I could feel myself beginning to deflate. “Mom, I’m not happy. David is… he’s not that great when no one else is around.”
“Nobody’s perfect all the time. You think you are a bed of roses to be around on a consistent basis? I’msure David has his own set of complaints he could express, if given the chance. That’s what being marriedis,Avery. It’s hard, and it’s dirty. Best you get used to it now.”
I wasn’t sure what reaction I was expecting from her, but, whatever the fuck this was turning into wasnotit.
“Mom, he gets violent with me.” My voice had lowered, but I managed to get the sentence out without it breaking. I thought that perhaps admitting that fact might have changed the direction of the conversation, or at least the tone of her voice. But she simply sighed and rolled her eyes.
Looked to the ceiling and rolled her fucking eyes!
“Avery, he’s a cop. He has a very stressful job, and you’ve always had a flair for the dramatic.”
I felt like I had been shot. It took me a moment to collect myself sufficiently to speak again.
“Just tell me exactly what happened, and I’m sure we can sort it all out,” she cajoled me.
“Wow…” I replied, not able to meet her eyes. “Of the thousand ways I imagined this conversation going, this was worse than I thought it could possibly be. Thank you for that, mother.”
Not bothering to retrieve the bag I’d left empty on the counter, I just turned and headed through the kitchentowards the door.
“Avery, don’t do this. Don’t throw your life away because of a tiff!” she called after me.
I managed to get myself out the front door and halfway down the driveway before the tears actually started to fall. I got my seatbelt on and the car in reverse before I choked and the first sob escaped.
***
I’d stopped crying about halfway back to David’s house as the shock of my mother’s response morphed from devastation into cold anger. I hadn’t texted James yet, as I’d been too focused on getting the fuck away from that house. I also wasn’t exactly sure what to say.
Oh, hey, so I was completely wrong, and my parents don’t actually give a shit about me. Looks like, if I leave David, I’ll be homeless…
Something told me that conversation was best had in person. You know, after I knew what the man I was throwing my life away for even looked like.
I caught a glimpse of my haggard reflection in the rearview mirror. My eyes were bloodshot and my lashes were all clumped together with leftover tears.
“You’ve always been a looker.”
I flipped the car around in the street and backed into the driveway. Despite a less-than-welcoming responsefrom my mom, I’d still made up my mind that I couldn’t stand to sleep next to David even one more time.
If it meant moving into a shitty roadside motel, so be it. My emergency credit card had an untapped $5,000 limit, which ought to be at least enough for a couple of months somewhere lousy while I sorted everything out.
While we sorted everything out,I silently corrected myself. Running away from my life without James was too much for my broken brain to try to process at the moment.
He told me everything would be okay, and, goddammit, I had no choice but to believe him.
Taking a deep breath in a failed attempt to ground myself, I threw the car door open and headed towards the front door. David should still be at work for another few hours, which should give me plenty of time to throw my clothes in a trash bag and get a few other things loaded into the car. I’d call James once I was packed and safely out of the neighborhood.
I knew going into the house once wouldn’t be an issue. David would get a notification from the Ring camera app on his phone and he’d see me going inside.
Perfectly normal.
The issue was going to be when I was leaving with all my stuff. If he looked at that notification right awayand saw me escaping, I’d have about 15 minutes before he’d be able to make it home from the station. It wasn't a lot of time, but it would have to do.
The first thing I needed to do was transfer my contacts from my regular phone to the burner. I knew David had access to the tracking on that phone, so it would need to stay behind.
I closed the front door with one hand as I pocketed my keys with the other. I headed straight to the kitchen to grab a few trash bags from under the sink. I had a duffle bag, but it wasn’t going to fit my wardrobe. It would be faster to just toss everything together and sort it out later.
I bent down, pulled three bags off the roll, and let out an involuntary shout as I turned around. Being startled mid-turn threw my balance off, and I grabbed the edge of the sink to keep from hitting the ground.
“David! You… you scared me,” I replied, trying to keep my voice even as my heart raced in my throat. He had framed himself in the kitchen doorway after I’d entered the room. “I thought you were on beat tonight."
