11. Chapter 11
One Month Later
Biting my lip, I swallow my cry of pain as the car lurches over yet another pothole that was obscured by the snow.
It’s dark.
It’s snowing.
And it’s nearing one o’clock in the morning.
The kids are all buckled into their seats in the back seat. There was no way I was leaving them home alone with Stephan. Especially after a night like tonight.
Not only has Stephan seemed to be getting worse since getting news of the transfer, both in attitude and the severity of his beatings, but two weeks ago we’d moved into our new house in Forest Creek. While we weren’t able to get a house in the country like Stephan wanted, our yard is fairly big, so the neighbors’ houses aren’t right smack dab against ours. If it were a perfect world and my husband didn’t beat me, I’d think it was great that my neighbors weren’t so close yet the kids could still play with other kids in the neighborhood.
However, since that’s not the case, I really would have preferred them to be closer to us. Unfortunately, I don’t know our neighbors well enough yet to know if they are under Stephan’s or my so-called family’s thumbs or if they’d be able to help and watch the kids at a time like this.
Yesterday was St. Patrick’s Day and Stephan had come home a few hours ago, drunk as hell and reeking of a brewery. I swear a gentle breeze could have knocked him over.
Still, he was stronger than me and I’d been pretty much defenseless against him since he took me by surprise, hitting me up alongside the back of my head. My vision swam, and I was seeing three of him for a while. It also didn’t help that my body still hadn’t healed from his ‘present’ three days ago on my birthday. Well, four days now since it’s after midnight.
I should have known tonight would have been no different from all the St. Patrick’s Days in the past. However, I had thought I’d have more time if he truly was going to heed Diego’s words that I’d overheard a little over a month ago. That he’d try to not draw attention to himself.
Well, that attention is unfortunately going to start because I have to go to the ER.
I’d heard my arm snap twice when he’d been kicking me with his boots. Those fucking steel-toed boots. I swear he keeps them just for the purpose of beating me and inflicting even more pain. My body is littered with more bruises than I’d seen in a long time. Not to mention that it hurts to breathe deep. However, I don’t think he broke any of my ribs, but that’s just by comparing my current pain to past scenarios. I’ve had both bruised and broken ribs in the past. Multiple times.
A groan slips past my lips as another bump sends a new jolt of pain up my ribs. My mind travels back a couple of days to his last beating on my birthday. I don’t know how I’m going to explain the older bruises that have already started to turn a little yellow-ish green. Hopefully, they won’t ask to examine my body.
By the time I pull up at the hospital ten minutes later, black dots are dancing across my vision. Taking a deep breath, well as deep as I can right now that is, I grab my purse off the passenger seat and Ash starts urging Isaiah and Cassie to get out of the car. I bite back a sob when I see that Ash has prepared a bag for them and I know it will also contain some coloring books and crayons, toys, and snacks. I hate how fast Ash has been forced to grow up. He should be able to be a normal nine-year-old kid. Not nine going on twenty-one.
Cassie’s little hand slides in mine, and I give it a squeeze as I lead us into the hospital.
Minutes later, I’m settled into a chair in the waiting room. Cassie is curled up on Ash’s lap and I raise my good arm, running my fingers through his hair.
“Thank you, Ash, and I’m so sorry that you’ve had to grow up so fast. Too fast.” My throat tightens with emotion as I try to blink away my tears.
He looks up at me, giving me a small smile, but it doesn’t escape my notice that his eyes hold so much pain and sadness. “I don’t mind, Mom. I’ll always take care of you.”
Carefully, I bend forward, trying not to wince as I lean down to kiss his forehead.
“Mary Hayes,” a voice calls out and I gingerly rise, slinging my purse over my shoulder as I cradle my arm to my chest. Standing, my kids follow me and when we’re through the doors, I almost freeze in place, but I force my body to keep walking.
It can’t be.
I lower my head so that my hair can somewhat shield me, but one of my worst nightmares has come true.
Luke’s here.
My Luke.
And he’s an ER nurse.
Thankfully, the nurse leads me into the next room, and I quickly turn, giving the nurse’s station my back until the door shuts. Without even having to ask, Ash pulls the curtain shut so no one can see inside the window. A habit from being in the ER so many times in his short life, though only one of those times was it him that was injured thanks to Stephan. The rest were for me. His gesture has more tears threatening to fall and later, when I’m alone, I’m sure I’ll break down at how I’m failing them as a mother, even though I’m trying to find us a way out.
“So, it says here that you fell down the stairs and broke your arm?” the nurse asks me and I nod.
“Yes. We have just recently moved to this area, and when I got up to use the restroom tonight, I guess I was remembering our old house’s layout. Instead of going down the hallway, it ended up being the stairs.”
The nurse looks skeptically at me, but eventually she nods.
I force my body not to sag in relief that she believed my lie.
Or at least is pretending to believe it.
