Chapter 35:
TOBIAS POV:
Tris's hand leaves my cheek as soon as the cry sounds from her mother. She slowly goes around my body and to my back, then she gasps. I know it's bad, worse than it has ever been before. After I cheated on Tris, I let my father have free rein, and I guess the punishments got worse and more frequent. I don't really remember being in a lot of pain, all I could think about was how much I hurt Tris, and that what I was going through was nothing compared to what I've put her through.
"Tobias, what the hell did he do to you?" I hear Tris whisper, her voice cracking.
I never really got a chance to look at it, I just wrapped it up then went to school. It's probably worse than I assumed as Tris has never acted like this because she's known for so long and see it at its worse.
"Uh….I don't know," I answer, not really willing to tell her parents about the belt. "The usual, I guess."
Tris comes up to my front, still ignoring her mother's soft cries. She grabs my face, careful to avoid the spot where her dad and brother punched me, and looks me straight in the eyes. I can see the tears beginning to pool in the beauty of her stormy irises.
"Tobias….that is not the usual. That is bad. What the hell did he do to you." This time it sounds like she is commanding me to answer with her voice strong, but her facial expression says the opposite.
"I don't really remember. He did what he felt I deserved, so I let him."
I do remember parts of it, like that one night I thought I was going to bleed out while lying on my bedroom floor while he continuously whipped my back over and over. A few times one lash would scab up and begin to heal and he would pull the scab off with his fingers and then whip just that one spot. These are things I couldn't, and still can't, bring myself to tell Tris, let alone while her family is standing right behind us looking at my father's masterpiece.
Tris breaks me out of my thought process by saying, "Why did you let him do that?"
If I told Tris I let him do it to me because I hurt her and I thought I deserved it, she would most likely call me a hypocrite and think it was all her fault. I can't tell her that, I just can't.
"Tobias?" I stay silent, slightly shaking my head. "Oh my god….oh my god. I did this."
"No Tris, no you did not." I state firmly, wrapping her in my arms. "My father did this, Tris, not you."
"Yeah but I'm the reason right? I'm the reason you let him do this." She questions, even though she already knows the answer.
"No, I cheated on you. I did this to myself." I try to amend, because at this point in her life, the last thing she needs is to think that my beatings were because of her. But instead of listening to me, she just starts to shake her head like she's seen the big picture now.
"Mom, dad, Caleb, will you please step out, I need to talk to Tobias for a minute. Give yourselves a chance to soak this all in, Tobias will come get you when we are done talking." She says a little louder, addressing her family but still staring in my eyes.
Her family surprisingly does as she asked and step out of the room, closing the door behind them. Tris just continues to stare at me with the same look on her face.
"What?" I question, finally after a few minutes of silence.
"Every time we break up you get more and more hurt by Marcus, almost as if he knows when we are and when we aren't together. When we were little, I always waited outside your door for you to sneak out after you were beat. You weren't really sneaking out were you. He knew, and that's why he started beating you." She says, trying to put all the pieces together.
"That's not completely true, Tris." I say, trying not to lie or say the truth, because this will only hurt her more than I already have.
"Then enlighten me on the truth, Tobias. I deserve to know it, please just tell me, please."
I take a deep breath, sighing because I know that I don't have any other option, it's either the truth or the lie, and the lie will only dig my grave further, "Marcus knew about us being close. When we were little he would beat me to try to stop me from going with you, but I never listened. That's why when I moved, I told you I had to stop talking to you, because that's what my father told me to tell you. He had threatened to harm you if I answered your calls or wrote you letters, so I never did. But I swear to god Tris, every time you called, I just broke a little more, knowing that you wanted or needed me and I couldn't be there for you. I never intended for you to get hurt the way you did. I didn't mean to proclaim my love for you and just leave to break your heart, I just needed to tell you before I left.
"And now, Marcus has no idea about us splitting up and getting back together, he can just sense the change in my attitude. I also was refusing to do his chores and he was getting pissed off about it. None of this stuff is on you Tris, they are things I wanted to do, and things I needed to do because I loved you, and still do love you."
"So, Marcus knew that we had been 'sneaking out' at night?" Tris asks her eyes beginning to water, but by the way she sets her face, I can tell she's trying to hold the tears back.
"Yes."
"And he would beat you because of it?"
"...yes."
"When we were little, it was my fault," she claims, this time having to look away from my eyes.
I sigh through my nose, "None of this is your fault, Tris. If I didn't think you were worth it I would have stopped seeing you a long, long time ago."
I knew she would view this as her fault, hence why I haven't told her the truth for year upon years. Tris is the type of person to be very hard on herself….obviously, and I knew that if I added this to the weight already on her shoulders, she would break. Now that it's out there, I want to take it back, but deep down I know it was the right thing to tell her the truth.
"Tris, please just look at me," I plead, gently grabbing her chin and turning her head to face, forcing her eyes to meet mine, "I love you, so damn much. Marcus beating me is not your fault in anyway or form, okay?"
