Charlie bit down upon his lip, turning slighting to look at his beautiful girl. She was looking down, her hair falling forwards and hiding her face. Sophie pulled her legs up, curling up to him and wrapping her arms around him. Her petite frame began to tremor as she started to cry. He wasn't sure if he could understand this letter. It was obvious that Sophie's mother had not been a pleasant woman in the slightest and had held a firm hold of control in Sophie's childhood. But, he knew that the words upon the page of the letter held more secrets then he could easily see.
Charlie wrapped his arms around her, rubbing her back and kissing her head. "Shh shh my sweetheart. Please Sophie, come on now." He whispered, rubbing his cheek gently against the soft curls of her golden hair.
"She was a monster!" Sophie cried. "And she still is"
He nodded and pulled back slightly, making her look up at him. He cupped her beautiful face in his hands and wiped the hot tears away with his thumbs. "I need you to explain this to me" He said. "Why didn't she want you to be a writer? Your writing is amazing, couldn't she see that?"
"She..." Sophie wept, her breaths coming out rapidly like that of a fire breathing dragon. "She was a lawyer. And she thought that journalism was for the brain dead. She... She controlled everything about my life, since the moment I was born"
Charlie nodded stroking her hair. "It was all going to be alright. I won't allow her back into your life, she won't control you anymore. I promise" He said, pulling her close so her body rested against his chest. "Come on now sweet girl, calm down please. I hate to see you crying like this". To him, every tear drop felt as if it was pulling a piece of his heart away. He held onto her tightly, as if trying to hold her shaken world together in his arms.
She nodded, her big blue eyes swimming in a salty sea of tears, each drop holding a memory. A memory that she wished she could forget.
...
Once Sophie had fallen asleep, Charlie laid her down and put the covers around her. "Sleep well my darling, don't you worry" He whispered before leaving the room.
"Nana" He said walking into the family room where Claire sat with Lorenzo. "We opened it... And it's awful"
Claire carefully took the crumbled sheet of paper from her grandson's hand, leaning back into the couch as she began to read. Certain lines stuck into her mind like sharp needles, stinging and sending shivers down her spine.
'I blame your horrid father for patching you up the wrong way. I should have been more like me. Squash the rat whilst it's down to keep it down.'
'It is obvious that you were not black and blue enough. I obviously left some areas untouched'
"Oh my goodness" Claire said, bringing her hand up to cover her mouth. "No wonder the poor girl was afraid to open the letter. These words are like venom, striking out to sting and attack Sophie"
Charlie nodded. "Nana" He said. "What can we do? Sophie... She's wonderful. How could anyone talk like this about her? Let alone her own mother?"
Claire sat forward, laying the letter on the table and moving back to stroke Charlie's cheek. "Dear Boy, we may know that Sophie is wonderful and beautiful and perfect, but that is in our eyes. Not everyone see anyone is same way. From the words upon that page, we can see that Sophie's mother wasn't a pleasant woman in any sense of the word. She may have damaged Sophie's childhood in both a mental and physical sense."
Charlie nodded. "Her mother wants back into her life Nana. We can't allow that. She wants to stop Sophie from writing, stopping her dream. She wants and craves control"
Claire bit her lip. "We will give her all the love and the comfort that she obviously did not receive from her mother. That way we can protect her whilst still allowing her to find a way of handling this herself. Where is Sophie now?"
"She is sleeping Nana" Charlie said "I held her until she cried herself to sleep"
"The poor girl" Claire said, leaning back and resting her head on Lorenzo's shoulder. He sat reading the letter carefully, picking out every word to find the truth behind the writing. He sighed, shaking his head. "Awful, just terrible" He said.
"Yes" Charlie sighed. "If only I knew what Sophie's mother did to her"
Lorenzo patted his shoulder. "I believe it is clear that Sophie's mother has hidden what she did to her little girl in these very words. There are many clues" He said.
Charlie's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "What do you mean?" He asked. "Like those words are some sort of code?"
"In a sense, yes, you could say that" Lorenzo sighed. "Look at this".
Charlie moved to sit beside Lorenzo as the older man pointed out lines of the letter.
'I blame your horrid father for patching you up the wrong way. I should have been more like me. Squash the rat whilst it's down to keep it down.'
"Sophie's father is the one who raised her completely alone after her mother left, right?" Lorenzo said. "This is saying that her mother and father did not get along. They had different parenting believes, different senses of love for their daughter?"
Charlie nodded.
"Squash the rat whilst it's down to keep it down" He said. "That's saying that when her mother did one thing, her father would come in and stop it, making it better for Sophie"
"It would explain why they split up and why Sophie is so close to her father" Charlie said.
'It is obvious that you were not black and blue enough. I obviously left some areas untouched'
"Yes" Lorenzo replied. "And look. Not black and blue enough. Areas untouched?"
Claire gasped, the all too painful message hitting her hard.
"Black and blue. To be beaten black and blue" Lorenzo said, in shock. "Sophie's mother used to abuse her, beat her"