Either way, I’ll take the small win. Lord knows I only get a few of those these days.
Three hours later, the nurse confirms that my ribs are just bruised and not broken. I’ve also been fitted with a cast and I couldn’t help the small smile when Cassie pouted that I didn’t pick the purple or pink cast. I’d chosen plain white so that, hopefully, it wouldn’t attract more attention to it.
Not being able to resist it, I pull her close as I kiss her forehead.
Then I freeze.
The nurse must have reopened the curtains when I was wheeled down to get an x-ray, because Luke’s at the nurse’s station and staring straight at me with a shocked expression on his face.
I’d texted him thousands of times over the years once I’d found out that Stephan had kept my old phone and was still paying for it to have service. It was weird, but I couldn’t resist not taking the chance that he might still want me. His silence, coupled with all the pictures over the years, had finally broken me. That he was able to forget about me so quickly and move on with his life without me in it.
Something snaps in me, and I turn away as anger runs through my veins.
He’d said he loved me and wanted to marry me.
But not even two weeks after I was kidnapped, Stephan had shown me the first picture of Luke having sex with another woman. I have no idea how Stephan got the images, but I didn’t, don’t, care. Not anymore. The only thing I really want to know was if Luke had even been faithful to me before I was kidnapped, but I’m not going to ask him. Especially not right now.
There’s also no way I can tell him that he’s a father.
Stephan would kill him if he tried taking Asher away from us. To suddenly not have one of his sons around, even part time, would bring ‘shame’ to Stephan’s reputation and I know what happens when Stephan feels either he or his reputation is threatened.
Thanking the nurse, I take my discharge paperwork and prescription, tucking them into my purse. I’ll get it filled tomorrow.
“Come on, kids, let’s go home.”
Cassie’s asleep on Ash’s lap, so I carefully kneel down and pull her into me, settling her on my hip. The nurse gives me a look that says I shouldn’t be carrying her with bruised ribs, but I shake my head before she can say a word. It’s not like Ash can carry her for long distances.
Ash opens the door, and I purposefully don’t look at the nurse’s station. The kids follow the nurse, and I’m right on their heels as we leave the ER and head out into the night.
It’s not until we’re on the road and the hospital is in our rear-view mirror that I finally let myself relax slightly.
I had worried that Luke would try to stop us or catch up to us, but thankfully, he did neither. Even though I hadn’t wanted him to do anything, a part of me breaks that he didn’t even try to talk to me.
Half an hour later, I pull up to our house and into the garage. I pray that Stephan’s still passed out on the couch, but I know that as soon as he sees my cast, he’ll flip. It happens every time that I have to go to the ER, but especially when I have to go when he’s already passed out and isn’t able to be with me. He feels he needs to go with me to make sure I stick to his stories.
Getting out of the car, I open the back door and pick up Cassie’s sleeping body, ignoring the jarring pain that shoots through me. Ash and Isaiah come around and my heart breaks when I see the look of fear on Isaiah’s face as he stares at the door leading into the house.
“Mom, if he’s awake, give me Cassie, and I’ll get her and Isaiah to their rooms,” Ash whispers to me.
Once again, my heart clenches at what I’m putting them through because I haven’t figured out enough about the people Stephan has watching over us yet to make our escape. I need to know how many patrols and their shifts before I can make a break for it, but so far, I haven’t been able to find that out yet.
“Let’s go to bed. Tomorrow morning, stick to your rooms for the most part until I come for you,” I whisper in return.
They both nod and as quiet as possible, I open the door and we sneak through the house. I can hear Stephan’s snores coming from the living room, but unfortunately, we need to walk right past him to head upstairs.
Thankfully, I’m able to get the kids tucked into their beds. Quietly, I shut Ash’s door and turn, intent to head to my room. However, as soon as I look up from Ash’s door handle, I stumble back in fear at seeing Stephan looming over me with murder in his eyes.
His arm lashes out, grabbing a handful of my hair, and I bite my lip to keep from crying out and waking the kids while he drags me to our room.
When he reaches our room, he throws me inside and I stumble, but somehow stay upright while he shuts and locks our door.
The snick of the door locking sends fear and ice down my spine. His worst punishments happen when he locks the door.
Fuck, fuck, fuckity, fuck.
“Why can’t you ever behave, Mary? After everything that I’ve given you, done for you. This is how you repay me? Running off with my children and that bastard in the dead of night?”
Swallowing, I will my voice not to waver too much. “I had to. My arm and wrist were broken. I don’t think they suspect anything. I made up a lie about how I got this house’s layout confused with the last one. That I thought I was headed to the hallway and instead fell down the stairs.”
I stand there, frozen, as he stares at me.
Minutes pass, but it’s probably only seconds, even though it doesn’t feel like it. My stomach sinks when I see his face darken.
“You still embarrassed me and will have to be punished.”
Fuck, I hope this doesn’t land me right back in the ER.