She nods her head, allowing one tear to slip past her eyelid, but I don't let it continue its journey as I wipe it off with my thumb. Gently, and ever so carefully, I pull her face towards mine, connecting our lips in a passionate kiss. She then wraps her arms up around my neck, her hands softly stroking the bottom of my hair. I keep my hands planted on her waist, our lips moving in sink.
Eventually she pulls back, but rests her forehead on mine, and whispers, "I love you, too."
Then I grab her hands that had fallen down to my chest, and lean back, walking her over to the bed. Before she lies down, I have her help me in rewrapping my wounds up again, so that I can put my shirt back on and get her parents.
"Thank you," I whisper, kissing her forehead gently, before walking to the door, taking a deep breath and opening it up.
Out in the hall, Tris's parents sit still staring idly at the ground, oblivious to the sound of the door creaking open. Caleb, on the other hand, is no where in sight.
"Uh, excuse me?" I ask politely, clearing my throat, "Tris and I are done talking if you would like to come back in."
Natalie continues to stare straight ahead, her eyes glassy as tears fall down her face. Mr. Prior, though, looks my way finally, his face void of any emotion, making it impossible for me to assess the situation.
Then finally he speaks, "Tobias, Natalie and I would like to have a word with you before we go back into the room."
I nod my head in understanding, so I close the door behind me as I come to sit on the other side of the small hallway. Natalie finally looks up from the ground, her eyes instantly gluing to me, only causing more tears to fall. Mr. Prior is also looking at me, just not in the pitiful way that Natalie is.
Mr. Prior begins to whisper, "Your father," Marcus, "has been, um, harming you?" Abusing me.
I nod my head in answer.
"For how long?"
"For years now." I admit, allowing them to know this small part of me.
"Would you like us to go to the police?" he asks sincerely, his face changing from curiousness to concern.
"That's alright, sir. My father," cringe, "has been up to this for quite a while, so if I actually thought he was going to kill me I would tell someone." I tell him, my voice stern to get the point across.
For the first time, Natalie speaks up, "I don't want you living in that house."
"I-"
"No. I'm sorry, but I won't let him hurt you anymore," she sighs loudly, the tears slowing a little, "Tobias, you have always seemed to feel like a part of the family, and now that you and Beatrice are dating, I see you as family. And if I'm not wrong, I feel like soon enough you will be my son in law."
I had never really thought about that before. The thought of Tris and I being husband and wife. Maybe having some kids someday, depending on the status of Marcus. I bet our wedding would be small with very few people, her parents, Caleb, and our friends. Then she would officially be my family. My only family.
"I don't think I'm comfortable with that." Mr. Prior speaks up, as if he knows the next thing that she is going to say.
"Andrew, you hit Tobias, don't you think you owe him something. I mean, look at his jaw for crying out loud." Natalie exclaims, pointing a finger at my swollen bruised jaw.
"I don't take that back, I'm sorry, but this doesn't change the fact that he cheated on Beatrice." Mr. Prior states.
"Do you want to know what he said earlier, Andrew? He said something that I will never forget, he said that he would do his best to help her, and to save her, but he will not fix her, because she's already beyond perfect. He said that about our little girl, Andrew." She pauses taking a deep breath, smiling a little as tears fall faster, "Remember when I was pregnant with Beatrice and you talked about her future? Do you remember what you said?"
He takes a moment, probably trying to pull the memory out of his head. After a minute, he nods his head up and down, "I said that I wasn't going to be that parent that held his kid back from dating, but I sure as hell wasn't going to let her date someone who didn't appreciate her."
"And then what did you say that night a few months after she was born. When we sat in her room, I was holding her and you were holding me."
He smiles a little, then says, "That I was going to be there on her wedding day, and when I hand her off to her future husband, and they said their vows that I would make sure he truly would help her through thick and thin…." To my surprisement, a single tear escapes from his right eye, and for some odd reason, seeing Tris's father, a grown man, cry for her isn't awkward, but endearing. "I said that he better know she was beyond perfect."
Sooo...I'm a horrible person...guys, I cannot express how truly sorry I am for not updating in so long. My sister moved into college so I had to help her out and I just didn't have time. I'm so sorry. Please forgive me.
Other than my apology, I have a lot to say, one thing being about this chapter. So in my story, Tris's parents are a little more outspoken. They mainly want to look out for her well being, that is why her dad got so upset. I hope you guys also caught that basically Tobias had stated, to Tris's mother, the one thing that her dad wanted tris's future husband to know. I hope people got that.
Please review and tell me what you liked in this chapter...if anything at all. Also, tell me if you guys want me to start doing A/N questions, which basically means I would write a question at the end of every chapter about simple thing about yourself that you would review, and then in the next chapter, I would write my own answer to the question. I just thought that that would be a good way for you guys to get to know me and for me to get to know you. You guys seem like amazing people, I love you all so much. tell me if you want me to do the question game, and remember, if we get the reviews up to 1000, I will write a sequel to this story when this finishes.
Interesting fact about me: I took a personality test in class for a grade, and it turns out that I'm a mix of all the types of personalities. When my teacher decided to announce that to the class, someone yelled, "She's divergent!" and I just laughed loudly along with my class.
~divergent24-7