Chapter 2
Ashley – Age Twenty Seven
“Thank you for letting me have yesterday off, Nat,” I say to my supervisor as I restock the shelves in the candy aisle, and she smiles my way from where she’s crouched filling the bottom shelves.
“Of course, did you get in to see the doctor?” she asks, shoving her light purple hair out of her face as she looks at me with apprehension and I nod.
Knowing I have to tell her and not only because she’s been one of my closest friends since I started working here at eighteen but because I’ll most likely have to quit which I know Ty will be extremely happy about.
The man hates that I still work here but in my mind, it’s the principle of things.
“I’m thirteen weeks,” I admit with nerves, and she grins wide as she squeals and does a little shimmy from her position on the floor, clearly happy for me that I can’t help but smile back despite the nerves I’m feeling.
I doubt my husband will be happy, despite what he said yesterday, after his dad asked when we were going to have another child because if he really wanted another baby, wouldn’t he have brought it up way before now?
I could have told him last night while I was tattooing him, but I just, I chickened out. I was scared of seeing the look of horror I did when I announced I was pregnant with Cole.
I chew my bottom lip as I continue to restock the shelves before clocking off and meeting Tyler outside for our first date night in a while, just the two of us.
He’s barely home, barely spends any time with our son or me, always at the clubhouse or at work, trying to prove himself to the club.
I feel like we’re a burden to him despite the fact he got everything.
I put my career on hold, looking after our son, working here in the evenings, just so he could complete school and open Rebels Arts, heck, he doesn’t even know that I’ve been going to school every day for the past six years.
I’ve been bringing Cole with me to my classes and placing him in the daycare on campus until Ty’s mama suddenly wanted to be on baby duty after spending the first three years of his life looking at him and me like we ruined her son’s life.
I didn’t want to jinx things when I got accepted to Wincher University so I never told him even though they offered free childcare with the scholarship and then he was never home, and it just never came up I guess.
I feel like we’re drifting apart, that he’s getting bored with being a husband and father, that he wishes he sowed his oats. That is one hell of a scary thought when he is my entire universe, my family, my only family because I got disowned from mine for choosing Ty.
I sigh silently. Over the years, I noticed he had a wandering eye, always checking women out, probably hating that he never got the bachelor life, but he never touched.
Which is why I let it go, but I am so scared he’s going to go down that route, especially if he finds out we’re pregnant again and if he does, I won’t stay, I can’t.
“Trigger is going to freak when he finds out,” Nat says with a giggle, and I smile slightly because she has no idea just how much.
An hour later, I wave goodbye to Nat as I walk out the back door into the alleyway where I parked my blue Trailblazer, which I got for a steal hoping Ty is already here.
I refuse to let Ty weigh in my car, my pride filling me knowing I bought it all by myself.
My phone buzzes and I quickly check it when I don’t see Ty waiting next to my car scowling at it.
My Ty:
Mama had to cancel, baby, something about not feeling well. I’m heading home to take over, and we’ll have to raincheck xx.
Disappointment fills me…
Not feeling well, my ass. The woman hates me and would rather her son leave me than stay with me even though we’ve been together for over fifteen years.
I haven’t even spent a cent of what Ty puts in the joint account, god, I don’t even wear my property patch anymore after she made a dig about me being a patch chaser since I was ten years old in front the entire club.
Not one fucking brother stood up for me, even the ones I actually grew up with and went to school with kept their mouths shut.
My tears blur my vision as I drop my head to my chin, my arm falling, causing my bag to dangle from my fingers.
I feel like I’m the only one who makes an effort, like I’m the only one who wants this marriage. Don’t get me wrong, when we’re together, I feel his love, and I feel the connection and happiness fills me. However, it takes a lot to convince him to spend any time with me or our son.
I feel like Ty is slipping through my fingers, and maybe his mom is getting to him. I feel like he’s regretting us, our life.
Sniffling, with my phone in one hand, my bag in the other, I walk over to my car and unlock it then open the door and throw my bag inside but before I can climb in I gasp in pain as someone grabs my hair from behind and yanks me back, throwing me off balance.
Suddenly, I stumble, falling forward onto the concrete, face first, my phone sliding near my tire.
I move my head to the side but cry out as my face scrapes against the concrete, and before I can move, to even comprehend what the hell has just happened, a weight sits on my back, and I choke out, breathing becoming non-existent as a pair of hands go to my skirt, shoving it.
