Do Not Fall For The Baseball Captains (Victoria and Elijah) novel Chapter 160

His Family’s Burden

Sensitive Topic !!

Victoria’s POV

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The cool evening air brushed against my skin as we sat together on the balcony bench, the quiet of the night wrapping around us.

Elijah sat beside me, his fingers loosely intertwined with mine as he stared into the dark treeline beyond the cabin.

His hand was warm against mine, but he’d gone unusually quiet.

It was not the comfortable kind of silence we’d grown used to.

This one felt different.

Like he was trying to find the words for something he’d carried alone for a very long time.

“My mom… when she was sixteen years old…” He choked on the sentence, his throat working as he swallowed hard, looking down at his knuckles. “She was… attacked. It wasn’t just one person. There were…”

He trailed off, unable to voice the number, his jaw clenching tight.

A loud, involuntary gasp burst out of my mouth before I could stop it. The air completely cleared from my lungs as my mind instantly filled in the horrifying blanks.

“I’m sorry–I’m so, so sorry, Elijah,” I stammered, my words stumbling over each other. “I didn’t mean to…”

“You don’t have to apologize,” he interrupted gently, tilting his head just a fraction. A faint, sad smile touched his lips. “And… your reaction is about what I expected.”

Even with his reassurance, the knot in my stomach didn’t go away.

He turned his gaze back toward the dark treeline, his posture rigid as he spoke.

“She carried that trauma in silence,” his voice dropped into a distant tone. “She spent years in and out of therapy long before she ever met my dad. But the worst part was, she had no idea she was pregnant. It was a cryptic pregnancy–she didn’t show, she didn’t have symptoms, nothing. By the time she finally found out, she was already so far along that an abortion wasn’t even an option anymore.”

He paused for a millisecond, resting his hands loosely between his knees.

“You’re probably wondering how she survived processing all of that back then,” he murmured.

I didn’t answer, but the question was heavy in my mind.

“She wanted to end her life,” he said quietly. “She really did. But once the initial shock wore off, some part of her held onto a crazy piece of hope. She chose to see the baby as her redemption. Her healing pact with the

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universe. She swore she’d never hate that child, no matter how she was conceived. So she chose to live, and she gave birth to my sister, Aria.”

He looked at me, his expression softening slightly.

“Meeting my dad when she was twenty was another way the universe gave her a chance to heal. He loved her so much, and he was ready to wait as long as she needed before having kids of their own–which turned out to be seven years. He stepped up without hesitation to raise the daughter born from that night. My sister, Aria. He treated her like his own flesh and blood.”

I kept my eyes fixed on his face, listening to every word.

“She still had nightmares, though. When I was six, I didn’t understand it. I remember sitting in her lap, and she’d be kissing my forehead, smiling at me… and then suddenly her eyes would go blank. She’d push me off her, backed into a corner, screaming like I was a stranger. As I got older, my older sisters, Sophia and Aria, seemed to get it. They were so patient with her. But I was just a little boy. I couldn’t figure out why my mom could love me one second and look at me like she couldn’t stand me the next.”

He let out a soft, breathy laugh that held no humor at all, shaking his head at the memory.

The pain in his posture was too much to just watch. I reached out, placing my palm gently over his forearm.

He took a slow, deep breath, his muscles tensing under my touch.

“Elijah,” I whispered, my voice thick with concern. “If this is too much… you don’t have to keep going.”

He shook his head firmly.

“No. I want you to know.”

He swallowed hard and continued.

“For a long time, things got better. She was doing fine. The episodes stopped. Then a few years ago, after my little brother Alex was born… Aria went to a party.”

A cold dread settled in my chest as I sensed what was coming next.

“The exact same nightmare happened to Aria,” he said, his voice straining slightly, turning away as if the words burned to say out loud.

“Except Aria wasn’t as strong as my mom. My mom survived what they did to her, but Aria couldn’t carry that kind of darkness. She ended her life a few days later.”

He swallowed hard, his jaw setting tight.

“And honestly? I don’t blame her. It broke my heart into pieces to lose my sister, but I get it. This world was

too terrible for her.”

Tears welled up in my eyes, spilling over my lashes before I could stop them.

A deep ache bloomed in my heart–for Aria, who saw no other way out, and for Elijah who had carried this

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Do Not Fall For The Baseball Captains

horrific story in silence.

…

How could people in this world be so mercilessly cruel?

Elijah turned his head, his brow creasing as he looked at my face.

“Are you crying?” he asked softly, a faint, tender smile gracing his features.

A hard sob caught in my throat.

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