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He reappeared in the bathroom carrying a thick all-weather extension cord he used for the hedge trimmer. He wrapped the cord around his hand and began to beat her with it. If there was anything worse than feeling the pain from being hit with the thick cord, Betty didn’t want to experience it.
Every time Chester came down on her with the cord, excruciating pain shot through her body. He would hit her several times in a row, and then he let hot water run down her body. Betty was in so much pain, she could no longer scream. Her dark complexion didn’t show much sign of brutality, but the swelling was obvious.
Sitting just outside the bathroom door listening and snickering was Diamond. She’d gone around the corner and waited for her father to come home. After he’d walked in the house, she followed him inside. Once the beating started, she revealed herself to Chester, but stayed hidden from Betty.
That day Chester beat Betty far worse than he’d ever done in the past.
After he was finished, he called for his daughter. “Come here, baby,” he said, reaching for her.
Diamond ran into her father’s arms.
“I’m gonna teach you how to be a real woman. I’m gonna show you how to have every man eating outta the palm of your hand. You are a diamond in the rough. Do you hear me?” He looked at her.
“Yes, Daddy.”
“Diamond, sweetheart, if anyone asks you what happened, you don’t know.”
“I know, Daddy, just like before.”
“Now go to your room and don’t come out. I’ll be up later.”
“OK, Daddy.”
With Betty bedridden and unable to move for several days, Diamond had the run of the house.
***
Two weeks later Betty was released from the hospital after suffering a broken arm, a concussion, and several other broken bones on different body parts, all at the hands of Chester. She realized then that she was a prisoner in her own home. Chester and Diamond walked around the house in bliss, while she had a broken heart and no self-esteem, her spirit shattered. But what Chester and Diamond didn’t know was that Betty Reed vowed to herself that she would never receive a beating like that again.
***
About two months after being released from the hospital, Betty got a call from the school to come get Diamond, who was being expelled for fighting. Betty assumed Diamond had a little scuffle with one of the little girls at school, but to her surprise, Diamond’s actions were far worse than she’d imagined. Diamond had actually kicked a little boy in his penis and then taken a pencil and stabbed him in the leg.
On the ride home Betty looked over at Diamond and saw her serene face. “Diamond, why did you do that to the little boy?”
“Because he wouldn’t give me his snack.”
“Didn’t you get a snack?”
“Yes.”
“So why did you want his, if you had your own?”
“Because I wanted his too, and Daddy said if I want something, then I have to go after it.” She looked over at Betty.
“Diamond, he didn’t say fight for it. He didn’t mean it that way.” Betty was furious. She had always told Chester that Diamond was too young to understand his lectures. Now the little boy’s parents were pressing charges.
“Mommy, I’m not gonna let nobody take anything from me, and Daddy showed me how to hurt a boy in his privates. He said that if I did that, the boy would give me anything I wanted.”
“Well, that’s wrong, Diamond, and I don’t want you to ever do that again!”
“I do what Daddy tells me, not you!” Diamond looked at her mother with pure evil in her eyes.
When they got home, Betty beat the living hell out of Diamond, not caring about the repercussions when Chester got home.
When Chester arrived home from work later that night, Betty was in the kitchen preparing dinner. She was hoping he was in a good mood since he had been out with one of his flings. It was later than his usual time to get home.
As soon as Chester walked into the living room, Betty grabbed the dish towel from off of the counter to wipe her hands. She headed for the living room to greet Chester and tell him about the incident with Diamond in school and the young boy’s parents pressing charges on them.
