My Nell.
My fucking girl.
They snuffed out a light that once blazed. But they didn’t kill it completely. She’s still here. And I’m going to make every single one of them pay for thinking she was theirs to break.
Then she talks about Lea.
Her voice cracks in half and mine does too. I know the stats. I’ve seen the damage firsthand. Girls die in these rings—too many to count. But Lea wasn’t a number to Nell. She wasreal. Young and completely terrified. And Nell watched her go; she was forced to watch it happen. That’s the part that guts me. That’s the part that reaches into the hollow places I didn’t think I had left and rips them open.
She sobs through it, barely holding herself together—but she doesn’t stop. She fights the tears, fights for the words, and keeps going. Because she needs me to hear every inch of it.
And then, quieter than anything, she says, “But I also need to tell you about my uncle. He umm…”
Her voice catches, twists. The words won’t come out clean.
I slide closer, grip her shoulders tighter—not hard, but firm. Grounding her to me.
“Take your time,” I whisper. “There’s no rush.”
“My mum and dad used to take me round to their place when I was younger,” she begins, her voice quiet but steady. “They’d let me stay over, and I’d play with my cousins. It felt normal back then.”
She hesitates, fingers curling into the blanket between us. “But my uncle would always find a way to get me alone. At first, it was innocent, I think. He’d sit me on his lap and ask me to cuddle him. I didn’t mind it. It didn’t feel wrong… not then. But he never did it in front of my cousins. That part always felt off.”
Her breath shudders.
“Until one day he started touching me. And making me touch him.” She buries her face into my chest, voice muffled and trembling. “God, it’s so humiliating just saying it out loud.”
I hold her tighter, my hand steady on her back. “Nell, there’s nothing to be embarrassed about. You can tell me. I’m here.”
She lifts her head slightly, just enough for her voice to break through. “He used to make me touch myself… while he watched. And he’d say if I ever told anyone, he’d deny it. That no one would believe me anyway, because I was just a kid. That I’d get in trouble for lying.”
Her whole body folds inward, like she’s trying to vanish.
But I don’t let her.
She’s not alone anymore.
“He only fully raped me once,” she says quietly, eyes flickering away. “But he… um… said it wasn’t right to take my virginity. So he told me he’d ‘claim’ my body another way. He said my ass was his.”
Her cheeks flush deep red—shame pouring through her even as she speaks with impossible courage. I hear every word, but I can’t let myself react. Not yet. Not externally. Inside, though, I’m burning. Rage simmering beneath my skin, tight across my chest like a steel band threatening to snap.
She swallows hard, her voice cracking. “After that, I told my mum. But she didn’t believe me. Just like he said. She said I must have misunderstood. Or that I was exaggerating and he would never do something like that.”
I see her shrink in on herself, like the memory still takes up too much space. “So, I started drinking. Partying. Whatever I could do to make it stop hurting. And when I was old enough, I got out.”
I don’t speak for a moment. I can’t. Not yet. I just watch her—the way her hands tremble, the way her voice holds steady even as her past rattles between us.
“So your parents never did anything about him?” I ask, voice low, measured.
She shakes her head. No hesitation. Just heartbreak.
This girl—reliant on the people who should have protected her—was abandoned for what? Loyalty to a monster? Convenience? Image?
I clench my jaw so tight it aches. Sick fucks. If they turned their backs on her out of comfort and ignorance, or worse—if they let her bleed so someone else could stay untarnished—they’ll pay, too.
Every last one.
“I’m sorry you had to go through that, Nell.”
