Husband by Choice

“You’ve grown a sassy mouth, Meredith.” He took a step closer. She took a step back. If he got any closer it would be time. “I don’t like it.”

“I’m not backing down on this, Steve.”

He took a step toward her. “Oh, yeah? Well, get this, little girl. You are mine. You married me for better or worse until death do us part. I am not letting you go. And there’s nothing you can do about it.”

She’d been prepared for this moment. And when it came, she wasn’t afraid at all.

“I think there is,” she said. She backed up as far as she could go. To give him as much chance as possible to think. “Because I can’t live another minute on this earth with you as you are,” she said. He’d used her deepest insecurities, her fears and needs, to control her. It might work the other way around. “If you let me go, I promise to keep in touch with you, to be a part of your life.” She didn’t know how she’d work that out. But she would. To buy her freedom.

“I’ve got you, Meredith. You’re already part of my life. So why would I let you go?”

“Because if you don’t I’m going to tell the world about your issues. I’m going to tell them how you wet the bed until you were ten. About how your father was embarrassed by you. I’m going to tell the world about your constant need to prove your manhood through affairs, and beating your wife. I’ll go to the news, if I have to, you know. Decorated Vegas detective exposed. I’ll write a book and publish it myself....”

As Steve’s face turned beet-red, his big brown shoe came one step closer. And then another. “I’ll deny every word. I’ll tell the truth about you. Your lack of social skills. Your jealous threats. I’ve got connections, Meredith, a lot of them. You have none, because you’re so antisocial. I’ll drag your reputation through the dirt and no one will believe a word you say about me.” The facial features that were relaxed mere moments before were twisting into a sneer she knew well.

“You know how the human race works, Steve. Once I place doubts some will believe, others will start looking for proof. And I have a feeling that if they look hard enough they’ll find something. You’ve had a lot of people cover your ass who might not be so willing to do it anymore. Are you willing to take that chance?”

One more move forward. Her back was against the wall. “Are you?”

“I’ve got nothing left to lose, Steve. You do.”

The menacing forward movement stopped.

“I won’t live another day with the threat of you and your stalking and your violence. I can’t do it anymore, Steve. Either you let me go or kill me. Because if I’m alive after today, and not free from you, I will expose every dirty secret you ever had. Any way you look at it, you lose me. But if you let me go, I’ll be the friend who keeps your secrets safe.”

Her words carried all of the weight of any threat he’d ever made. Because she meant every single word.

And her truth rang in that pretty bedroom with the ocean so close, the horizon filled with possibilities only yards away.

“You bitch!” With lightning fast reflexes, Steve lunged at her. He grabbed her wrist and wrenched her arm out of its socket. She could hear the cracking noise, just as she felt the sting to her hand as he broke her fingers.

“You actually think you’re going to blackmail me?” he said. “You think you’re going to rob me of my wife?”

She’d had to be free from the fear. And maybe she’d succeeded. Because she didn’t feel afraid. Or did she?

She didn’t think so.

A slap to the face, the spinning in her head, was making it hard to think. Steve’s heavy leather shoe swooped in, kicked her feet out from underneath her. The carpet wasn’t nearly so soft under her hip as she landed. She was going to have a bruise.

The hard leather toe in her back hurt.

One to her left shoulder, one to her ribs and she thought she was going to throw up.

Curling into a ball, Meredith thought of her mother. Couldn’t picture her face. Lila’s was there. She was a fetus and the other woman would nurture her.

“Get up, woman. Don’t you dare think you’re going to start this and not finish it.”

Steve’s hands pulled her up, set her on her feet, and then dug into her arms as she swayed.

Why didn’t he just do it and get it done?

But she knew. He didn’t want to kill her. He just wanted to hurt her so bad he’d break her spirit, and then he’d be happy again.

Nice again.

For a while.

She knew how this went.