CHRISTIANI glared at the wall long after she was gone, like I could still see the stranger who was my wife in front of me. She looked fragile, like the slightest touch could break her. And oh how I wanted to break her. Pure hatred crawled up my skin as I pictured her face. That innocent looking woman had once destroyed my life and made me lose almost everything, and now she looked me straight in the eye and pretended she had no idea why I was consumed with so much rage.The barely contained violence I felt toward her had been festering for years, and I quite cheerfully could’ve strangled her in her sleep if it wasn’t for the fact that I couldn’t bring myself to do it. It was something in those golden green eyes of hers that made me think back to when everything was perfect. The sound of her laughter in the wind and how thoughtful she had once been. How her perfect frame once fitted into mine like we were made specifically for each other. We were perfect. But no, she had gone and mess
HAZELWhen I walked down to the kitchen the next morning, Christian was already there. He was dressed in a simple black tee and free blue jeans and was dutifully whisking some eggs in a bowl. He had a slight frown on his face and his eyes were focused intently on the bowl in front of him. His attention was momentarily broken as I stepped into full view, he turned to glance at me with the small frown still etched on his eyebrows.“I hope you’re hungry. You might want to grab a bite before we head out.” He said, gesturing to the feast spread out in front of him on the counter. It was the last day of our honeymoon and also our last day at the beach house. I hated to leave, already feeling the imminent sadness lurking just behind my eyes. I had come to love the beach house and the calmness and serenity it provided. But I knew we had to go back to our real life… whatever that meant for me. And I was excited to finally see my mother again.“Thanks, I’m famished.” I answered, quickly runnin
CHRISTIANWe were all strapped in the chopper an hour later. Valerie was snuggled in my arms, sleeping soundly. She had cried some more while getting her wound disinfected and covered, so that must have worn her out, and now she had a bright blue and white ‘Olaf’ band aid wrapped around her big toe. Tina was sat beside me, and Hazel in front of me. She was directly facing me, or she would have been if she even spared me a glance. She didn’t. From the moment we got on board, she’d been staring out at the window with a small frown on her face.The apology at the tip of my tongue weighed me down like lead. I felt awful for even insinuating that she had hurt my daughter. But I wasn’t in the right frame of mind, I was paranoid and wasn’t thinking clearly. I could hear Valerie’s screams the moment I opened the front door, and naturally, I panicked. And it got even worse when she ran into my arms and I saw the pure look of pain and fear in her eyes. My judgement was clouded and all I could s
I broke down in tears when I finally saw my mom again. It had been almost three weeks, and that was by far the longest I had ever gone without seeing her. She was in her own private room; just like Christian said, and she looked a bit better. Sunlight speared through the sterile white blinds , dancing on the floor with specks of dust. Her bald head was covered with a beanie, she had her eyebrows drawn in with a pencil, but her cheeks were fuller, and she wasn’t as pale as the last time I saw her.“How’re you feeling, mom?” I asked, wiping the snot from my nose with a paper towel. “A lot better,” she answered, looking at me worriedly.“You do look good,” I mused, “Christian’s team…they seem to be working harder than your other doctors.” I added in a low voice, more to myself than to her.A faint smile graced my mother’s lips causing the familiar crinkling at the corners of her eyes to appear. I tried not to be sad at the sight of them, it felt good to see her and all the lines and eve
I was hanging out with Sarah and Mia today, and my nerves were at an all time high. I knew I was married to Christian but spending a whole afternoon with his mother and sister without him there seemed like such a big leap. I couldn’t stop worrying about all the possibilities. Like what if I said the wrong thing or did the wrong thing? What if I strayed from whatever perfectly crafted script Christian had already given them? What if they didn’t like me? I wondered if they hated me the way Christian did, and what if this was just one of the many ways he planned to torture me? I spent the drive to the restaurant biting my nails and sighing at interval, and willing the red light to take longer to switch to green, much to the concern of the driver who kept throwing me worried glances from the front mirror. The driver was one more thing I was worried about; what if Sarah and Mia thought I was pretentious? I had insisted I would drive myself or catch a cab but the driver insisted that Christ
“I’m sorry,” Mia apologized as she sniffed again.“It’s okay, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked you about it.” I apologized instead. “No, I’m good. It’s fine.” She insisted, “just give me a second.”I nodded sympathetically and waited for her to collect herself, and when she was done, she took a small sip of her pineapple juice and continued. “It took some time for Christian to open up to us, but he eventually did. He said he had fallen in love with her, and that much was obvious to us. He said he was sure she loved him back, she had told him that herself, and he had believed her. He gave her everything, worshipped her even. I’d never heard my brother talk about a woman the way he did about her. I could see the love he felt for whoever this mystery woman was even though he was speaking with so much pain.”“You never met her?” I asked, even though I already knew the answer to that question.Mia shook her head. “We never did. He didn’t think we would accept her, and he might’ve been r
Mark kept driving crazily, ignoring my pleas for him to slow down. We were driving into some shady streets I’d never seen before, and the fear pulsing through me was threatening to break my veins open. I tried to discreetly unlock my phone and dial 911 or something, but I wasn’t discreet enough, because Mark swore under his breath and reached out his hand to the back and snatched my phone before I could even react.“You fucking bitch.” He swore, throwing me a deadly look.“Mark please, we can talk this out. Please slow down, you’re scaring me. Please.” I begged, and as expected, it all fell on deaf ears.“Shut up!” He spat, causing me to shrivel back into my seat.The car came to an abrupt halt in a dirty alley. My heart was pounding loudly in my chest. Mark got out of the car and slammed the door shut, and then he came to my side and opened the door. “Get out,” he ordered.I scrambled out of the car, almost falling flat on my face but Mark grabbed my arm before I could hit the ground
I spent the rest of the ride home silently crying in the back seat. Dennis kept flashing his eyes back to me every other second, till I quietly told him to focus on the road ahead of us. I was visibly shaking by the time we were twenty minutes away from home, and I had to spend the rest of the ride trying to get myself together. I couldn’t let anyone else see me in such a state. I knew Dennis’ resolve was breaking, and I just prayed he wouldn’t cave and say anything to Christian. “Dennis?” I called out to him when we pulled into the winding driveway.He slowly turned to face me. “You’ll keep your promise, won’t you?” I asked, holding on to the tiniest glimmer of hope.He gave me a single nod.“Thank you,” I whispered and got out of the car, and toward the house. I took a deep breath and hoped Christian, Valerie and Tina would all be out of the way so that I could quietly sneak into my room and spend the rest of the night there. But I was never one to be lucky, because the second I op