I sat on the ground, tears streaming down my face like a broken tap. My phone wasn't the only broken and damaged thing on the ground; I was too.

I sobbed hopelessly in my hands. I lost everything, everything. My diamond necklace that my dear grandfather gave to me was stolen...but that wasn't the only thing that got stolen; my innocence was gone, taken away from a low life scum.

After he got what he wanted from me he ran off. I was left in the same alley alone with a torn dress exposing me. I didn't know what to do, all I could do was cry and cry thinking of what happened to me over and over again.

I heard footsteps approach nearby and I stilled. Maybe I had help.

"Victoria?!" I heard a familiar voice say frantically.

"Oh my god! Nate?" I said in between sobs. I could see his tall frame and recognised his voice.

He bent down and and looked at me with relief which soon turned into a look of worry after he seen me.

He held my hand and lifted me up. "What happened?" He asked, sounding panicked.

I just shook my head and felt more tears fall down my face.

He took of his jacket and wrapped it around me, thankfully his jacket was long and covered me up.

"Victoria, what happened?" He said softly and placed both of his hands on my face.

"I...I got r-r-raped." I stuttered. I felt disgusted to even say it.

His eyes widened. "What?" He said, shocked.

"Oh my god....Victoria I..." He trailed off and pulled me in his arms.

Relief filled my whole body when he hugged me; that was when I realised that I was finally safe, even though the damage was done already.

I clung onto him like he was my life support. I was scared and alone but now that he was here I felt safe.

I sobbed even harder. "Nate...I was so scared. I tried to break free. I tried..."

"Shhh, it's okay I'm here now, my angel. I'm here." He whispered soothingly and kissed my head.

I gripped his shirt tightly, as if I let go he'd disappear.

"Nate I lost it, he stole it from me. He stole it." I sobbed into his chest.

"What did he steal?" Nate asked gently, still holding me.

"Everything." I whispered.

Back to present day.

Gerald stared at me wide eyed, his mouth slightly agape.

There it was, the most important thing I've hidden from him; my dirty little secret was out.

I wiped the few tears that slipped through and forced a smile. "There you go, my dirty little secret that I'm too ashamed to tell to anyone."

"Why? Why didn't you tell me?"

I chuckled humourlessly. "Gerald, I was ashamed. I had gotten raped, I was disgusted at my own self. How would you have reacted if you found out? You'd probably never wanna look at me again. I was dirty. My virginity was taken away from me by a disgusting, poor excuse of a human being. I'm tainted."

"Really that's what you thought I would've done? Then that's insane because you know what I would've really done?" He asked, his tone sounding a little angry.

I shook my head.

"This." He said and wrapped his arms around me tightly.

"I would've comforted you and given you all the love that you deserve, because only a psychotic bastard would do the opposite." He said and kissed the side of my head.

"I was ashamed Gerald; I still am but things got too complicated and I couldn't keep it a secret from you anymore." I said softly.

He let go of me and cupped my cheek. "Victoria, you have nothing to be ashamed of, what happened wasn't in your will. You're not tainted, you're just a teenage girl who's been through a lot of shit from a young age."

I forced a smile. "Thank you for understanding."

He kissed my forehead in response.

"What happened after?" He asked me cautiously, as if I'd break if I talked more about it.

"Well my brother was furious when he found out, he wanted to track down whoever did this to me and kill him. But he was mostly mad at Nate, he blamed him for everything that happened, saying that if I weren't out on the streets for a date with him none of this would've happened, but I of course know for a fact that it's not his fault."

"After that I pushed everyone away, including Nate. I was depressed and deserted myself in my room. I pushed everyone away and because of that, and the constant fighting, my brother and I grew distant. I pushed Nate away but he kept on trying to get through to me and help with my depression, I got frustrated and insisted that we move back to California." I explained.

"And you were still depressed when you came back and that's why you pushed me away..." He said, guilt evident on his face.

I nodded. "The only person I fully opened up to was Ashley and slowly she helped get out of my depression. My brother insisted that I see a professional but I refused, Ashley was my best friend so naturally she understood me and convinced Michael that I didn't need a professional to help me."

"Wow. You've been through so much and I was never there for you, instead I was been a dick about you pushing me away. I questioned you about your virginity..." He trailed off, regret swimming in his brown orbs.

I held his hand a gave it a assuring squeeze. "It's not your fault at all. I was the one who hid that part of my life away from you. So it's my fault, no one else's."

"I just wished I had been there for you when you needed me the most." He whispered.

Gerald was there for me even though he didn't know it. He was always there to make me laugh, make me happy and make me forget. Even when I felt I needed comfort I'd just spend a few minutes with him and feel better already.

