Total pages in book: 36
Estimated words: 33745 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 169(@200wpm)___ 135(@250wpm)___ 112(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 33745 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 169(@200wpm)___ 135(@250wpm)___ 112(@300wpm)
“And she wanted to do anything she could to keep him. Even giving him young girls he liked.” Braxton shook his head. “I didn’t learn about the girls until much later. As for the boys, he didn’t want to pay wages, but he wanted work done. That was what the boys at the home got to do. I was one of the biggest, even at nine. He worked us day and night, we were rarely allowed a break. He did feed us. Well, if you call it food—throwing a couple of loaves of bread and some peanut butter into the barn where we slept—that is what we got.”
“Oh, my,” Jade said. “That…”
“Bastard, evil fucker, prick. Yeah, I can think of a lot of names to call him.”
“And no one stopped him.”
“Those that knew didn’t give a fuck. It was all about the money. Others that did know and didn’t like it found a way to exploit it. I’m guessing others got hurt, I don’t know, but I do know that for seven years I worked that farm. Back-breaking labor as well. I got big. I got strong, and for a time I was also … handsome. Some might even say sexy.”
He glanced toward her and she saw him glare at her. “I was.”
“I’m not disputing you were, but I still think you are,” she said with a shrug. She did think he was handsome and sexy. Her knight in slightly damaged armor. She hated to admit it, but when it came to Braxton, she found him incredibly handsome. She was pretty sure he blushed.
“Some of the girls that were coming over would giggle and flirt. They wanted a piece of me. I didn’t give a fuck about any of them. All I wanted was to do my job. Get it done and finished as soon as possible. The problem was, the farmer didn’t like me. He didn’t like that everything I did was better than him. I could lift more weight, do the job, and I did it better. That’s what I was there to do, and I did everything.”
“And he hated you for it.”
Braxton nodded. “And then he started to drink because the girls didn’t like him. Why would they? None of them wanted to be there. One night, one of the girls, I’m guessing he had raped her, and again, I didn’t know, she snuck out to the barn. He’d slapped her for not doing something, and she’d come to find me. She wanted to feel safe, so … she snuggled down with me. To me, she was just a sister, and we slept like that all night. In the morning, she was still there and the farmer caught us. He figured we’d been fucking and he wasn’t happy about it. She’d been his favorite.” Braxton took a deep breath. “And he got a couple of the guys to hold me down. Told me that no guy should have a pretty face.”
“Oh, no,” Jade said.
“Yeah, he was the one to give me the scars on my face, and he made sure to wait to get me any kind of medical care.” He stopped and she watched as he looked off into the distance.
He was trusting her with this and she would protect every word he said with her heart.
“What happened to the girl?” Jade asked.
“Never saw her again. I can’t even remember her name.”
Jade nodded and wished that the girl found peace and happiness and everything in between. She also hoped the same for everyone who had been near this farmer. She felt so incredibly angry and hurt at the same time. They had been kids. She didn’t understand why someone would do this.
“You still had to work for him?” Jade asked.
“Yes, he made sure my face was messed up and that it was long enough between medical care visits that no one would be able to fix me up properly. He wanted me to be hurt, wanted me to suffer. From that day forward, he made me a laughingstock. Made sure to bring me out to terrify the girls and give them a warning if they thought to break their vow to him.”
“Vow?” Jade asked.
“Yeah, they promised they would be good girls. That they would do whatever he asked, and he made sure they paid for it.”
She shook her head. “This is … wow. I have no words. You got out, though. You escaped.”
Braxton nodded. “That I did. There was a traveler, a stranger, just randomly walking by. He stopped by the farm, and at first I thought he was going to enjoy what the owner did. To cut a long story short, he came to me one night. Told me I didn’t need to keep working. That he had seen how strong I was, and that I had a gift. He wanted to help me. By this time, I had a lot more scars. The farmer, in drink, knew I could handle whatever he dished out, and made sure to whip me in front of the others. I let him do whatever he wanted to me. It was easier than fighting him.”