"Maddie told me that you've been terrorizing your employees."
The room was dark with the only light source coming from the lamp besides the bed, overall creating a calming ambience. Xavier gently brushed a lock of hair away from her face, tucking it behind her ear.
After both having a glass of wine, they had moved to her bed where they were now laying face to face— their conversation and touches coming naturally. Despite only having a glass, her face was already flushed.
Xavier scoffed. "I don't know what you're talking about."
Xavier sank further into the comfortable bed with defeat under her scrutinizing stare.
"It's because all I could think about was you," he muttered.
Her eyes softened at his confession. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say those things to you on Saturday."
"I know."
She took a deep breath, her mind making the mental decision to tell him everything. She felt comfortable enough with him to finally reveal her vulnerabilities.
"I guess I should start from the beginning."
"You don't have to," he responded gently, knowing that this wasn't easy for her.
She felt grateful towards him—thankful that he was so caring and understanding. He had been so patient with her, never pushing her to share anything she didn't feel comfortable with. That was why she felt the urge to lower her defenses.
"I want to."
And thus, she began her story, with Xavier listening intently.
"Growing up, I was always so critical about myself— hell, I still am. I always felt like I was never good enough compared to others around me, especially in high school. And high school was just a complete nightmare. To this day, I still never understood why I was bullied back then.
"Maybe it was because I was the complete opposite of Connor. He was athletic and popular, while I was shy and liked to keep to myself. And it didn't help that I didn't even try to defend myself—I was never any good at confrontation."
Xavier chuckled softly at the last part causing Aurora to give him the stink eye. She reached over and pinched his arm, which did not even cause him any discomfort, much to her dismay. He took her hand in his and gently held it in his. "You're still not very good at it, love."
"I know," Aurora rolled her eyes playfully. "After Connor left for college, it got even worse because he wasn't there to protect me. They would call me horrible names and continue to mentally beat me down. And one day, they began to harass me physically. But by the time a teacher came heard my screams it was too late. They had already broken me."
She watched as Xavier's jaw clench and brought her hand up to cup his jaw. She traced over his jaw, urging him to loosen up. "It was a long time ago, so I'm okay now. But I guess at that time I wasn't. I felt like I was stuck in a never ending cycle of self hate. I was going through therapy for my anxiety and depression, but nothing was working.
"It wasn't until I met Maddie that I started to get better. She helped me realize that I'm not alone in this world and I was able to learn to trust again because of her. I don't think I would be here today if it wasn't for her. I guess in a way she saved me, which is why my parents adore her so much. She basically brought their little girl back to them."
She paused for a brief second to take a deep breath. Saying all this out loud wasn't easy for her. There were years of bad memories that she kept tucked away in the back of her brain, but she knew that saying it out loud, especially to someone she cared so deeply about, was helping her heal.
He brought his hand up to hold hers, bringing both of their hands back down, lacing them together. It was the silent gesture that offered her strength.
"I will forever be in her debt. Words cannot even describe how much she's been there for me. She was even there when I was hurt by—" She paused.
This was always the hardest part. Xavier squeezed her hand, silently encouraging her, which she responded with a small smile.
"—hurt by Chris. He was my first and only boyfriend. I met him after Liam gave me the job at the firm at this dinner party, I don't really remember the details. But at the time I was just 23—I had just finished graduate school and you know, I was always told by my professors how important building connections were.
"So, I mustered up the courage to introduce myself and I guess we hit it off. We began to date and everything was going great or at least in my head everything was going really well. I was 23, young, with a handsome boyfriend who claimed to love me.
"What I didn't seem to notice was that he would subtly add snarky and rude comments about my weight, or my appearance— just anything he could find to criticize me here and there. And now that I think about it, I realize how dumb and how stupid I was not to notice these things earlier."
The soothing feeling of his hand continuously rubbing circles on the back of her hand, gave her the courage to continue. "I think we dated for around 6 months before he asked me to move in with him. And of course I said yes— why wouldn't I? I was in love and I guess at that time I felt like, finally there was someone who could heal me from my past because I thought he understood my anxiety and overthinking.
"I didn't realize that the rude comments he was making were just slowly making me spiral back into that darkness. I remember getting upset with Maddie and my family when they all warned me that there was something off about him. But of course, my stubborn ass decides to not listen because I was so in love with him.
"Then, 6 months soon became 1 year and it just got a lot worse. He began to blame me and berate me even if I hadn't done anything wrong. And even though I knew it wasn't healthy for me to continue being with him, I still stayed with him because I didn't want to be alone.
"And I know, I had so many people around me who cared about me and would do anything for me to be happy, but I just wanted to feel loved and wanted. I just wanted someone who would look at me the way Lucas looked at Maddie. I was stuck so deep in the hole and by the time I realized it, it was already too late. I didn't know who I was and I was trying to change myself to accommodate him, second guessing everything and all my decisions.
"Whenever I would confront him about it, he would just come up with an excuse saying that he had a bad at work. And every single fucking time, I would forgive him. It wasn't until one day, I came home early from work and I noticed clothes scattered around the living room. There were noises coming from our bedroom and I knew right then and there that he had been cheating on me.
"I felt so stupid and I didn't really know what to do, so I just went back to the office and tried to make sense of the whole situation. I think I had some sort of spiritual awakening or something there, because that was when I decided that enough was enough."