"Trust me even though you didn't know it you were still there for me." I said.

He smiled in response but it didn't reach his eyes.

"So we're good?" I asked.

He frowned. "What?"

"You no more mad at me? We're back to normal?" I asked hopefully.

"Of course we are." He said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Good." I grinned and leaned my head into his shoulder. He kissed the top of my head, making my heart flutter. I just ignored the feeling.

My eyelids were heavy and I could feel myself dozing off until...

"Victoria?" Gerald said and woke me up from my almost asleep state.

"Hmmm?" I mumbled.

"You and Nate....do you still love him?" He asked awkwardly. I lifted my neck from his shoulder, now fully awake at his question.

"We're just friends, Gerald." I replied firmly, not wanting to have this talk.

"That still doesn't answer my question."

I sighed. "I don't know anything about feelings and I think you of all people should know that. So I'm just really not going to think about this and make things awkward." I said truthfully.

I might have still felt something for Nate but I felt something for Gerald too. It's all so fucking confusing.

"Okay." He said, not pressing the subject any further and I was grateful for that.

I yawned, feeling extremely tired. My eyelids were heavy and I just wanted to sleep.

Gerald chuckled. "Someone is tired."

"You have no idea." I said and yawned again.

"Come here." He pulled me towards his chest and wrapped his arms around my waist.

I closed my eyes, the smell of cologne filling my nostrils, and welcomed sleep.

Gerald's POV

I pulled her closer to me and stroked her soft, brown hair. I could feel the rhythm of her heartbeat against my own heart, making my own heartbeat a little erratic.

My whole body felt like it was on fire with the feel of her on me. God, why does she have to do this to me?

I felt jealousy run through me as I thought about her and Nate. Now that I knew the whole story I finally figured out why he looked at her like that, why he cared so much because he loved her. He loved my Victoria. I couldn't help the anger and jealousy that rose in me at that thought.

I never imagined another guy wanting to win the heart of the girl I loved, but unfortunately there was and I seemed to be losing her to him.

I could see the affection and love for him in her eyes when she spoke about their times together. 

I looked down at her sleeping face, she looked so untroubled when she was asleep unlike her usual self who looked like she had a billion problems.

I stroked her cheek gently. I couldn't believe that my beautiful Victoria had been through so much when she was a tender age of only 15. I felt felt anger fill me up when I thought about that. I wanted to find the fucker who raped her and rip each limb in his body apart and give him the most slowest, painful death ever.

I ran a hand through my hair in frustration and shook my very violent thoughts away.

I hugged her body tighter and kissed the top of her head even though she was asleep and didn't know. I left my lips to linger in her hair; enjoying the feeling of touching her.

"I love you so much Victoria Aldaine." I whispered into her hair which smelled like coconuts.

"If only you felt the same for me...but I guess your heart lies with Nate, whether you know it or not, but I can see that you still love him."  And honestly it hurts, it hurts like a bitch to see the love she has for another reflect in her beautiful green eye.

How I wish she would look at me like that...but I will never stop loving her, no matter what. I fucked up once and ended up hurting her but I'm not going to make that mistake again; she doesn't deserve anymore pain.

But maybe, just maybe there was a chance that she had some sort of feelings towards me. Maybe even a little...

I rested my chin on top of her head and felt sleep make its way onto me too.

****

"Shhh we don't wanna wake them up." I distantly heard an unfamiliar voice murmur.

"But I can't help it, you're so irresistible." This time a familiar voice said.

I could hear faint moans and what I'm pretty sure was kisses.

My eyes shot open by the noises that had broken my sleep.

I looked at my surroundings and everything was normal. The sun wasn't out yet and Victoria was still in my arms probably asleep.

Maybe I was imagining the noises. I thought when I didn't hear anything else again until I heard the sound of glass breaking.

What the fuck?! Panic was starting to fill me up.

I looked at the time of my watch and seen that it was only 1 am. Possible that there's a thief...

I was about to go and check what was wrong until I realised that I couldn't leave Victoria alone so I gently shook her awake.

"Hey wake up." She stirred a little and then opened her eyes.

"Why the fuck did you wake me up?" She said irritably with a glare.

"Just come with me." I grabbed her hand and dragged her up. She still looked annoyed but she followed anyway.

I walked into the kitchen where the sounds seemed to have been coming from.

I walked in the kitchen and found the light still turned off. I flipped the switch on and nearly threw up all the food contents in my stomach at the sight before me.

My dad had a woman sitting on the kitchen counter with her legs wrapped around him while he seemed to be kissing her whole body until I interrupted.

"What the fucking hell is going on?" I yelled at the both of them. My dad seemed embarrassed while the woman looked shocked, probably because I caught them.

