AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“There are lots of reasons people go back to or stay with partners who abuse them. They think they’re in love and that they can change them. Or their partner makes them think no one else would love them. Sometimes, the abuser manipulates their target into blaming themselves for events.”
“Seriously?”
“That was my dad’s favorite. It was never his fault. If someone else had done or hadn’t done—whatever—he wouldn’t have lost his temper and yelled, thrown something, or hit someone.”
“Sounds like a swell guy. Want me to have a friendly chat with him?”
“It probably wouldn’t be very friendly. Dad has anger issues and does not like being told he’s in the wrong. You might have a size advantage, but he’s an ex-Marine and—”
“Once a Marine, always a Marine.”
“Not if you’re dishonorably discharged.”
“You’re right there.” He cut his gaze from the road to her.
“His temper got worse after he got kicked out.”
“So, she left?”
“No. She stayed with him for a combination of the reasons I mentioned. If she left, she felt she couldn’t support herself and three kids.”
“But you’re all grown and on your own now.”
“True, but he’s made her believe she can’t provide for herself and no one else would want her.” Elizabeth had offered to assist financially, but she suspected her mother was more afraid of being on her own than her father’s anger. Mom hadn’t learned to love herself and pointed to Elizabeth’s own inability to establish another romantic relationship after Adam to back up her fears she’d never find anyone else to love her.
“After a fight, he brings her flowers and apologizes. He says he loves her, and she forgives him—usually blaming herself for setting him off.” Elizabeth hadn’t planned to follow in her mother’s footsteps. On the surface, Adam was so different from her father. Now she saw that abuse came in many forms.
“That’s why you told me not to get you flowers.”
“I’d get so angry seeing them sitting on the table, like they made up for hurting her. She thought it meant he loved her.”
“Makes sense.”
They stayed silent for over a minute. On the radio, a country singer crooned about everyone having a story to tell, having a hallelujah, and going through a little hell. She slid her necklace’s Path of Life charm back and forth on the chain as the chorus repeated.
“You mentioned siblings. Do they live nearby?”
“Not anymore. My younger sister, Jennifer, lived here when I was in school, but now she and her husband are near Tacoma, Washington. We talk a lot, but I don’t see her much. We lost track of our older brother years ago.”
“Lost track? How?”
“He moved away the day after his high school graduation. The last time I heard from him he was working for a natural gas company in Louisiana but planning to go to South America to get even further away from our father.”
“Did you follow your brother in getting the heck out of Dodge?”
“Not right away. Jennifer was still in high school, so I stayed. A friend’s father was the manager at an upscale restaurant, and I worked there and took community college classes. I acted as a mediator at home while I saved money for a car and rental deposit. When Jennifer turned eighteen, we moved into an apartment with two other girls.”
Those had been the best times of her life, other than being so broke they ate ramen noodles and peanut butter and jelly most days. But she’d been free from her father’s dominance. That only lasted until she’d married Adam.
“What about you? Do you have siblings?” Elizabeth transitioned before she fell further down into that dark hole.
“I have step and half siblings, but I don’t really know them.”
The catch in his voice made her go into counselor mode. “That’s got to be hard.”
“It is what it is,” he said quite matter-of-factly. “My parents met at a pizza joint where they both worked in high school. After they broke up, she quit working there. Then a coworker from her high school told my dad she was being homeschooled her last semester, and there were rumors it was because she was pregnant. He showed up at her house and found out it was true.”
“And she hadn’t told him?”
