabbed her now empty plate, dumped it in the sink and left.
"We need to get her to talk to someone. Bottling up emotions is not good." Lucy said after Lillian left.
Max nodded.