Little girl lost

“I love you” he whispered in her ear. “I want to marry you”.
She didn’t answer him.

It wasn’t the first time she had heard these words from him, but it would be the last.
She was older now.

Love. …..
What did he know of love?
For that matter, what did she?
To her, love was just another tool in his bag of control and his justification for the the things he did to her.
Touching places he had no business touching, forcing her to do things that she didn’t totally understand.
Things that aren't supposed to happen to a young girl.

He robbed her.
Not of her virginity; no, he never had the nerve to take that.
Still, he robbed her.
Of innocence.
Of trust.

Tonight, it would end.

He bent down, whispered his words, and kissed her.
She stepped back away from him and he grabbed her and pulled her back to him.
She pushed him back and he fell to the floor.
He was stunned.
She had never defied him before.
He stood up, smacked her across the face and called her a whore.
She didn’t cry.
She stood her ground and glared at him with all the hatred she could muster.
He called her a whore again, and left.

They were the last words he ever said to her.