Stand By Me Darling
Chapter 192: Blaming the Victim

Chapter 192: Blaming the Victim

Talia not receiving a reply, turned to look at Arthur and met with his fierce glance. She felt the urge to run,but before she could react, she felt her entire body floating off the floor and yelped.

Arthur walked to the sitting area and placed her on the accent chair and knelt in front of her, burying his head in her chest. Talia felt a little weird as his warmth enveloped all over her, especially her legs. She didn’t think this guy resting on her chest has any good intent.

"Is it hard to walk?" he asked, looking in her eyes.

"Yeah, a lot," sensing his sincerity, Talia said with a pitiful pout. She wasn’t exaggerating, but was telling the truth. She doesn’t have much tolerance for pain usually.

"There should be some medicine for this... Let me get it for you... But Iris..." he pulled the hoodie at her chest and Talia could sense his playful fingers, trying to grab on to a particular part of hers and sank deeper into the back of the chair.

"What?" she slapped his hands away.

"Let me see how it is affected there..." he blinked his eyes and looked at her with a sincere face.

"Look where..." Talia realised what this silly looking guy is implying and tactfully pulled her legs up and sat hugging her knees tightly.

He tried to stop her from doing so,but Talia felt a sudden surge of energy and ended up stopping the perverted guy from peeping between her legs. She knew he didn’t use his full strength realising her unwillingness to let him see her lady part. If he really wanted to do so forcefully, he did have the strength to do so. But he held back realising she is not ready yet. She did feel touched a bit. He would take liberties at times but he doesn’t cross boundaries too much.

Arthur didn’t want to force her, but was disappointed by her refusal. Even last night, he couldn’t see much since the room was dark. Why can’t he see it?

"You’re not being fair, Iris!" he stood up and pointed his finger at her. "You admired my pee-pee and even made comments about it. But I can’t see yours? This is so unfair! You’re always like this. I always do what you want but you don’t. ’Fred, kiss me’, ’Fred, put it in’, Fred-" he pressed his lips.

"Oh, shut up! What in the..." Talia interjected closing her ears and was too stunned to say anything more.

Pee-pee? Is he a five year old boy? And who admired what? That didn’t even look that good anyway!

Her heart was racing by the brazen man speaking without any shame. She felt her face getting red, but she could so nothing about it.

"Why didn’t you say no, Huh?" she said as her brain overridden with emotions somehow found a sensible answer.

And it was Arthur’s turn to get stunned.

Seeing his stupefied reaction, Talia got more assertive. "Yeah, I did ask you to do all that. And if you weren’t willing, why didn’t you say ’No’? It’s just a simple word. Also, why didn’t you hide your pee-pee? It’s not like I forced you to show it to me, right? In fact, I didn’t even want to look at it, but you pushed it right in front of my face. In my opinion, you might have some kind of mental disorder, you know? The kind those guys who are called ’flashers’ have. Shouldn’t you-"

" Iris! "Arthur felt his entire body shiver. He wanted to tease her a bit and have a look at her hoo-ha. It’s something any boyfriend would want, but why is he being blamed as a mentally ill person now?

" You are victim blaming! " he pointed at her and felt ashamed of himself seeing his fingers trembling.

This woman is so dangerous!

"Who was the victim? Ha!" Talia sneered. "Like anyone would believe a seven foot ginger with a hairy leg! You don’t even have the basic etiquette of tearing up while complaining. Who would believe even if you say you got bullied?" she raised her chin up and her nose pointed to the sky.

Talia looked to her side realising Arthur not answering and he looked a bit unwell.

" Fred, you okay? " she got up and patted his arm. He looked at her and his eyes were filled with sadness and the next moment he pulled her to his embrace.

"No one would believe a man, alright" he said with a sigh and kissed her head.

For Talia that kiss felt like a hit from a hammer. She did accuse him of hurting her back then out of misunderstanding. And now she spoke all these insensitive words.

"I’m sorry I blamed you, Fred" her hands grabbed the collar of his shirt. "I’m sorry." She teared up.

"Hey, Iris!" Arthur bent and held her cheeks. He couldn’t bear to see the tears in her eyes. "I didn’t mean that! I didn’t even think about that. I know it was a misunderstanding and it’s all in the past. I was talking about how some women wrongly accuse a man and get away with it since the public believe the woman easily. That’s it! I wasn’t talking about you," he wiped the tears off her cheeks.

