"Five," Nick says quietly. "You were five." Demi nods silently. "How often does he—does he do this?"
"Every day," Demi answers. Her tears have subsided, but she's still clinging onto Nick. "Sometimes twice a day. More, if I'm bad." She buries her face into his neck more, and when she continues to talk, Nick and Joe can barely hear her. "He makes me say that I like it. If I don't, he hurts me worse. But if I do, he still hurts me."
"Oh, Demi," Nick breathes.
"When I was nine," Demi goes on, "he brought friends over, and I had sex with them too."
"No," Nick says forcefully. "You didn't have sex, Demi. You were raped. There's a big difference."
Demi lets out a small sob but quickly gets her tears under control. "That night, after—after his friends were gone, he crawled into bed with me. I was already broken by that point and I didn't—I didn't want him to hurt me again, so I started to hit him and kick him and scratch him. I started to scream, so he—he put his hand over my mouth so I couldn't even breathe." She squeezes her eyes shut. "I bit him, and—and he called me a bitch, t-turning me over so th—that my back was to him. He—he took me from behind," she continues, letting another sob escape from her mouth. "It hurt so bad, Nick. I couldn't even get up the next day. But that didn't stop him from hurting me again."
Nick looks over at Joe and his face conveys exactly what Nick is feeling: pure disgust.
"A—a couple of years ago," Demi goes on, her tears subsiding again, "when—when I was fifteen, he decided that I was old enough to handle—to handle two guys...at once."
Nick's face drains of color. "What?" he says quietly.
Demi nods, gripping onto Nick tighter. "That really hurt too," she says, starting to cry again. "I c—I couldn't even w-walk for a month after—after that."
"Your brother didn't do anything to stop it?"
Demi shakes her head. "He didn't know," she says. "My dad would wait until my brother went to sleep to get into bed with me. My brother is a heavy sleeper." She stops for a second. "Was a heavy sleeper. An earthquake could've happened and he'd still be fast asleep. Once my brother—one we got the news that he died, the abuse...it got so bad. He started hitting me and punching me all the time. He'd hurt me before school, and then he'd hurt me as soon as I got home, and then later that night. It was a daily thing. Three times a day. Every day."
Nick swallows, the hatred he feels for her father mounting at everything she says. "When was—when was the last time...he hurt you?" he asks, though he already has a pretty good idea as to the answer to that question.
"Right—right before you came over," Demi tells him. "When you saw me lying on the floor? I stood up to him. I told him he should leave, that I'd be fine if he just left like my mother did, that I'd be fine with no one but me and Bella." At the mention of her puppy's name, she chokes back a sob. "He got so mad. He pushed me down onto the sofa and told me that he'd make me shut up. He turned me over so my back was to him, and he—he took me from behind again."
"Bella?" Nick says. "Where's Bella?"
Demi starts to cry once more. Nick slips his other arm around her, rubbing her back slowly.
"What did he do to her?" Nick whispers.
"Bella...she doesn't..." She stops. "She didn't—she didn't like it when he'd h-hit me. This time—this time she bit him, and—and he didn't like that, so he—he threw her across the room, and she..." She starts to sob, hard, gripping tightly onto Nick's shirt. "She's gone," she finally says, wiping her nose on his hospital gown.
"I'm so sorry," Nick whispers to her, kissing her head softly. She starts to cry again at that and Nick sighs and holds her even tighter, if possible. He waits a second before asking, "How many guys have there been?"
"A lot," Demi answers, her eyes closed. All of that crying has really worn her out. "I stopped counting after thirty."
Nick's hand forms a fist. "That son of a bitch pimped out his own daughter?!" he yells.
Joe puts a hand lightly on his shoulder. "Nick," he says.
Nick looks over at him and lets out his breath. He kisses Demi's head softly again. "Sleep now, okay?"
Demi nods slightly, snuggling into Nick even more. He winces but doesn't say anything about it. Instead, he holds her close to him, as if to protect her from anything and everything that means to do her harm. He looks over at Joe after he's sure that Demi's sound asleep. Nothing but fear and concern for Demi is in his eyes.
"What are we going to do, Joe?" he asks quietly. "Have you told the cops yet?"
Joe shakes his head. "No–" he starts.
"Why the hell not?!" Nick says, interrupting him.
Joe holds up his hands. "Demi didn't want me to," he explains. "She doesn't want to lose you."
Nick frowns in confusion. "Why would she lose me?"
"Because if someone takes her away from her father's house, they're going to put her into foster care, and who knows where she'll end up after that? I know how you feel about her, Nick. You wouldn't be able to handle losing her, either."
Nick swallows a little but nods, knowing Joe's right. "Then what are we going to do?" he asks again. "She is not going back to that house, to that monster. I won't let her." Nick's eyes light up. "Maybe she can stay with me!"
"And what are you going to do if her dad comes looking for her?" Joe retorts. "Protect her, Mom, and yourself?" He shakes his head. "You barely got out of there alive. There's no way you're going to be able to do that again. You could die next time."
"Better me than her," Nick murmurs.
Joe shakes his head again. "How do you think Demi would feel if you died protecting her? Or me, or Mom?"
"Yeah," a voice speaks up from the doorway, "how do you think your mom would feel?"
Nick looks over and his eyes widen. "Mom," he whispers.