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“I’m very much troubled by what you said earlier,” I said, guiding both women back into the house.
“I didn’t mean to accuse you,” Layla said. “It’s just that... He just sounded so awful... so scared.”
“What are you two talking about?” Taryn said.
I looked at Layla then at my beautiful wife. I knew her well enough to know that she was going to freak out when I told her. The very thought of anyone touching her precious babies was enough to throw her into a raging fit.
After a moment’s thought, I nodded, giving Layla permission to say what she had to say.
“Axel’s had awful nightmares, crying out that someone stop touching him. He was scared and I’m sure he’s traumatized by something.”
I looked at Taryn’s calm face, but I knew that her emotions were bubbling up inside. Saying nothing, she backed up into the living room and sat down.
“You think that someone abused him?” she said, looking at Layla with troubled eyes. “Someone touched him without his consent?” She shook her head. “What? Like when he was a child?”
“I don’t know,” Layla said, quickly going to sit in the armchair across from Taryn. “It seemed like it. He sounded small and afraid. He sounded like a little boy facing off with a terrifying adult. I could be wrong, but the emotions in his voice were just so strong, so convincing. They were also quite repetitive. Over and over again he begged not to be touched.”
Taryn looked up at me, her eyes imploring me. “Who?” she said, her voice restrained. “Who could have done this to him?”
Chapter 22
Axel
I heard my mother’s voice downstairs and expected her to burst into my room at any moment. Though she was not a woman given to panic and hysteria, I had no doubt that she was concerned when she learned that I’d fallen ill.
But I wondered how I would ever be able to tell her of the hellish nightmares I’d had these past few nights.
Through the fever, I didn’t remember much of anything. I barely remembered the end of the competition, didn’t remember getting home that day and had no recollection of Layla so constantly at my side, nursing me back to health all this time.
The nightmares, however. Those I remembered. I remembered them all too well. Probably because they weren’t just nightmares. They were actual memories from a far, far away time...memories I had repressed because they were so horrible.
But now I remembered. All the sordid details.
How old had I been? Five. It’d begun when I was five and had gone on until I was well past seven years old. I could still remember her face so clearly. She had big blond hair, bright red lips and a huge bosom. Her laugh still haunted me; part giggle, part cackle.
She was a flirtatious and exuberant woman, very touchy feely with everyone, and she’d been particularly fond of me.
