Chapter 52

Chapter Fifty Two

Third Person POV.

Amber almost couldn’t believe her ears. The last thing she was expecting Richard to tell her was Kayden being his high school bully, and it surprised her because she didn’t think he was someone who would let himself get bullied.

“That sick bastard bullied you? And he was going to kill you? What the actual hell!” Amber blurted out struggling to understand how she had managed to stay married to such a person and being so blind that she never realized that she had married the devil himself.

“I actually hate talking about this because it’s so embarrassing, but yes, Kayden Black bullied me for a few good years,” he repeated, and Amber could tell by his tone that he was very embarrassed.

“You may find this hard to believe, but I used to be much bigger than this in high school, so I was known as the fat kid who got pushed around a lot. To top it off, I had a very strong Italian accent mostly throughout high school, so I was termed the ‘fat Italian kid“,” Richard stated.

“Before my family and the Black family fell out, they used to be quite good friends, and after I got back from Italy and finally settled here, my parents decided to introduce Kayden and me, thinking Kayden would be like a big brother to me and guide me through school. Instead, he became my worst nightmare. He beat me, cut me, forced me to eat till I ended up throwing up, made me run errands, and basically, everything horrible you can expect from a bully,” he continued.

The last thing he wanted to do was cry in front of Amber, so he forced down the tears that threatened

to fall.

Amber noticed the struggle in Richard’s voice as he spoke, and for some reason, she felt her heart hurt hearing his voice break like that. She had never seen Richard look so vulnerable, and she didn’t need to be told that whatever Kayden did to him had left him traumatized.

“Remember the tattoos you saw the day you barged into my room?” Richard asked.

“Yes, I remember, Richard. What about them?” she replied.

quite a few of them. I got tired of

“A lot of my tattoos are to cover up my scars since I hav people, women specifically, asking me why I had so many scars, so stop the questions; I got as many

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Amber gasped. The tattoos she remembered seeing were very well over ten, and she remembered wondering

why he had so many of them. She had thought they were beautiful, but knowing now that he had sca

behind them made her want to hug him. But she didn’t, instead, she asked a question she hoped wou

not be too much for him to answer.

“Can you tell me exactly what Kayden did to you? Just how much did he hurt you? When did all this

happen? How old were you?” she asked.

Richard looked up to meet Amber’s eyes, and when he saw the look on her face, he shuddered.

She pitied him, and he hated it.

“Please, don’t look at me like that, Amber,” he pleaded, desperately hoping she would stop staring at

him like he was some pitiful child in need of help.

He had spent years watching the people around him, especially his parents and his siblings, look at

him like he was pitiful. He had gone from therapist to therapist, and they had all looked at him the

same way: with pity.

“How am I looking at you, Richard?”

“You pity me. I hate that,” he replied.

Amber sighed. “Do you think I’m in any place to pity anyone, Richard? I don’t pity you, Richard. Instead, I understand you. Kayden is a sick man, and realizing just how much pain he has caused

someone else besides me makes me so mad that I want to kill him. I’m looking at you this way because

I finally understand you, Richard. I used to be so confused as to why you seemed to hate Kayden so much, but now I understand why, and just like you know everything about me and what he did to me,

want to know about what he did to you too.”

“You don’t have to know everything, Amber. I’m not what’s important here; you are. I’m only telling

you

this because I don’t want you to think that I’m cruel enough to be an accomplice to someone like him. I may not be the kindest person, but I’m no murderer, Amber, Richard said, wanting to clarify

what she had said to him back at the restaurant.

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Chapter Fifty Two

Third Person POV.

Amber almost couldn’t believe her ears. The last thing she was expecting Richard to tell her was Kayden being his high school bully, and it surprised her because she didn’t think he was someone who

would let himself get bullied.

“That sick bastard bullied you? And he was going to kill you? What the actual hell!” Amber blurted out struggling to understand how she had managed to stay married to such a person and being so blind

that she never realized that she had married the devil himself.

“I actually hate talking about this because it’s so embarrassing, but yes, Kayden Black bullied me for a few good years,” he repeated, and Amber could tell by his tone that he was very embarrassed.

“You may find this hard to believe, but I used to be much bigger than this in high school, so I was

known as the fat kid who got pushed around a lot. To top it off, I had a very strong Italian accent

mostly throughout high school, so I was termed the ‘fat Italian kid,” Richard stated.

“Before my family and the Black family fell out, they used to be quite good friends, and after I got

back from Italy and finally settled here, my parents decided to introduce Kayden and me, thinking

Kayden would be like a big brother to me and guide me through school. Instead, he became my worst

nightmare. He beat me, cut me, forced me to eat till I ended up throwing up, made me run errands, and

basically, everything horrible you can expect from a bully,” he continued.

The last thing he wanted to do was cry in front of Amber, so he forced down the tears that threatened

to fall.

Amber noticed the struggle in Richard’s voice as he spoke, and for some reason, she felt her heart

hurt hearing his voice break like that. She had never seen Richard look so vulnerable, and she didn’t

need to be told that whatever Kayden did to him had left him traumatized.

“Remember the tattoos you saw the day you barged into my room?” Richard asked.

“Yes, I remember, Richard. What about them?” she replied.