Who the fuck was she? Did he just bring her here as a fucking one night stand? The last thought made me wanna throw up.

"Gerald, I-I thought you were asleep." He said looking guilty.

"Who the fuck is this?" I said and glared at the woman, who had blonde hair which was tied up in a bun, she had a plumpish face and looked to be around her early forties.

Ever since my mother died I had never seen my dad with a woman in any way so you could understand how pissed off I was when I seen another woman with my father.

He didn't answer instead he shamelessly looked down.

I was getting angrier and angrier as each minute passed.

"I said who the fuck is she?!" I said through gritted teeth.

"Her name is Marian and she's my fiancé."

Fiancé?! Did he just say fiancé?! No way, no fucking ways. He couldn't have moved on from my mother, he just couldn't.

My mouth was slightly agape and I couldn't hide my shock.

"Fiancé? You're telling me you have another fucking woman?!" I said angrily.

"Yes, but you have to understand-" he started to explain but I cut him off.

"Explain what exactly? That you completely forgot about her and found it so fucking easy to replace her?! Is that what you wanna fucking explain?!"

"Gerald, you can't expect me to be single all my life. I'm a 45 year old man, I get lonely." He said calmly.

I chuckled bitterly. "Oh so am I just invisible in this house? Or is it a female's company that you yearn for?"

He was about to respond until the blonde bitch who was supposedly his fiancé spoke.

"Anton, just leave him; he needs time to adjust to having a new mother."

If I was angry earlier on it was nothing compared to now. New mother? New fucking mother?! There was only one woman in my life who could ever be my mother and she has unfortunately left.

"New mother?! Who the fuck do you think you are to call yourself my mother?! You're nothing to me, just my father's who-" I was cut off by a feminine hand which covered my mouth.

"Gerald calm down, you don't wanna complete that because you might just regret it later on." Victoria said softly, her green eyes sparkling with concern.

I removed her hand from my mouth and stormed away, feeling even more angry that Victoria had taken their side instead of mine; I mean couldn't she see between right and wrong?

"Gerald, wait." I heard her call after me but I ignored her and proceeded upstairs.

"Ugh." I heard her groan and could picture her rolling her eyes.

I was about to turn the knob on my room door until I felt her soft hand touch my wrist stopping me. I ignored the tingles that shot up my arm at her touch.

"Stop being so touchy and just listen to me." She said.

"Wow 'cause you're so great at giving advice and life lessons." I said sarcastically.

Hurt flickered in her eyes and a wave of guilt hit me. I always speak without thinking and fuck up. I seriously need to control my anger issues.

"I didn't mean that Victoria, I'm just so fucking pissed at my dad and you know when I'm angry I tend to be a jerk." I told her softly.

"I know, it's okay." She smiled but it didn't reach her eyes and I felt even more guilty. I'm such a fucking idiot.

"And as for what I said earlier on, I know your dad an-" I placed my index finger in front of her lips to cut her off.

"Victoria, please I really don't wanna talk about this. I'm just going to get even more angry and I might do or say something I'll later regret." I said not wanting to hurt her again.

"Exactly and that's why I stopped you from completing your sentence." She said.

"I know." I cupped her cheek. I could feel myself losing all the anger from earlier at just the mere touch of her skin on mine.

"You and your anger issues." She rolled her eyes at me.

I moved my hand from her cheek and held her hand. "Come on let's go inside, I'm tired of standing." She nodded in response.

After I walked into my room I let go of her hand and plopped down onto my bed.

"I really just wanna sleep." I ran a hand down my face tiredly and let out a yawn.

"Then go to sleep, no one is stopping you." Victoria said and rolled her eyes at me.

"Aren't you going to come back to sleep?" I raised my brows in question. She was still standing by the door of my room which was shut closed.

Oh wait, maybe she's uncomfortable with sleeping here? She never was before though...

"I need to go home." She said.

Was she crazy to think I'd send her home alone at this part of the night?

"Hell no."

She raised her brow at me. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means you're not going home until the sun is out." I smirked.

She scowled at me. "Fine."

I grinned. "That's a good girl."

She just glared at me in reply.

"So aren't you coming to sleep?" I asked her.

"Or do you want to sleep in another room?" I added quickly not wanting to make things awkward.

She shook her head. "Nah I'm fine here."

I wanted to make a humorous sexual remark just to tease her but I refrained.

After she got on the bed I pulled her in my arms and we both fell asleep.

_____

A/N
I am seriously not happy with this chapter but I hope it wasn't as crappy as I think.

Sorry if it was a bit short but it's because it's been split in two from the previous chapter.

Lots of love,
Me.