The week before Christmas was a horrible week in our household.

I was invited to a Christmas party at a classmate's home. After convincing Hector for a month and having Dahlia help me out, he finally allowed me and Amelia to go. We were so excited until the day of the party and Amelia got her period. She had terrible cramps and was unable to attend.

I had to go without her.

But thankfully I got my friends and boyfriend. The party was fun at the beginning. My bodyguards stayed outside the house as I was inside with my friends. We drank and danced the night away. I was having so much fun that it was so cruel that everything had to go to waste.

After dancing for about three hours, I was tired. Daniel took me to a quieter place of the house and we sat there for a while. He had his arm wrapped around me and I was happy that we worked things out.

A week before the party, we had our first fight. We've been dating for a while and he thought that it was time to take it further, but I wasn't ready yet. We argued about it and he got annoyed with me. Then I got angry with him because got annoyed with me.

I just felt like he was pushing me to have sex with him. I wasn't ready for that.

We met up yesterday to speak about it and he told me that he would respect my boundaries and apologised for pushing me.

It was my fault for believing he was sincere.

"You look so pretty tonight, Ellie." He kissed my cheek.

I was wearing a red dress that got Theo frowning but Ariana convinced him that it would be alright.

I love my new sisters.

"You don't look too bad yourself." I smirked.

He chuckled and pulled me in for a kiss. I smiled against his lips. Kissing was alright for me. He was my boyfriend but I always tensed when he pushed his tongue in my mouth.

Ronan left his mark on me.

"I think I want a drink." I pulled away.

"I want to kiss, Elena." He pulled me back in.

His hands moved under my dress and I quickly pushed them away. My breathing was quickening and I glared at him.

"You know this is still hard for me." I snapped angrily.

He knew that I was almost raped and that any form of physical contact could be a trigger to me.

"I'm your boyfriend, Elena. How long will it take for you to trust me? I'm not going to rape you." He snapped.

My mouth fell open in shock. Daniel changed a lot. I don't know what his ordeal was but it bothered me a lot. He wasn't the same sweet guy that I knew. He always wanted to make-out. He was my first boyfriend, so I thought it was normal.

"I'll take however long I need to trust you to touch me. I'll be in control the next time a guy touches me." I told him firmly.

I wanted to decide who got to touch me intimately. That choice had been taken from me before and I won't let it happen again.

"You're my fucking girlfriend and I can't even touch you." He stepped away from me.

"You're being an asshole!" I snapped.

Tonight was going so good and now this was happening. I wanted him to understand me. He knew that I've been diagnosed with PTSD and that it was hard for me to be intimate with someone.

Why was he disregarding that?

"Yeah, I'm the asshole for wanting to touch my girlfriend." He rolled his eyes.

That just pushed me the wrong way.

"Just because I'm your girlfriend, doesn't give you the right to touch me whenever you feel like it. When I tell you no, it's no."

"That's not how it works." He snapped.

"That's exactly how it works." I insisted.

Being his girlfriend didn't give him the right to just touch me when I felt uncomfortable.

He simply rolled his eyes at me and stormed off.

I wanted to let him cool down first before I dumped his stupid ass.

/////////////

An hour later and he was nowhere to be found. Eunha and Cecelia came to help me search for him. After I told them what happened, Cecelia was more than willing to find him and beat his ass.

I was close to giving up when Fiona Thames walked up to me. She had a nervous look in her eyes. We know each other from PE and she's pretty cool.

"I'm telling you this because I'd want someone to tell me this if my boyfriend was cheating on me."

Cheating?

My grip on Eunha's hand tightened and I felt unsteady on my feet.

"He's in that room with Pauline Woods." She informed me.

I swallowed down all my fear and stormed towards that room. A small part of me was hoping that Fiona was just trying to prank me.

Maybe an early April fools prank?

It was fucking December, Elena.

I stormed inside and nearly fell to my knees when I saw what Daniel was doing. He was fucking Pauline Woods from behind. Their dumbs moans filled my ears and I felt utter disgust.

What had I ever seen in such an asshole?

"You fucking asshole!" Cecelia screamed from behind me.

She grabbed a nearby lamp and threw it at him. Eunha gasped in shock and immediately tried to comfort me. Stupidly, I felt tears burn in my eyes before they fell down.

"Shit, Elena." He hurriedly tried to pull up his pants but I was already on my way down.

I didn't want to stay here one second longer. Everybody was watching me and I felt utterly embarrassed. I didn't like looks of pity. I felt like I was drowning in them and I just wanted to get out of here.

"Wait, let me explain." Daniel caught up with me when I stepped out the front door.

It was so cold outside and he was only wearing his pants.

I hoped the fucker froze to dead.

"Let go of me!" I snapped.

"It's not what it looks like-" I cut him off.

"You were literally fucking her. Don't try to put the blame on anyone but yourself. You cheated on me."

His grip on my wrist tightened, almost painfully. I noticed my bodyguards hurrying over. I could easily ask them to take him down but he wasn't even worth that.

I just had to get away.

"Because you're fucking difficult. I wouldn't have to fuck someone else if you weren't so messed up." He snarled.

On second thought.

Before I could ask my bodyguards to beat his ass, Cecelia already did. She jumped on top of his long ass and yanked him hard by his hair so that he fell on the snowy ground. He shivered visibly but she stomped him hard.

"Go home. We'll deal with him." August gave me a firm nod.

Then he also started to stomp on Daniel.

"Don't listen to anything that he said. It's all his fault." Eunha told me.

