Chapter Twenty-One

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The run was excruciating, but well worth it

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The run was excruciating, but well worth it. The screaming in my muscles helped distract me from the screaming that would most certainly be accompanying my trip to visit my parents.

My mother wasn't like most. She valued family above all else, and once you severed that tie or broke her trust, it was nearly impossible to gain it back, and the thought of having to use every single ounce of energy left in my body to do so was agonizing.

"Hey, how long were you out running for?"

I smiled as Amalia welcomed me at the front door of the rent house, glad that I could spend a little time with her before I had to bite the bullet and go home.

"A few hours. You wanna come with me on my next one?"

She laughed as if what I'd said was the funniest thing she'd ever heard, and it probably was considering the word 'athletic' and Amalia's name were pretty much polar opposites.

I was always the one who'd stand up for her in school if someone was picking on her because of her sexual orientation and received some flack for it on my own as well but it didn't matter to me. I'd beat anyone up who would try to get physical with her.

I knew what it felt like to be a victim, and I didn't want anyone else to feel that way. I excelled in gym class and then joined the cross country team in high school, and the stories of my strength spread around the school and soon no one picked on Amalia ever again.

"So tell me, what is the world ending story that is making you go home? I though you said you never wanted to see your mom's face ever again?"

I cringed as she brought up those words that I'd uttered in the heat of the moment, knowing full and well that they were bullshit the second they'd come out of my mouth but the damage had already been done and my mother was already more hurt than she'd ever been at my hands.

It was my fault that our relationship was so strained, always taking Nate's side over hers even when he was the most toxic person I'd ever been with in my life.

I'd let him manipulate me into isolating myself from my real friends and family and he kept me in his pocket until he needed me.

I was done being someone's punching bag, and most importantly, I was done being the victim.

It was my turn to stand up for the innocents, the ones who didn't deserve what had happened to them.

Sure, Marnie had cheated on Emmett but she was still a human being. She didn't deserve being drugged and taken advantage of by Rafael, and he was going to pay for what he had done to her, and I was the one who was going to make him pay.

Suddenly, I was more than grateful for my mother for once for putting me through rigorous and extensive martial arts classes from elementary school all the way up until high school when I quit for running.

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