Truth

Emmett’s P.O.V

When I first saw her that very first day of school, I knew I loved her. Yip, I wanted to marry her. My little boy's heart burst with excitement. She was pretty, real pretty. At the end of the day, I couldn’t wait to get home so I could tell mom all about Leah Lockwood. She reminded me so much of my mom; quiet, shy and very intelligent.

“Mom, mom, I think I found my wife!”

I exclaimed as soon as I entered our home.

“Hey, hey slow down buddy, what? No hug for momma?”

“Sorry, mom, I’m just so excited, mom, she’s so pretty.”

I said as I hugged her.

“Tell me about her Em!”

“She’s got long black hair, with blue eyes and she wears glasses. It makes her look so pretty. She’s so clever, mom.”

“She does sound very pretty Em.”

“Will you take me to school tomorrow so I can show you who she is?”

“I’ll ask your father, okay honey?”

“Ask me what?”

My father asked as soon as he stepped into our home.

“Dad, can mom take me to school tomorrow? I want to show her this really pretty girl I like in my class, please dad.”

“You’re too young to like someone!”

He said gruffly 

“But dad…

“No buts, young man and woman are liars and cheats, aren’t they Marla?”

“I uhm.. 

He gripped mom's arm, and she forced a smile on her face. 

“Yes they are”

She said to me

“But mom you just said…

“Said what, huh? (he slammed his hand hard down on the counter, making mom and me flinch)

Tell me, son, do you know how to treat a woman, huh?”

“Love them dad”

I said with a bright smile on my face.

“And how do you love a woman?”

“I was going to ask mom for some points.”

“I’ll give you some points, boy! Women love a man to be rough, ain’t that right, huh, Marla?”

“Rough?”

“Yes son rough! They like to be treated like you own them. A woman doesn’t like a man to be nice to her. She likes a man to be in control of everything. what she eats, when she eats, shoved around a little, like showing her who is boss.”

While saying this, he pulled hard on mom's hair, and she groaned but with a smile on her face, then he roughly pecked her lips.

“Like that dad?”

“Yes son, just like that, see mom loves it, don’t you honey?”

“Y..ye

“Speak b***h! Or I’ll make you.”

“Yes Em just like this.”

“Never let her forget who the boss is, okay son!”

“I won’t dad. I’ll love her just like you love mum!”

“That’s good and if you need more advice, come to your daddy, your momma’s dumb as s**t”

“Alright dad.”

From then, every day I’d come home and ask dad how else I could show Leah that I loved her, and he’d tell me.

“Don’t ever tell her you love her. Women like to be shown love, not hear it. Though love is what makes a woman respect you, this way you will know she will never leave you for some other man.”

He even demonstrated some things to me with mum, like shoving her roughly, punching her in places no one could see. Love marks are what he called them.

“When you do that, give them love marks. It’s just for her eyes, so that when you are not around she will have those to always think about you.”

“All men do this dad?”

“Yes son, all of them”

“But I’ve never seen dad show love to mum when others are around.”

“That’s because it’s something private, something intimate between you and the woman you love.”

“Thanks Dad”

“Anytime son”

He said with a smirk on his face.

My pet name for Leah was little Miss Braceface, and I’ve only ever shown her love for these years, doing everything my dad told me to do so that she knew just how much she meant to me.

The locker accident was by far the strongest emotion I’ve ever shown her, and then she agreed to be my girlfriend.

Though I still couldn’t understand why she would run from me every time, mom never ran from dad, she always did what she was told.

One night after I had left the hospital from visiting Leah, I dropped by Shaun, my best friend's place, and we hung out for a while until a movie was playing. The guy in the movie showed his wife so much love by hitting her, then he would tell her that he loved her.

As the movie came close to an end, she called the police, and they arrested him. Now I’m confused why would she do that? Didn’t she love him in return? 

“See boys, this is why you shouldn’t abuse women! They have so many rights today, I will never understand how a man thinks it’s okay to do this to the woman he claims to love.”

Shaun’s father said

“But isn’t that him showing her that he loves her?”

I asked

“What?

Shaun’s dad said

“Dude, in what world are you living in?”

Shaun asked

“What do you mean?”

I asked 

Shaun’s father took a seat on the opposite side of me and looked me straight in the eyes. Shaun knew about how I treated Leah, but he didn’t know why I did it.

“Son, it is in no way okay to do something like that. In my opinion, a man that raises his hand towards a woman is a coward. No matter what she does to upset him, it doesn’t give him the right to lay his hands upon her.”

“I..I.. I don’t understand. My father does that to my mother all the time. He said he gave her love marks like that so that she would always think of him when he was out of town working, and my mother never complained or cried.”

“What!? That’s bullshit! "No woman deserves to be beaten, Emmett!”

“It’s how he shows her love, Uncle Johnson!”

“Oh no… that’s not love my boy, that’s abuse and your mother should report it to the police. Has he ever hit you?”

Shaun’s mother asked

“Uhm, sometimes he would, but he would say that he loves me and only wants what’s best for me.”

“Oh dear, your father has been manipulating you. Have you never seen movies like these before?”

“No ma’am, we don’t even own a television”

“Where is your father right now?”

“Should be home from a business trip already… s**t I have to go!”

“Wait Emmett, what’s wrong?”

Shaun asked

“When my dad comes home from these trips he always gives my mother ‘love marks’ and if what your mom and dad are saying is true, then I’ll stop him.”

I rushed off thinking about everything my father had taught me. Was it all a lie ? But why would he lie to me? Why would my mother allow him to do this to her? Why hasn’t she ever said anything about it to anyone? 

My mind raced a million miles a minute and I could rap my head around this. How could he lie to me? Oh god Leah! What have I done? I’ve hurt her because of my bastard father!

How could I be so dumb to believe him? Stupid Emmett, my mother had been hurt all these years and here I thought it was love! I felt betrayed by both my mother and father! 

Why didn’t she bother to tell me when we were alone? I could have gotten her help, stood up for her. Everything I thought I knew was a lie. How will I even make this right with Leah? I’m sure she knew that what I was doing was wrong.

She must hate me, that’s why she hid from me the way she did all these years. That son of a b***h will pay for what he has done to my mother, for what he has done to me!

I busted into the house to find my mother curled up on the kitchen floor, full of blood and crying. When she saw me, she tried to hide her tears and wiped furiously at the blood.

Was this how it always was, and I just never went up to her room to check on her after dad showed her love? f**k that this ends today!

I helped my mother up and put her gently on the couch.

“Where is he?”

I asked her

“Wh…what are you g…going to do?”

“Mother, we will talk about this later! I know what he is doing, and he will pay for it!”

Mother tried to call me back, but I was angry about all the lies I had been told, for all the times he hurt us and made me believe that it was the right thing to do when you love someone. 

I found him in the shower, washing off my mother’s blood from his body.

“You son of a b***h! You lied!”