“A lot of my tattoos are to cover up my scars since I have quite a few of them. I got tired of people, women specifically, asking me why I had so many scars, so stop the questions; I got as many

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Amber gasped. The tattoos she remembered seeing were very well over ten, and she remembered wondering

why he had so many of them. She had thought they were beautiful, but knowing now that he had scal behind them made her want to hug him. But she didn’t; instead, she asked a question she hoped woul

not be too much for him to answer.

“Can you tell me exactly what Kayden did to you? Just how much did he hurt you? When did all this

happen? How old were you?” she asked.

Richard looked up to meet Amber’s eyes, and when he saw the look on her face, he shuddered.

She pitied him, and he hated it

“Please, don’t look at me like that, Amber,” he pleaded, desperately hoping she would stop staring at

him like he was some pitiful child in need of help.

He had spent years watching the people around him, especially his parents and his siblings, look at him like he was pitiful. He had gone from therapist to therapist, and they had all looked at him the

same way: with pity.

“How am I looking at you, Richard?”

“You pity me. I hate that,” he replied.

Amber sighed. “Do you think I’m in any place to pity anyone, Richard? I don’t pity you, Richard.

Instead, I understand you. Kayden is a sick man, and realizing just how much pain he has caused

someone else besides me makes me so mad that I want to kill him. I’m looking at you this way because

I finally understand you, Richard. I used to be so confused as to why you seemed to hate Kayden so

much, but now I understand why, and just like you know everything about me and what he did to me,

want to know about what he did to you too.”

“You don’t have to know everything, Amber. I’m not what’s important here; you are. I’m only telling you this because I don’t want you to think that I’m cruel enough to be an accomplice to someone like

him. I may not be the kindest person, but I’m no murderer, Amber, Richard said, wanting to clarify

what she had said to him back at the restaurant.

“I know, Richard. I know. To be honest, I was just emotional when I said that yesterday, but I didn’t

really mean it. Of course, I know you didn’t kill my mom, and I also know you didn’t say anything to me because you thought I wouldn’t be able to handle it. So believe me, Richard, I’ve never genuinely thought you were anything like him,” Amber assured him.

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Richard let out a sigh of relief, grateful that she didn’t think of him as someone like that. “Thank you, Amber. I mean it. Thank you. You have no idea how much it bothered me that you thought of me like that”

Amber chuckled briefly. “Now, will you tell me your story, Richard? Can you finally just trust me enough as your partner and as your wife and lay it all on the table?” she asked.

Richard sighed. “Can I really trust you, Amber? Even after all of this is over and we don’t need each other again, can I trust you enough to keep this to yourself?”

Amber stood up from where she sat opposite him and took a seat beside him before placing her arm gently on his shoulder. “What do you think, Romero?”

Richard chuckled. “Alright, Amber, I’ll trust you,” he replied. “But if I somehow end up tearing up, don’t laugh at me.”

Amber rolled her eyes. “Instead, I’ll cry with you. We both have a lot to cry about anyway.””

“So tell me, Richard. What did Kayden do to you?” Amber asked.

Richard let out a shaky breath before proceeding to pull off his shirt, an act that took Amber by

surprise, but she managed to mask her surprise.

When he pulled off his shirt, she came face–to–face with tattoos, this time on a much closer scale.

“Look at as much as you want to. If you look close enough, you’ll see what he did,” Richard told her,

and her palm became slightly shaky as she prepared to see what lay underneath Richard’s facade.

She took a look at the smaller tattoos on his chest, looking at them closer to see what he was

talking about. It took her a while to see it, and when she did, she felt her heart drop to the pit of

her stomach.

Burns. He was burned.

“Please tell me it’s not what I think it is,” she pleaded, hoping the tattoos were simply messing

with her eyes and making her see things.

“What do you think it is?” Richard asked.

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U.UKİ Nayueli Dur you: ANTIDEI Stullered ds slie ØREU.

“You have a good eye. Amber. I didn’t actually think you’d guess correctly,” Richard responded.

confirming to Amber that she was right.

Amber suddenly felt the urge to vomit. Her rage made her feel so nauseous that she thought she’d

vomit any time soon.

“How could he do this to you? How old were you when it happened?” she asked.

“It started a few months after I moved back to the States. I was 11 then, and he was 13. He had this

habit of cutting things, so it started with the small cuts, and as we grew older, he started to burn

drunk, but nob*dy believed me,” he explained.

“After the accident, Kayden and his friends forced me to drink alcohol to the point of passing out,

so my words weren’t taken seriously since I was confirmed as a drunk. I don’t know how his parents

did it, but after that, the accident was never mentioned again. They buried it, and since I didn’t do

as Kayden had asked, he was pissed. Over the next few months and years, he used irons, cigarettes.

and anything he could find to burn me and make me pay for wanting to send him to jail,” he added.

Amber didn’t know what to say. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“Oh, he’s going to pay, Richard. Oh, he will pay,” she muttered.

“Now, to the only tattoo that doesn’t have a physical scar behind it. You asked me to tell you

everything, so here goes nothing.” Richard said, and Amber furrowed her brows in confusion.

“Which one then doesn’t have a scar?”

“The pretty face on my chest,” Richard replied, pointing at the tattoo of a girl that he had directly

on his heart.

“Who is she?” Amber asked.

Richard shut his eyes for

of him.

a few long seconds, already sensing that his emotions would soon burst out

“That’s my late little sister, Giorgia Romero.”

ROGER