I was tired of the berating. “You have gone insane. I never should have let you leave! You lied to us! Turned yourself into a whore!” My father stopped, five minutes passing before he began again. Answering him only enabled him more so I resigned to closing my eyes and leaned on my mother’s shoulder. The fact that I was twenty four and could make my own decisions did nothing for my dad. “You are never leaving the farm ever again!” It felt like the drop of prison bars. I imagined running back to the police station and opening a case against my own father. Imagining it was all I could do because I felt so hopeless as my father threw out one life sentence after another. I still couldn’t understand Peter’s words. What did he mean he wanted me to leave? He literally gave me away. He didn’t come to get me at the police station. I tried prolonging the departure from the police station but as soon as my father realized they weren’t opening a case against Slade, he blew a fuse and dragge
DAISYONE MONTH LATER The sun sank over the horizon. I straightened, my back aching. I could hear my little brother playing ahead with the dogs. “We are heading in earlier today,” Harry, one of our farm helpers said, carrying his large bottle of water. “Okay.” Was all I said, dreading walking back to the house because every part of my body was painful. I took a few minutes just standing there before I walked back to the house. My dad stood a bit further from the porch talking with the men. Since being back he barely said ten words to me and I didn’t mind. I understood, I hurt him but also I did not regret anything I did. “Daisy, you shouldn’t be out there for so long, especially with your leg.” Mom’s voice stopped me in my tracks and I smiled at her. I wished I could talk to her more and just hug her but I refrained. “I just wanted to help out, at least the hard part is over for now.” We were weeding and planting. It had been a long couple of weeks. Mom smiled, walking to grip m
The girl’s head shot up with her eyes. I narrowed my eyes at her, hoping it was as dangerous as I thought it looked. She quickly looked down to her computer then quickly picked up the work phone. I watched from the corner of the eye as the other’s stole glances at me. “Good evening sir, there is Mrs Daisy here to see Mr Slade,” ‘Wife’, I mouthed for the girl to say. “His wife,” The woman added reluctantly, not believing. It didn’t matter if they believed or not, I just needed the word to get to the top. “Yes sir,” The woman said, her eyes coming back to mine. I gave her a questioning look because I couldn’t take the suspense. “He is passing the call through to the main secretaries.” “Okay, thanks.” I nodded. The secretaries knew me right? Hopefully they would pass the call and if he was not there, they would call his personal cell and let him know I was there. What if Slade was not even in the country? I fought to not succumb to the fear coursing through me. “ Yes sir,” The la
Slade held the key to my room in his hand. I followed after his guards, him further away. No longer was I allowed to be next to him. I heard the door click open after Slade swiped the key card on the door. He pushed in and the guards followed.He took me to a hotel, a really fancy hotel. I can’t tell you what I felt, what I was thinking. I felt like I was just floating around. The lights in the room were nearly blinding. I walked aimlessly in the room before I stopped at the center. It was a large room and looked beyond anything I could imagine but to me all was fuzzy. For a few seconds nothing but silence filled the room. “Leave us,” Slade’s voice disturbed that silence, letting me know the final goodbye was coming now. I wished I was stronger. I wished I could see myself getting through this sane but at that point I was drowning. I heard the main door close and we were alone. I heard him place the key card down. “Check out will be at two tomorrow,” I heard movement then caug
DAISYBeep.Beep. Beep. A blinding light attacked my eyes as they fluttered open. There was a heaviness on my body. I felt drained and my head seemed heavy. I groaned, moving my arm to shield my eyes only to feel a tug then pain. Mmhh. Beep.Beep.Beep. I turned my head, just blurry circles all around. A sigh pulled out of me and then I felt a presence next to me. Who was it? Where was I? A chaos of images shuffled into my head making it throb even worse. Another groan pulled from me, my mouth and tongue dry.“Daisy,” I was having a bad dream. “Daisy. Shit, let me get the nurse.” Then I was being prodded and probed. Someone wearing something pink tried to help me sit up. A glass of water was pressed to my lips. Everything for me was just disoriented until everyone stopped talking and I could think. “What’s happ—ening?” My voice cracked, my throat ashy. “Where am I?” “Hi. My name is Britney and I am your nurse. You are in the hospital. Do you remember what happened?”
Putting the hospital staff through our problems seemed cruel so I sucked it up and pretended there wasn’t a man in my room as the next day rolled by, then another. The man gave me no peace, having migrated his whole office to my hospital room which had so many flowers to the point that it would soon turn into a garden. “I have your discharge papers here Miss Johnson.” I was grateful they stopped giving me the ‘wife’ title for a man I didn’t know, who should have been with his actual wife. I wanted to scream that at him but ignoring him took higher priority as of then. “I will not lie, this might be a difficult pregnancy for you. The baby and you are very delicate. I would like for you to stay in less stressful conditions, get as much sleep as you can and follow the diet I have set for you. I have also prescribed a lot of vitamins. Please come for your two week check ups to see how the baby is growing. And congratulations on your pregnancy.” The doctor’s last sentence sent me into a
“Daisy, come down for dinner,” I had been hiding in my room all day, just sitting there. If I wasn’t so hungry I would have stuck it out but I was famished. Hopefully there was something which would be more appealing to me. I carried myself down the stairs and searched the house until I found Slade in his kitchen wearing black straight cut pants and a golf t-shirt. I averted my eyes as soon as possible and shuffled myself in a seat. I picked up my fork, eyes running over the plate to freeze. Lasagna with strawberries on top. My eyes shot up, feeling embarrassed but also suddenly happy. I had mentioned this once while at the hospital when they had asked me what I wanted to eat. Of course they hadn’t brought it for me. Seeing this suddenly made me emotional. It looked yummy and I dived into my food, drinking the strawberry cooler which I would have hated four weeks before but at that moment it seemed like heaven. I had never eaten so fast nor so much. I devoured it and found myself wa
The bed was the best I had ever lay on. The guards had brought the new bed right after dinner and Marcia had ironed and put on the new sheets. I felt as if I was in heaven and I had never slept so peacefully even with my limping heart. I was well rested, not even wanting to get out of bed. My phone sat on the side table, next to the novels they had bought me. Not only did Slade get me a whole box of romance novels but he also filled my closet along with my toiletries. It reassured me that he did want to take care of his child and I was relieved. At least he wasn't casting us out to fend for ourselves. “Ma’am,” A knock came at the door. “You can come in, Marcia,” I didn’t know what time it was but I was sure Slade was long gone for work. It was probably late morning. I was not even ashamed of sleeping so much, my body and baby needed me to recover. I had pushed myself in the last two weeks on the farm.The door opened and Marcia walked in, a tray of food in her hands. After her, wal