Renee felt like she was dying. He was taking the little bit of freedom he had given her away. She had worked hard to gain that freedom, and now, because of someone else, she was losing it. She became angry. She always knew this ploy of his was just to toy with her so he could hurt her worse once she had started to relax.    She shoved his chest and screamed, “I hate you!”    “You’ll get over it,” Jesse said as he walked away.    Renee slid down to the floor and pulled her knees up to her chest. She placed her head on them and cried. There was no way she could go back to him brutalizing h

Months went by and Jesse had still not been able to bring Renee around. She hadn’t been sleeping well. She would have bad dreams at night and lash out. Sometimes she hit him, but he didn’t do anything out of the way because of it. Instead, he would wrap her in his arms and hold her tight, trying to stop her from fighting in her sleep. She would wake up terrified and her body would shake for a long time before she would finally fall back asleep. Her eyes had dark circles under them and she was barely eating. He would have to force her to eat at dinner or she would just wind up pushing the food around on her plate.    Summertime had hit and the flowerbeds that she had tended to the past two years were starting to bloom. She hadn’t even been outside to tend to them even once. He had tried to get her to come out with him and offered to help her with them, but she had told him no every time.

Renee had thought about Jesse’s comment all the way back to the house. She knew their fake ID’s had them listed as a married couple, but they weren’t actually married. Why would she need a wedding ring after all this time? She had to admit to herself that she would have liked to have gotten married one day, but now, she knew she wouldn’t. She had hoped that one day Kevin would propose, but he hadn’t. She had seriously thought he was going to do it on their anniversary, but Jesse had ruined that. She sighed as she started putting away all of the things that had been bought today. Jesse hadn’t given her the necklace she had seen him get. What had he bought it for? Jesse came into the room and saw her putting all of the things away. He had told her that he had a surprise for her so why wasn’t she getting ready? He stopped her as she went to put the dress

Jesse sat back and smiled. She had a wild streak. He had never seen that from her before. Of course, he hadn’t really seen any of her different sides as she had never let loose around him. He found her more intriguing now and wanted to get to know all of her. He liked the little smile she had on her face as she thought about all the times she went mudding.  “So, you are a country girl?” “Oh yeah. I loved to camp and go four-wheeling. I love a good bonfire. Good old fashioned country nights are always the best. You go four-wheeling, build a bonfire, camp out at night and wake up the next morning to fresh country air. It’s even better to wake up next to someone in that te

“I’d like another drink,” Renee suddenly said. “Okay. I’ll get you one. Wait for me at the table.” “Okay,” Renee said as she went and sat down. She was going to need more alcohol to get through this night. She wondered if she had made Jesse mad and what was going to happen when they got back home. She kept staring at the rings. They really were beautiful and elegant. But, she just kept thinking about the fact that this was just Jesse’s way of making her a possession of his. She was no one’s possession. If only he had waited on this and given her time to at least adjust to the idea of him wooing her, but all of this was just too s