" Oh? " Talia’s mind cleared up. He is right. This happens in corporate settings at times. She’s seen a lot of it happen. True, mostly men are the ones abusing and harassing women, and they always take such complaints very seriously. These kind of harassment causes severe distress to women and some were pushed to extreme stress and worse. If the man is proven guilty, he would face severe consequences. But at times, some women lie for various reasons too. If not investigated properly, the man’s life would be ruined for no reason.

But for Fred to feel this personally about this...

"Did someone accuse you?" she asked with her eyes wide. She didn’t know about that!

"What will you do if someone accuses me in the future? Will you believe the woman no matter what?" he asked, holding her hand and leading her to the vanity.

"I’m not stupid!" Talia answered. His hands holding her hands were slightly chilly. His hands never gets cold. It must have been traumatic for him to go through that situation.

Talia felt like she didn’t know him that much after all. If she think of him like in the past, she would believe her breeze through such situations. One has no need to fear when truth is by their side, right?

But... When a woman stands in front of you and accuses you of something you would never do, it would be surely traumatic. He’s a man too. He knows the consequences if by some odds truth fails as it happens sometimes. He would have been scared too.

"Women can say most times when another woman lies. Plus, I’m not blind to trust someone or blame someone just because of their gender, status or the colour of their skin," Talia spoke calmly.

Arthur smiled looking at her through the mirror. He knew she means what she says.

" Do you know how Joe and Rebecca met? " she looked at him and he rolled his eyes and started unbraiding her messy hair.

Knowing he won’t stop her, she continued, "Rebecca went to a bar and noted Joe there high as a horse. And there was this woman who pestered him and brought him to the washroom to... You know what. Rebecca knew Joe wasn’t forcing her because she was in the next stall. But later when she was leaving, that woman started making a scene saying that Joe forced her. Rebecca interfered and even went to the police station and spoke on behalf of Joe, explaining everything. Joe was let go without any charges with the help on his father. Upon further investigation, it was revealed, that woman was someone sent by the opponent of Joe’s father to malign his name using his drug-addict son. I know it all, Fred. Everything is not what it seems like. Shit happens. Truth doesn’t triumph always and life really isn’t fair. "

" Oh, Iris! " Arthur bent and kissed her head. His iris has the tendency to see the negatives a lot - a pessimistic person. He realised something else too. With Cyrus’ death not solved yet, she really cannot have peace of mind. It is the thorn pricking her heart all the time. Only when the thorn is removed, she’d be truly happy.

" What you said is true. But no secret will stay in the dark forever. Truth will see the light one day. "

" Hmm, " Talia was calmed down by his kiss. He is right. Truth will see the light. It should. "So, what’s your story?" she asked.

"Ah, it was this woman..." he picked up the brush and started brushing her hair. "Back in University, I attended a party and a couple of months later this woman came and blamed me as the father of her child...I was sure I wasn’t. I didn’t drink and didn’t even stay long in the party. But.. She said I was too drunk and slept with her and forced me to marry her and she had the support of many and her family was one of the nobles too. Of course, I told my family and your grandfather and they assured me and investigations went on. Thankfully there were security footages proving that she did not sleep with me and turns out she knew she didn’t sleep with me, but lied to her family since they won’t be happy she slept with a poor boy. I wanted to make her deed public, but your grandfather... "

" Let me guess! "Talia interjected," My grandfather, the bleeding heart, felt the stupid deed of that young child should not warrant the ruin of her future and asked you to not make it public and settled it secretly with the family. Her family apologised, her too. You were disappointed that she was let go scot free while you suffered severe mental distress due to this issue, but later you found out that her family somehow got into a severe crisis, " she looked at Arthur and smiled seeing his mouth going wide.

" How..? "

" I know my grandfather. He is very passive and that’s why he is more scarier than your grandfather even," Talia shrugged." So what happened to her family? "

" Her only brother was accused of being abusive towards his wife and got arrested with irrefutable proof. The family lost everything including their good name." Arthur finished brushing her hair and placed the brush on the table.

" Ah, the Waldorf family? Wow! My grandpa was behind that? " Talia smiled." They deserve it! I never liked that Fiona Waldorf! She gave off that odd vibe... My poor little bear... She dared to hurt you?" she pouted her lips and looked at him.

Arthur looked at her with a smile and bent and placed a kiss on her lips. Even if she ran away from Esteria, she had kept a close eye on everything happening there. And she didn’t even doubt my words and ask anything to confirm if I really didn’t sleep with that woman.

Is my word enough for her?

And Arthur was also surprised that she didn’t ask him twice where he went earlier. He knew she wasn’t pleased he wasn’t there when she woke up. But why didn’t she make a single call? She asked him once and she doesn’t even doubt him when he didn’t answer her and she didn’t even ask again.

How much does she trust me?

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