CHAPTER2

LONDON's POV

Finally free from my abusive ex. Darn, living with Oliver was like staying with the devil. He beat me the last time till I was an inch of my life. 

At twenty-one, I met Oliver when I was eighteen and I had just moved to Sunny Bay. He was my first boyfriend, first-ever kiss, first sex experience, fuck, he is the only man I have ever known. 

But he became toxic the moment I moved in with him which was four months later. Oliver is a monster, and I am grateful to finally leave him. 

He wouldn't accept the fact that I left him, he comes to my new place haunting me, asking me to come back, but I have nothing to do with him anymore. 

One hundred thousand, that was what he had asked me to pay him in return for taking care of me through my three years course in College. 

He hadn't let me work, thus, saving was tough. 

The first person I called was my big brother, Micah, I had lied to him though, I told him it was my school loan I was paying back and I wanted to come back to Lake Side. 

It was partly true, I hadn't seen him since he came to visit, we don't talk much, but he is my big brother and he helped me leave my ex. 

As I walk back from work, grateful to have gotten a shift at a restaurant, I take the stairs to my apartment, my building isn't big, and the elevator is broken. 

Tired and sweating, I don't see the man glued to my door until he comes out of the shadows, I am started at first before I figure out who it is. 

"What are you doing here?" I ask, my voice a bare shiver, but I try to control it. 

I still have a bruise below my right eye where Oliver had beaten me two weeks ago, that had been the last straw, I knew I had to leave him or he would kill me. I had been hospitalized for a few days before calling on Micah to lie. 

I feel bad about lying to my only family, but I don't feel bad for leaving my abusive partner. 

"Baby, London, I want you back, fuck, I have been an asshole," he says stepping towards my personal space. 

I shake my head, knowing that I have to stay calm at all costs. I remove the key from my pocket, sidestepping him. 

"Stay away from me, I gave you the money you requested of me, now, leave or I will call the cops for harassment," I warn putting the key into the keyhole. 

A sharp pain tears through my forehead as I try to understand what just happened, I open my mouth on a strangled cry, feeling the hot liquid trickling through my head. 

Oliver had just slammed my head into the door. It hurts. 

"You bitch, no one dumps my ass, I do," he shouts as he grabs me by the neck, quickly opening the door of my one-bedroom apartment and pushing me inside. 

"Stop, please you are hurting me," I beg as he closes the door and slams my back behind the hard wall, I gasp, pain flashing through my eyes. 

Oliver is six years older than me, with brown tanned hair, a thin line for a mouth, and a sharp nose with a bump on it. It might have been broken a time ago. 

His blue eyes bore into mine, he stares at me with outer disgust, applying pressure with his hand on my neck, making me know he has complete control over me. 

"That is it, beg for mercy you silly cunt, isn't that what you know best?" he shouts in my face. 

"You are hurting me," I cry out throwing weak punches and barely touching him. 

When I lift my knee, it kicks him shyly in the balls enough to make him cuss. I make it into the room but he strips me with his foot making me fall. 

I am a petite lady, a shy 5'1m and just thick in the right places, thus, why I feel my weight crashing to the ground, hitting my bleeding forehead into the ground, and my entire face is on fire. The next second, Oliver is pouncing on me, throwing punch after punch. 

"You don't run away from me, London, I own you, you belong to me, and I don't care whether you think you have paid all your debts to me or not, you are mine," he blurts out to my face. 

I groan in pain, opening my mouth but only a spiteful bloody liquid gushes out. 

My face looks battered, tears now pooling without my permission. 

Yet, when I speak, I don't beg, I am tired of being the weak little blonde head girl that anyone can bully, if I am to die, it should be now, Oliver can as well kill me. 

"Go fuck yourself, asshole," I babble, my words slurring.

I see the anger fill Oliver's red face, I watch him lift his palm and drive it into my face. 

I remember knocking my head into the hardwood floor of my apartment and zoning out. 

At least now, I don't feel the pain, I just think, I think about me, about Micah, how we were kids playing. He has always been the protective big brother, yet, he was two years older than me. 

We played together and fought like siblings would until I was seventeen and Micah was nineteen when our parents had a road accident and died. 

I moved out of Lake Side that Fall because I wanted to be as far away from home, from the memories that hugged it and tormented me. 

Micah hadn't gone to college because he was working, and he had sent me to school, wanting the best for me. 

Well, he would be ashamed of me if he knew I misused the money he gave me. I sought Oliver as a companion, but what did I get in the end? Pain. 

I reminisce sweet memories until my mind goes blank but not before I hear voices in my room, men talking and I am lifted from the ground. I want to shout, maybe it is Oliver who wants to take me back to his house, I need to scream, but I am too weak, and then, darkness clouds me.