The Missing Piece Book One

17. The Truth Will Set You Free (THE BIG One Seven)

"Good morning"
"Good morning beautiful" Stephan said brushing Danesha's hair from her face as they spoke, Stephan spent the night since he took the day off to be with her.
Things had been a bit weird since they went to see his father, he knew the story partially but he didn't know about her parents or what happened to them, he felt like he could never know her completely unless he found out about that part of her life. Danesha snuggled into his chest, listening to his heart beat a familiar sound to her now, Stephan could see how happy she was but he needed to know her completely he kept nothing from her and he felt she could tell him anything.
"Babe we need to talk"
Danesha glanced up at him one eye open since the other was on his chest, then sat up,
"You want to break up?"
Stephan chuckled "No I don't, I love you" ,

"Sooooo...what's the matter" he could tell this was going to go bad from the perplexed look on her face, he sighed,

"I want you to tell me about your parents" he paused trying to read her face to see if it was alright to continue, her expression was blank but he continued "Everything".
Danesha sat still staring at him like an alien came down and ate half of his face "Do you love me?" she asked,
"Yes I do, I love you so much, just let me in" She paused weighting the pros and cons of telling him her bullshit life, but her love for him outweighed all the cons,
"Okay"
"Okay? You'll tell me?"
"Yes and if you decide to stay after, you must love me" she said with a broad smile, she took a deep breath and her smile disappeared,
"As I told before my mother and father and father met at a mutual friend's wedding, my mother was drunk since she was an alcoholic" Derek nodded silently as she spoke, "and my father fell in love with how care free she was, they had sex in the backseat of his car and that's how I came about" she paused and looked up to see him listening carefully to every word, "My mother stopped drinking because of me, she was sober for four years after I was born, but quickly got back into her habit, the three of us lived together, and most days she was drunk, I remember one day when I was about ten the rain was pouring and they left me at school for hours" she shook her head in recollection, "as I got older her drinking got worse while my father just added fuel to the fire since he was cheating on her, they weren't married but they were still together, around high school when I met Vanessa she made life worth living, I got tired of going home to find my mother drunk sprawled across the floor" she paused feeling the tears forming, "One night after a football match at school, Vanessa and I heard some screams and ran to help, when we got there we found him raping a girl, I didn't know what to do that was my father raping a girl my age, they didn't see us but we saw everything and we didn't report it, a few weeks later he and his brother tried to do the same to me but Vanessa and some friends were coming over and they stopped them" her heart ached as she relived those horrible events, her salty tears staining her face "He was sent to prison for his crimes and my mother went into rehab leaving me without a family, the Nichols took me in, and I've never seen my parents since" Danesha ended and Stephan pulled her into his arms, her face buried in his chest, Stephan couldn't help but think about the pain she'd been through, and why she kept it locked away,
"I love you, and I'll never hurt you".

A/N: S/O to @Eat_It_Rightt (Twitter) for naming this chapter "The BIG One Seven" when I couldn't think of a name.

Thanks for reading guys :).