Kite In The Snow by Karla Lopez

 

ONE WEEK LATER

 

I stare at myself in the mirror and it’s hard to recognize the girl staring back at me. The bruises around my face are turning yellow, and others are fading away. I’m starting to look and feel like myself, but at the same time not quite.

I feel different.

The night Travis brutally attacked me plays over and over in my head. He seemed like another person. And when my cries got through to him, he started to cry and hold me. He was the one who got help and told the police everything.

I will forever fear him. His abuse isn’t because he’s just an evil person, it comes from years of alcoholism and who knows what else. I know that’s not an excuse, but addiction can make people become the worst version of themselves.

Travis is a product of his environment. Never really had a loving home, a father that hated him once he lost his NFL dream, a man that pushed his son until he completely broke him.

One thing is for sure, Travis is the villain in my story, but he also was the boy who loved me at his best. What a twisted way to be loved. He broke me down but gave me the best blessing of my life.

I want to hate him for what he did, but it’s hard to make yourself understand that he isn’t the same person from the beginning.

A knock comes through the bathroom door, and I see Wyatt watching me. Without him, I wouldn’t have a home. He saved Carter and me and that’s something I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to repay.

“There are some cops outside who want to talk to you.” My heart beats rapidly as I hear those words. Fear slithers through me, but then I see Wyatt’s calm face, I know everything is going to be okay.

He walks with me until I’m in bed. A man and a woman in dressy clothes with badges hanging around their necks stand by the door. They both look at the bruises on my face and then they look at each other.

The woman cop introduces them. “Hi, Mae. I’m detective Kelly and he’s Frank. We’re here from Dallas due to Mr. Travis Richardson confessing to a crime that we’re investigating.”

“He confessed?” I whisper.

“Yes, he came to us because his father is the sheriff of this town and no one would listen to him. Since the crimes he’s confessing to happened here, we do have to let the Bowie police know, but considering that his dad has been covering this up for a long time, our boss is fighting to get this case.”

“Why would he confess?” I shake my head in disbelief.

“Believe it or not, he has been asking for help for a long time. He’s asked for help in two nearby towns, but they turned him away.”

“Help in what way?” Wyatt asks her with a hard tone.

“He confessed to the crime several times, and no one would help him. He also asked for rehab from his father several times, but his dad denied him. He’s getting psychologically examined by one of our doctors due to him stating he blacks out anytime he drank or did drugs. And when he would come to, he’d find out that he’d hurt Mae. Which is why he kept drinking more and more and then the drugs.”

“That’s not an excuse for what he did to her,” Wyatt shouts. I wince but just stare at my blankets.

Travis wanted to stop hurting me and no one would help him either. What a twisted world.

“We understand that. He already admitted to his crime and we’re just investigating,” Detective Frank says.

“What did he confess to exactly?” Wyatt asks again. He’s asking all the questions I wish I was strong enough to ask.

“He confessed to repeatedly beating you for years when he drank. He stated that he had sex with you unwillingly during one of his binges. He doesn’t remember even having relations with you, but that ended in the result of your son Carter.” I rapidly blink when she says that my son is a product of Travis having sex with me unwillingly.

Not to me.

I don’t care what anyone says, but when I think of Carter, I don’t think of him coming from that. I choose to believe he comes from the boy who once was so good to me and loved me. Then I see him come from Wyatt too, where he took care of us.

No one can take that away from me.

The detective continues without noticing that my thoughts have drifted. “He confessed to going to Alaska after his dad forced him and threatened you to come home or he’d take Carter away from you.  He also says that he took Carter from you for a few days to punish you when you wouldn’t change his name.”

Wyatt’s head snaps to me, and I know that he’s angry, not at me but at everything Travis did. I never told him the full extent of everything that happened to me.

“I don’t want to press charges. I don’t want to go to court. I just want to go back to Alaska and have full rights to Carter.”

Detective Kelly’s face softens as she talks to me. I hate it. I’m not a victim. I am a survivor, and I will be okay.

“You won’t have to. We got a court order to pull your medical records and Travis confessed, he turned himself in. Your neighbors also gave accounts to the abuse, including several people who said that you asked for help, but Travis’s dad would intervene.”

I look at a random spot in the room while I try to take in everything she’s saying.

I shake my head. “Then why are you here?” Both detectives look at each other.

“Because you have to tell us everything to be able to press charges ourselves. If you don’t, that means that a crime hasn’t been committed and we won’t be able to do anything. Travis goes free.”

The good and the broken in me fight each other to make a decision. The good, naïve part of me wants to believe he didn’t mean to hurt me and not say anything. The broken me wants him to suffer as much as I did.

Tears run down my face, and I feel Wyatt’s strong, tattooed arms around me. I heave as everyone stays silent and just lets me cry. I stare at one of Wyatt’s tattoos as it catches my attention.

It’s a little girl flying a kite, and I just stare at it while tears fall from my eyes.

She looks free.

She looks like me.