Her eyes began to water as she tilted back her head to blink back the tears, not wanting them to fall. "I went home that night and he was angry at me that I came home so late. Imagine being angry at your significant other when you had been the one cheating and treating her like shit the whole time you've been together. I was so angry and upset that I just told him that we were over.
"At first, he tried to coax me into staying with him, but as I began to pack my bags, he became more angry. He started to say things that to this day still hurt me, which is why I reacted the way I did with Cynthia. She said some things that reminded me of what he said to me."
Xavier gave her hand a small squeeze. "You don't have to say them out loud."
Aurora swallowed the lump in her throat and continued. "We continued to scream at each other and I told him what I saw. He had the fucking audacity to say that I was imagining things and when I tried to leave, he wouldn't let me go. To this day, I still feel his nails digging into my skin when he grabbed me, and when I tried to push him away, he slapped me.
"It was the first time things got physical and there was absolutely no remorse in his face. He just said that I deserved it for trying to leave him and that no one would want me if I did. He kept being aggressive with me and it was starting to scare me, so I kicked him, which caught him off guard, and ran. I didn't even have time to grab anything, I just ran."
Xavier brought his hand up to wipe a stray tear away from her cheek. She didn't even realize her tears were beginning to fall. "I ended up at some park and I remember calling Maddie, sobbing. I don't even think she understood a word I said because I was such a mess. Thankfully, she had my location on her phone, so she found me pretty quickly.
"When we got to her apartment, I completely broke down and told her everything. Lucas was there too— I think he was on the phone with Liam, who then called Connor.
"And, yeah. I would like to say that I'm okay now, but I realize that I still keep that hurt buried deep inside of me. I know it really isn't healthy because the smallest things end up triggering that downward spiral of negativity. Kind of like what happened on Saturday."
When she finished, she let out a breath of relief. It was silent as she nervously looked at Xavier, trying to read the expression on his face. He was usually good at masking his expressions, but there was no doubt he was angry.
"I'm going to fucking end him," he finally muttered, murderously. "What's his full name? Actually, don't answer that— I will find him. I'm going to end his career and make sure everything is stripped away from him. Then I'll beat him to a pulp and bury his body alive."
Aurora's eyes widened at his threat. His fists were clenched and she gently pried them open. Now, it was her rubbing circles on his hand in an attempt to calm him down. "Hey, I'm okay now."
He gave her a look, as if telling her he didn't really believe her.
"Really," she promised. "I already feel so much better letting it all out. And besides, Connor, Liam, and Lucas beat him to a pulp the day after. I think he walks with a permanent limp now."
Xavier snorted. "Bastard got what he deserved. But if it was me, he would be buried 6 feet under. How dare he treat you that way? A real man knows how to treat their woman right. You didn't deserve any of that—hell, no woman deserves to be treated like that.
"You're amazing, talented, beautiful, and such an incredible woman— I can go on and on. Everything he said to you was and still is invalid. Ask anyone, because I know they will agree with me. You deserve to be treated like a queen and I fully intend to show you, sweetheart."
Aurora felt her tears begin to run down her face as she attempted to brush them away with the back of her hands. She wasn't sure why she was crying, but was completely touched with his words. How did he know exactly what she needed to hear?
"Is that a promise?" she sniffed, looking at him with dewy eyes.
He nodded, planting a short, but sweet kiss on her lips. "I'll show you how a woman should be loved and cherished."
She leaned over, placing longer kiss on his lips, one that was full of passion and adoration. As she pulled back, she lingered on them a little longer, whispering, "Thank you."
"What for? I haven't done anything for you."
She shook her head. "You've done everything right. Those words were just what I needed to hear, so thank you."
"I'll continue saying them, so you will never forget," he added, causing her to melt further into his embrace.
She gave him a small smile as she sighed in content.
"Assholes still should've invited me along to beat his ass to a pulp," he muttered, feigning annoyance with his friends.
She wiggled her way closer to Xavier. "Maybe we would've met sooner."
He wrapped his arm around her and rested his chin on top of her head.
"Maybe."
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Hello my loves~ So this is a long one! Originally there was more to this chapter, but it ended up being over 3000 words, so I actually split this chapter up. So I promise in the next chapter, it will be more lighthearted. Also, the dialogue might seem weird being split up, so, I would first like to apologize. But I know, as a reader myself, how frustrating (I'm not sure if frustrating is the right word, but yall get what I mean) it is when you come across just a long ass paragraph. So I tried to split up the dialogue into separate paragraphs and I actually researched the correct way to split long dialogues up. Hopefully it's a bit easier to read that way.
But holy shit. HOLY SHIT. Yall, I literally went from 500 reads to almost 3000 reads since Friday!! How??? Why???? What???? How is this even possible??? I honestly have no fucking idea what I did differently, but words cannot even explain how surprised and happy I am that you're giving my story a chance. Honestly, I never even expected this. I was even actually ranked on the Romance tag!!! Like how????
I really really hope you are enjoying this story so far. Thank you for voting and adding my story to your reading list. I'm not sure if I missed anyone, but if I did, thank you so much! I really appreciate it and please look forward to the next chapter~ Sending you all lots of love and remember to stay safe <3