Chapter Forty-Three
Ria
“Lex, maybe put that one there,” Jack suggests, pointing to a tree branch that doesn’t have a Christmas ornament on it.
“Nope, I want it on this one,” Lexi argues, completely ignoring Jack”s suggestion, and I bite my bottom lip to stop a laugh escaping. Jack twitches and then scrunches his nose up at Lexi’s decorating skills, while Elle bounces on his lap waving around an ornament she got out of the box.
We”ve been decorating the Christmas tree at my house and Jack has stayed every night since we got back from the lake house last month and I have no intentions of suggesting we spend a night apart. I like having him here. No, I love having him here and so do the girls. It’s a welcome change to have help and support. We share the cooking and putting the girls to bed, and when they are sleeping, we play Scrabble, watch trash TV or sit and talk about our days. This is foreign to me. Spending so many years doing it alone and begging for help, Jack entered my life, and not once have I had to ask or beg for anything from him. He’s just here, doing it, being here for me, for my girls. In all the ways we didn”t know we needed him.
I stack the remaining empty Christmas decoration boxes in my hall closet as Jack tiptoes down the staircase above me. An empty pink baby bottle in one hand, and Lexi’s Elsa doll in the other, gray sweats and a black t-shirt, his tanned tattooed arm flexing as he tucks the Elsa doll under his arm as he bends to pick up a baby blanket he’s dropped on the floor, that familiar fluttery feeling in my chest whenever I look at him hits me.
“This daddy vibe you got going on suits you,” I say, waving my hand in front of him.
He stalks towards me, eyeing me up and down. “Hm, Daddy, hey? I like the sound of that word.”
“You do?” I say, acting coy.
“Yeah… I do.” He stops in front of me. I crane my neck to look at him. His blue eyes meet mine and I smile. A sickeningly happy smile.
He presses a kiss to my forehead, and I wrap my arms around his waist and inhale his scent. He smells of the girl’s strawberry cupcake bubble bath and a hint of his cologne.
“Thanks for getting the girls to sleep. Did Lexi give you a hard time” I ask, still wrapped around him. His arms encase me, his hands not quite touching me, still holding on to the girls’ things.
“Oh, you know it. Three stories, two songs and now we added a song that involves us clapping our hands together to the bedtime mix.” He chuckles. “But it”s my favorite part of my day with them. Thank you for letting me do it.”
“Thank you for wanting to do it.”
“Now go take a bath, pour some wine and I’ll go pick us up some takeout,” he says, unraveling himself from me.
“Sounds perfect.”
I check on the girls, who are sound asleep, looking like the most angelic angels. I add some essential oils to my bath and light some candles, hoping Jack might join me when he gets back. It will be a squeeze and not the same as our bath at the lake house, but I am sure we will find a way to make us both fit. I change out of my yoga pants, sweatshirt, and underwear before I slip into my white bathrobe and head downstairs to pour a glass of wine.
I hum a Beyonce song I’ve had in my head all day and as I turn to go through to the kitchen, I hear a knock on the front door. Jack has a key, but he’s likely got his hands full of takeout and probably more. I practically skip to the front door, my stomach rumbling at the thought of spring rolls and sweet and sour chicken balls. I open the door without thinking.
“You didn’t take long, I’m starv—” I freeze, my blood instantly cold as I try to register who is standing on my porch with a look of pure evil in their eye.
“Evening, Maria,” he slurs. “I’ve come to get what’s mine.”
Panic floods me. I act on instinct and try to slam the door shut, but for someone who is clearly under the influence, his reflexes are quick, and he holds out an arm and wedges his foot in the doorway, stopping me from closing it. My breathing quickens, sensing the danger I’m in and that all too familiar feeling of pure fear rises in my body like the night I was assaulted by Greg. I try as hard as I can to close the door but he”s bigger, stronger, and he pushes it open with such a force it sends me flying backwards hitting the console table in my entrance hall, knocking a framed photo of the girls, the glass smashing with a crash on the wooden floor.
“Y-y-ou need t-t-o leave,” I stammer weakly.
He steps into my home, slamming the door behind him. His glazed eyes slowly rake over my body, venom oozing from him.
“Jack’s going to be back any second you need to leave, now,” my voice cracking on the last word.
“I don’t give a shit,” he scoffs, stumbling toward me again. I move backward, trying to scramble to my feet, but I’m stuck in fight or flight mode and my body freezes.
“Alex, please, you”re drunk. You need to leave. The girls are sleeping. We can talk in the morning.”