No, no, no, no…
I feel fingers grip my panties, and I begin to kick out, and I scream, “Get off me! Nat…”
A filthy hand quickly covers my mouth, and a snarly voice growls, “Shut the fuck up, bitch!” My panties are torn down my legs, and I struggle even more, kicking out, trying to move whoever is on top of me, my situation becoming clearer by the minute.
I’m about to be raped.
No, no, I can’t let this happen, I won’t…
I squirm harder, kick faster, trying to dislodge the man on top of me when another voice snaps, “Fuck’s sake, keep her still, idiot! We don’t do this, we won’t get fucking paid by that bitch and Uncle will be pissed!”
“I’m trying!” the other guy growls, and I fight even harder when my legs are spread before suddenly, absolute terror and pain fill me as someone thrusts inside me, tearing my walls and I scream behind the filthy hand as I tense.
“Fuck me, she is tight…” The guy groans as he thrusts inside me hard and quick.
I try to keep fighting and I bite down on the hand, a muttered, “Fuck!” hitting my ears before my face is pressed hard against the concrete and the guy on top of me growls, “I should have fucked her.”
I squirm, I try to buck the guy off, never giving up as his friends thrusts become more painful and disgust and dirt fills me.
My tears fall as I feel nails dig into the back of my thighs before the monster thrusts inside me once more and groans, “Fuck, I would have raped her for free.” And ejaculates inside me and it is only then I give up the fight knowing I lost.
A stinging sensation erupts as he removes himself from inside me. I don’t move as the guy on top of me pushes my head hard, and he climbs off me and the feeling of being able to breathe doesn’t come.I was raped.
“Thanks, bitch!” one guy murmurs as I hear footsteps fade away and I see a flash of a denim cut but I don’t move, what just happened isn't kicking in, not entering.
My body hurts, down below, aching with pain, so much pain, it consumes me.
I-I was raped…
I don’t know how long I lie here, as picture after picture, memory after memory, flit through my head of Cole, of Ty, our life, and sadness fills me because I know nothing will be the same again.
I’ll resent him for not showing up here when he should have, resent his mama for not watching her grandson all because she hates me.
The sonogram from yesterday of my baby enters my mind, and a sense of fear flitters through me as I gently and slowly move my aching, battered body to a sitting position, hoping and praying my baby is okay but my prayers aren’t answered.
Within seconds of moving, the pain in my stomach begins, the sense of period pain, small cramping.
A sob leaves me as I feel something between my thighs that I know can’t be just that guys cum.
I’m about to lose my baby, I know it.
I need Tyler…
My body trembles as my tears fall, and I crawl over to the tire of my car and lean against the side as I grab my phone, dropping it a few times, my hands shaking too much to keep a grip.
I quickly press and hold one before it rings, and I put it on speaker as I slowly lie down on the concrete on my side and curl up in a fetal position, my stomach cramping, wetness spreading between my thighs, soaking my jeans.
“Hello, Trigger's phone, Virginia speaking…” The bitch from high school answers my husband’s phone a few moments later, and anger like no other fills me.
“Put my husband on the phone now!” I demand, trying to breathe through my pain as I shake, and Virginia scoffs, “Sorry, doll, can’t, he’s gone home to tend to your brat you trapped him with in high school after enjoying watching me and Hazel fuck and he was really enjoying the show too until his mama called him. ”
I hang up, not saying another word because, well, what is there to say?
I knew Ty had a wandering eye, I just never knew he watched a show at the clubhouse instead of coming home to me, his wife, and his son and by what the bitch has just said, he made no movement to even come here like we planned last night.
My resent for him builds and I tighten my stomach as more pain hits.
“Ash?!” I hear Nat gasp, and I look at her with my tears falling hard and fast as I grip my stomach.
“I-I think I lost the baby,” I choke, and she quickly drops her bag and kneels before me, cupping my cheek, most likely seeing what damage has been done to the side of my face.
“What happened?!” she demands with a rasp, her eyes tearing up.
I admit with bile rising, “I w-was raped…”
Nat gasps, and a sob tears through me, knowing I can’t tell Ty, that he’ll never look at me the same again, that I’m alone in this.
I lost our baby, I was raped…
He’ll never forgive me for not protecting our unborn child. I’m never going to forgive myself, and now I don’t know how I’m going to face him every day, how I’m going to allow him to touch me…
I’m dirty, I feel so goddamn dirty.
Nat holds me close before whispering we need to go to the ER, and ensuring it isn’t Wincher hospital where Doc works. I allow her to help me stand all while blood trickles down my legs, reminding me of what had just happened, of what I couldn’t stop and I sob.