It was 8 in the morning the following day. Christian and I had spent the night in a hotel suite, not saying a word to each other till he woke me up to tell me to go get ready. Thirty minutes later, we were getting into his private plane to head to our honeymoon.“Why even bother with a honeymoon?” I asked him a few minutes into the flight.He shot me an irritated look. “Getting married was one of the criteria I had to fulfill in order to get the company passed down to me by my grandfather. You met him at the wedding, I’m sure you could tell he’s hawk-eyed. If he gets even the slightest bit suspicious about us, I’ll lose everything.”“Hmm, but our marriage is legal, isn’t it?” “Doesn’t mean we still don’t have some convincing to do.”“Right,” I said, feeling defeated. I turned to the window and stared down at the sight, it was all trees and water down there. I found myself thinking about my mother, I wondered if she was okay. It had been at least two days since I last saw her, she mu
One week later One week had passed and Mark had made it a habit to call and send me threatening messages every day. It started pretty tamely until he began to threaten me about killing me. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t scared. Fear rattled my entire being whenever I heard a door slam shut or when Valerie dropped something. It felt like he would come for me at any moment, and even though I knew he wouldn’t be able to find me out here, it still didn’t make the fear go away. Mark had been the love of my life once upon a time when we met three years ago, he was the perfect gentleman until he drastically changed and became abusive. Leaving him was never an option because he would find me every time and hurt me even more than he did before, he would flip out if he saw me talking to any other man, including my coworkers. But now, it was a whole different board game. I was married, and I couldn’t begin to imagine how he would react to that information. So on the fourth night, I sent h
His voice reverberated through the walls of the room, causing the entire space to vibrate.“I… I just…” I stumbled over my words, trying to provide him with an explanation. Before I knew it, his hand clamped down on my shoulder, causing my heart to trip over its own rhythm. The icy bite of his touch mirrored the storm brewing in his eyes and I jumped.“Get out.” His voice was a low growl that caused a tremor to vibrate through my bones. My brain was screaming at me to leave. I had never had someone look at me with such hatred, not even Mark, but I figured he wouldn’t hurt me, and if I wanted answers, I wouldn’t get them by constantly running away from him. One of us needed to speak up, so I stood my ground, glaring back at him.“Why?” I spat. “Tell me why Christian, why won’t you tell me anything?” I asked in frustration.“Get out!” He growled again, his voice slightly higher than before.“No Christian. We’ve been here for a week now and you’ve barely said two words to me. Is this yo
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