“We”re gonna talk right fucking now, Maria,” he spits. He lunges towards me, grabbing me by the arms and hauling me upright. I try to stifle my scream, but it’s useless. The sound leaves my throat echoing in my hallway. He pins me to the wall, one hand around my throat and the other pushing my hips. A cold sweat breaks out all over me as my heart beats so fast and irregular it causes sharp pain to jolt through me. I try to focus on my breathing to stop myself from falling headfirst into the panic attack that”s fighting to take over my body.
Fight it, Ria, fight it.
“Now… I already warned you that I wouldn’t have you play happy fucking families with that asshole, but you didn’t listen,” he spits forcing my head against the wall with a punishing grip.
Tears prick my eyes and I silently plead for Jack to hurry home.
“Alex, we are getting divorced now, you can”t control what I do or who I”m with,” I say, staring at him dead in the eyes, willing myself to find the courage and strength to stand up for myself, to fight back. “I”m not yours anymore, you need to move on and let me go,” I plead.
He lets out the most sadistic laugh and presses himself into me. Bile rises in my throat at his proximity.
”Is that what you fucking think?” he scoffs, and the alcohol from his breath assaults my nose.
”I can have you any time I want. Like right fucking now.”
He loosens his hand around my neck slightly as I greedily suck in air. He moves his free hand slowly down my side until he gets to the slit in my robe and forces his way through the material, tarnishing my skin with his touch.
Flashbacks from Greg getting on top of me flood my brain, terror working its way through me, but I choose to fight. I lift my knee, trying to hit him in the balls. My hands claw at the hand that”s slowly restricting my airway and I fight with all the strength I have to get him off me.
He catches my knee before it makes contact and chuckles darkly, an emptiness in his dark eyes. “Ooohhh, feisty, you like it rough now, do you?” His hand grips my thighs so hard I know it will leave bruises. I pull and claw at his arms as best I can and we fall slightly, knocking the lamp off the console table.
“Get off me,” I hiss, bringing my knee up again to meet his balls and this time I manage to hit him hard. He groans and hunches over and I see that as my moment to break free and run upstairs to the girls. I’m almost at the staircase when he grabs me around the waist. I kick and flail my arms and legs around, making it hard for him to keep hold of me.
“Stop, you crazy bitch,” he shouts, slamming me against the bannister face first, hitting my head so hard my vision blurs for a few seconds. A pressure in my chest builds, making it hard to breathe.
I slump to the ground, my hands bracing against the bottom step as I try to get my bearings. A sharp pain shoots through my head, making me whimper.
The unmistakable sound of a belt buckle makes my blood run cold, my limbs begin to tremble uncontrollably as he tugs at my robe, causing the burn of bile to return to my throat and my body to go numb. I will myself to move, but I’m frozen, fear taking over.
Come on Ria, fight.
I somehow find the strength to kick my leg out behind me, my foot meeting his shin making him growl in pain, and just as I try to free myself from his grip, a little voice rings out from the top of the staircase.
“Mommy?” A sleepy Lexi is silhouetted on the dark landing. Silence falls, Alex not moving.
“Go to bed, sweetie. Mommy and I are talking,” Alex says sweetly.
“Why was Mommy screaming? Are you hurting her?”
I swallow hard, my tongue feeling like lead in my mouth. I try to speak, to reassure my baby girl that I’m okay, but he beats me to it.
“We were playing. Mommy was excited. We are just having a nice little chat about what we are going to do as a family tomorrow, so be a good girl and go to bed.”
I glance up the stairs just in time to see Lexi mumble an ”okay” and walk back to her bedroom. The relief is instant that she”s away from him, but I”m still stuck here.
“Alex, please, you need to go. You”re gonna scare Lexi. Just let me go,” I beg. He shoves me forward and releases me, so I slump onto the stairs.
“I don’t want you anyway. You make me sick. I bet you’ve been fucking all those guys in that club. You can do what you want, but I’m taking my girls.”
Alex steps over me and walks up the staircase, making his way to the girls” bedroom. My protective instinct kicks in and I run after him, lunging for him before he can reach them.
“You are not taking my babies,” I growl as I fall into the wall, my shoulder hitting the concrete, but I don”t feel any pain, adrenaline taking over my body.
“Fucking watch me,” he barks. I pull his arm, tugging him back towards the stairs, fighting to get past him, but he shrugs me off, sending me careering backward, and I let out a scream.
The world goes into slow motion as my foot misses the top step and I fall. My last thought is a wish: that Jack gets back in time to save them.