My bodyguards immediately removed me from the scene. They placed me in the car and hurriedly drove home. Everything then seemed to settle in and I couldn't stop crying. I kept sobbing throughout the ride and I knew that they were probably concerned but I couldn't stop bawling.

I loved Daniel and to know that he thought I was messed up because of what happened to me, that hurt me so much.

Not only because he said it but because it was something that I felt as well.

I felt like Ronan had ruined me for all my future relationships. That I'll never get over what he's done to me.

////////////////

My eyes were swollen and red the next morning. I didn't want to get out of bed but we always had family breakfast on Sunday, so soon I heard someone knock on my door.

"Can I come in?" Ariana's soft voice called.

"Yes!"

Thankfully it was her.

She stepped in my bedroom as I was hiding under my blankets. I felt her sit down on my bed and she carefully pulled back the sheets. Worry quickly spread over her face as she cupped my cheek.

"Why were you crying?"

Last night came back and new tears appeared in my eyes. They burned because my eyes were dry from crying so much.

Ariana quickly sat me up to hug me. I rested my head on her shoulder and enjoyed her care. She went through my hair with her fingers and softly hushed me.

"It'll be alright. You're home and nothing can hurt you here."

She didn't just mean our actual home but also my family. They were my home and so was she.

After a while, she took me downstairs. I held her hand because I knew what kind of shitstorm was coming when my brothers saw my eyes.

My family was eating pastries and a big breakfast. Dahlia was arguing with Hector which they did a lot. It wasn't like they had relationship problems but they just enjoyed to tease each other. Silas was talking to the twins about a new fighting technique while Amelia and Theo listened to Victor talk about his results from the exams.

"Who do I need to beat up?" Dahlia asked me once she spotted me.

She'd actually beat up Daniel if I told her. Last month we were shopping on Madison Avenue when some bitch started to insult Amelia for no reason at all.

Let's just say that Hector had to bail her out of jail.

"What the fuck happened?" Silas stalked towards me.

Despite the fact that he looked angry, I held my arms out to him. All I needed was hugs and comfort right now. He immediately pulled me to him and I broke down. I cried against his chest.

"Tesoro?" Theo asked worriedly.

I tightened my grip on Silas. He pressed me close to him and didn't say anything but I could feel how angry he was.

"Tell me what happened." Hector walked up to me.

His hand went to my chin and he made me look at him. His brows were furrowed with worry and more tears filled my eyes. I felt embarrassed and stupid.

Why did I let a guy's words effect me so much?

"I'll fix it, alright? Just tell me what happened." Hector promised.

That's what he always wanted to do. Whenever one of us was sad or something bad happened to us, he wanted to fix it. He could go after Daniel and hurt him but it wouldn't take away the impact of his words.

Only I could fix it.

But I did want to see Daniel get beaten up. I was so angry that I even wanted to beat him up myself.

So I told them what happened. It came out in pieces because I kept crying and hiccuping. Silas kept a tight grip on me and when I was done, I snuggled up against his chest.

"Nicolas, Theo. Follow." Hector stormed out of the kitchen.

Ariana took me from Silas and hugged me closely.

"It'll be alright."

It wouldn't be.

/////////////////

The Christmas Party was as dreadful as every year. I was in a post break up mood and I got very annoyed when Priscilla came to bother us. I was very close to punching her in the face if it weren't for Victor holding me back.

"Don't bother with her." He took me outside the room towards the toilets.

He was right. I couldn't just hit Priscilla in public, but it was very tempting.

When we reached the restroom, we stumbled upon Theo who was beating the actual shit out of Diego Ricci. I've never seen my brother this aggressive and it was so shocking.

Victor quickly pulled me back. Ariana was in a corner with Dahlia, sobbing her eyes out. What the hell had happened?

"Fuck." Hector passed us and quickly tore Theo off Diego who laid motionless on the ground.

Was he dead?

"What the fuck are you doing?" Hector demanded holding Theo back.

"Let me kill him."

Theo looked like a whole different person. His warm blue eyes were wide and murderous. His hair had fallen in front of his eyes and his knuckles were bruised.

Nothing could calm him down and we soon learn why. If I'd known in that moment, I'd jumped in to kill Diego as well.

I thought that I've been through enough of disgusting things for a lifetime. My supposed mom was raising me to be married off to some Russian criminal who attempted to rape me.

I know that this was a dark world but I didn't think it could get even worse.

Diego Ricci was the definition of disgusting. Apparently Ariana went to the restroom and he'd followed her. Dahlia had walked in on him harassing his younger sister.

He wasn't hitting her, no he was attempting to take advantage of her in a way no brother should ever do.

He took her innocence at fourteen and had been doing so until she was practically freed by marrying Theo.

I don't know why a mother would allow her son to rape her daughter but apparently she didn't mind and blamed Ariana.

As if this was her fault that her brother was absolute filth.

Sadly, it did explain why Ariana was so sheltered from the world and why she was so quiet. She was a real wallflower but she feared speaking to anyone, otherwise it would rage Diego.

Theo only calmed down when he saw her crying. They really grew closer during their marriage and seeing her upset probably made him realise that she needed him now.

Especially when everybody caught wind of what happened to her.

It was just fucked up how people gossiped as if she wasn't an actual human being. This was tearing her apart while they just had a new juicy story.

Why would you even want to gossip about something like this? It was utterly disgusting.

Ariana didn't come out of her room and Theo stayed with her. This was really the worst Christmas ever.

But one day, she'll step out of that bedroom with new strength. She could count on us, because that's what family did.

We stuck together and helped each other through our darkest moments.