AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Stop it, Jack. Just go to work,” I say.
He leaves for the office and I’m alone again. My thoughts and our past are going to haunt me again. I need to get out of this house to raise my spirits. I can explore the neighborhood and buy some essentials. I walk to the bedroom to pick some clothes for myself, but the messy room in front of my eyes is enough to rile my anger yet again.
“He hasn’t changed a bit,” I say to myself while cleaning up the mess that Jack has made simply by getting dressed.
Why is he so messy? It’s been six years, and he hasn’t grown a bit!I seethe and go to the bathroom to wash up. I’m fed up.
I really,reallyneed to get out of this place.
I step out of the house and take an Uber to my apartment. Inside, I pack products for my skincare routine, hoping that getting back to the basics will help my mood.
A knock on my front door startles me. My first thought is that it was my neighbor from next door. She said if any packages came, she would bring them by. She might have seen me come in. When I open the door, I see a dark-haired man with piercing blue eyes staring back at me. I remember seeing him before. He’s one of the men who lives in the alley beside my building.
His eyes are bloodshot as he glares at me. “Can I come in?”
“No, you can’t,” I say and attempt to close the door.
He stops the door with his foot and pushes inside. I fall onto the floor and scream as loud as I can. The man wrenches my purse off of my shoulder and hits me over the head with something hard. I’m out before I know what happened.
I wake up in a hospital room. Jennie’s beside me. As the lights come into focus for me, my head is pounding…
Then panic.Oh, no…the baby!
“Jennie,” I say and the sound of my voice even hurts my head. I moan and Jennie half sits and half stands as I rub my head. “Is…Is my baby okay?” I ask and she smiles gently.
“Yes,” Jennie says. She takes my hand and scoots her chair closer to me. “The baby’s fine. You’re both going to be fine.”
“God…” My memory’s kind of hazy. “What…happened to me?”
“They found you in your apartment,” she says. “The police think you were mugged.”
It’s starting to come back to me. I put my head to my aching head and moan.Stupid, stupid…“Right,” I say. “A guy came to the door…God, I am so stupid. I know better than to just answer the door without looking.”
Jennie nods. “He clocked you pretty well, apparently,” she said. “The doctors think you have a concussion.”
Yeah. That tracks. “Is Jack here?”
She shook her head. “They called me. Do you know if you still have me as your emergency contact in your phone? I mean, thank goodness you had your phone on you instead of in your purse, but, you really ought to think about changing your emergency contact now that you and Jack are…” She pauses and scrunches her nose a little. “Sorry. I know you haven’t exactly defined your relationship.”
“It’s all right,” I say. “You’re right. He is the father of this baby. He should be here.”
She nodded. “I’ll make sure and call him.”
I nod. I can suddenly feel the pain all over. Down the back of my neck and in my shoulders. That guy really did hit me hard.
The doctor checks me out shortly after that. Fortunately, no concussion, and I’m free to go back home. Jennie drives me back to Jack’s house. All I want is a little bit of peace and quiet.
Luckily Jack still isn’t home but there are three missed calls from him on my cell phone. That melted my heart down a bit after what happened earlier today. But I can’t bring myself to call him back. I’m still shaken up from the attack.
Jennie sticks around. As I sit on the couch, she makes us some tea and brings me an icepack for the lump on my head. “What were you doing back at your apartment?” she asks.
“I just went back for a few things,” I say, then, on second thought, I add, “and I just had to get out of here. This apartment was beginning to feel like a cage.”
She put a comforting hand on my knee. “I know it’s been hard for you to deal with all this. You should have called me, though. We could have gone together or maybe I could have sent someone else over—”
“It’s fine,” I say. “The bottom line is that I’m fine and the baby’s fine and…” Something comes over me. My breath suddenly hitches and I feel tears start to burn in my eyes. I start to sob, hot tears fall from my eyes. Jennie sets down her cup and embraces me as I dissolve in her arms.
“Hey, hey, it’s okay,” she says. “You’re all right, honey. Everything’s okay.”
