"Danny's your ex?" I ask, my tone clipped as my blood begins to boil as thoughts whir around in my mind.
She nods again.
"I need you to tell me everything, darling."
She immediately starts shaking her head, but I hold it still and lean forward, pressing my lips against hers.
"Remember, there's no need for you to be scared. I'm here now, and I've got you. You're safe. I promise, but you need to tell me, Aurora. I know it's probably going to be hard, but I need to know everything so that I know what to expect, and so I can help resolve all of this."
"I don't want you to look at me differently once you know everything," she cries.
"You don't ever have to worry about that. No matter what happened, and what you went through, my opinion of you will not change. I know that you're sweet, loving, caring, strong, and brave, and anything that you tell me will only confirm everything I already know."
She sighs, closes her eyes and rests her head against my shoulder.
"I don't deserve you," she mutters.
"Yes you do, darling. You are deserving of everything good in this world."
After a few moments of sitting in silence, holding each other, she finally breaks away from me, taking a deep breath as if she's readying herself to tell her story.
She moves to sit beside me, both of our backs against the headboard, and she reaches for my hand, intertwining our fingers together.
"I started dating Danny about five years ago, and at first, it was great. He seemed to be this amazing person, and I wasyoung, and naïve, so I believed everything that I was told at the time. After about a year, he asked me to move in with him at the O'Rourke Estate."
"The O'Rourke Estate?" I ask, bewildered by what I think she's telling me. "As in Killian O'Rourke, the head of the Irish Mafia?"
She nods, her eyes riddled with guilt.
"Danny is his cousin."
Fuck. This could be trouble.
"I was stupid enough to agree, and as soon as I moved in with him, everything about our relationship changed. He became cruel, and controlling. I was constantly walking around on eggshells because everything seemed to piss him off. When I finally got a job at the hospital where I met Chrissie, I thought everything would get better with me not spending as much time at home with him, but it made things worse."
"That was when the physical abuse started?"
"Yeah," she mumbles, her voice so quiet I almost don't hear her. "The first time was because I was home late from work, only by ten minutes, but he was furious as soon as I walked through the door. He punched me multiple times, and it wasn't until I was crying, screaming and begging him to stop that he finally listened. He didn't even apologise afterwards, he just left me crumpled on the floor and went to get a drink."
Her hands tightens around mine as tears trickle down her cheeks, and my jaw clenches as fury burns inside of me.
"I was going to leave that night. I packed a bag and walked out, but before I could figure out my next step, he came rushing out of the house, frantically apologising and begging me not to leave. He said it was a mistake and that the alcohol was the reason for it. Stupidly, Ibelieved him when he said it wouldn't happen again, so I went back inside and pretended like everything was fine."
"But then it happened again, didn't it?"
She nods, more tears spilling down her cheeks as she stares at the wall opposite us with a blank expression on her face.
I wrap my arm around her, pulling her into my side in an attempt to comfort her.
"The next time, the beating was worse, and there was no reason for it at all. He'd learnt from the first time though. He didn't hit me anywhere that he knew would be visible to others."
Tears gather in my eyes as she continues telling me about the abuse she suffered over the years.
When she mentions the time he broke her ribs, the tears fall, and my hand that's not holding hers is fisted so tight that I'm surprised I haven't broken my own fingers.
"The last and final time, before I left, was definitely the worst it's ever been. Chrissie had realised that something was going on, so she invited me out for drinks after work. I shouldn't have agreed to it, but after years of being broken down, physically, mentally, and emotionally, I wanted to have one night where I felt somewhat normal. Plus, Chrissie was married to Nathan at this point. Danny knew her, so I didn't really think I'd get any backlash from it, but when I got home that night, and he was sitting on the bottom of the stairs with an almost empty bottle of whisky in his hand, I knew it was gonna be bad."
A shudder runs through her body, and I hold her tighter, leaning down to press a kiss against the top of her head as my tears dampen her skin and hers soak into my top.
