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Through my erratic breathing, my rattling bones, and the conflicting thoughts in my mind, I find the future mother in me. The one who wants to give her child the best possible life she can. “No!” I shove his hands off my legs and jump up. “No, I don’t get it. Cheating is still cheating. If you were truly doing this for me, you would have talked to me. Oh god, how long have you been cheating? How long have I been so stupid?” I practically shout. My hands flail around me as I pace the room. Everything in my mind is turning into a raging tornado ready to destroy anything in its path. Damn the consequences.
His eyes narrow as he pinches his lips together. His tell; he is getting angry. “You don’t like making decisions. You like it when I take control so your anxiety doesn’t get bad. I was helping you!”
I scoff. “No. This conversation needs to end. There is nothing you can say to fix it. You didn’t even deny that it could’ve been going on longer than this. I am leaving. I can’t do this with you right now. The rest will be worked out later.”
He marches past me, stomping like a child, heading for the small bar area. He fills a tumbler with whiskey and chugs it down before throwing the glass across the room. It shatters into the other wall, shards of glass flying all over, the sound deafening in the silent room. I flinch with a gasp and back away towards the door.
“You will not do this, Presley.” His voice holds venom I have never heard before, sending shivers down my spine.
I don’t bother responding. I need to get out of here. I can’t and don’t want to do this with him. He is so delusional he isn’t thinking clearly. I grab my bag and go to leave. The second I twist the door handle and start to pull it open, it is shoved closed again as a warm body presses up behind me, pushing me into the door.
“Ben, let me leave please,” I whimper as he pushes harder, pressing my entire body against the door.
“I told you, you will not do this, Presley. You are carrying my child. You are my wife. There is no escape for you. Not now. Not ever. Get that through your head,” he says quietly in my ear, his voice holding so much anger but yet so calm and collected.
I take a shaky breath as he slowly pulls away.
Grabbing my shoulders, he spins me to face him. “Are you going to be good, Presley?”
“Are you going to be good, Presley?”The words echo in my mind, tormenting me from all the times I have heard it before. All the times I easily submitted because I thought it was the right thing. But now? Now, I don’t know what the right thing is anymore because I have a baby to protect.
“No,” I say, forcing my voice to be even and bringing my eyes up to meet his eyes that have now turned cold.
“No?” he questions with a tilt of his head. He takes a step back, leaving a few inches between us. “No, she says.”
The first slap comes so fast I don’t have time to move, but the second his large palm connects with my cheek, a burning, stinging pain erupts, and I cry out. Dropping my bag to the ground, I grab my cheek, but then a punch to my side drops me to my knees, and a sob wrenches from my throat.
He grips my hair and yanks it back, making me look up at his looming form. My hands reach back to grab his wrist, trying to loosen his grip, but another slap to my face stops me. Freezing me in place with tears streaming down my face.
“I’ll ask again. Are you going to be good, Presley?”
“Yes,” I whisper brokenly.
Ben hums as he releases my hair and walks away, leaving me to fall to my side on the floor, curling up and sobbing.
It isn’t just you anymore, Presley. You can’t give in. You have to fight back.
Chapter One
Presley
Present Day
Whoknewtryingtofind a job would be so hard? I went to college for four years. I have a bachelor’s degree in business and ten years of working history, along with volunteer work, but yet I can’t find a flipping job! I flip through the local newspaper, looking for job adverts, furiously trying to find something new.
My life has been a whirlwind lately of bad things happening, but I will forever be grateful and never regret a single thing that has happened because it’s bringing me the best gift of all: a sweet little baby.
After Ben cheated, things were rough for a while. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do, but in the end, I decided that leaving was the best. I needed a fresh start somewhere alone. Which led me here, to Jacksonville. It’s beautiful, and I feel safe here.
But despite all this beauty, I have to figure out what to do about Ben. Thoughts of him haunt me even now. Giving up on this round of looking, I head over to a diner that is close to the apartment I moved into about two months ago. It sits in the corner of the connected buildings. Next to it is an antique shop that I’ve been in before; it’s adorable. And on the other side of that is a post office. From the way I came is a friendly neighborhood, and if I kept walking past the diner, another ten minutes or so it gets much busier and head into the main part of Jacksonville where a lot more businesses are, the schools, and the mall.
The diner has the best burgers, and lately I only seem to crave them from this diner. Big, fat, juicy, yumminess that is their burgers. Ugh, I could start drooling right now, thinking about one. My stomach lets out a loud grumble, and I feel my cheeks heat when people stop and look at me.Oh gosh, that’s embarrassing.
When I reach the diner, Raven, the waitress who is almost always here, waves at me. I take a seat in the rounded corner booth where I always sit, allowing me a good view of the entire diner and out the windows.
Raven comes over to me, almost bouncing as she walks. She always has such a pep to her step and is just so happy. I’d love to experience that feeling again.
She pouts at me. “It’s been four days! I thought you forgot about me!”
