She fled from the dining table, roaring curses at him. Did she think he might back down? George Itani was not that kind of man, but Loraine was unused to relinquishing her power. Leo watched from his seat as his father chased her down, his hands gripping at her arms as he forced her to him. She called him every name under the sun as she tried shoving him back, but he was big and strong and loomed over her tiny frame like a large predator.
“Oh, aren’t you a real man!” she mocked. “Are you going to strike me? A woman half your fucking size—”
“I’m not looking at a fucking woman,” he roared. “I’m looking at a spoiled little bitch—”
“I’m going to leave you, George!”
His grip on her tightened. “Where are you going to run off to?”
“Anywhere that isn’t here!”
He let out a hard laugh. “You wouldn’t survive out there, you loony bitch! You’re too comfortable—”
“Fuck you! I WILL LEAVE YOU, AND ANY MAN WOULD BE HAPPY TO HAVE ME—”
George struck her. Right across the face with an open palm. And Loraine Itani flew across the room and landed face first into the ground. “You would leave me for another man?” he said darkly.
She crawled away, but he followed after her, murmuring the same words over and over again.
Gutter rat.He kept calling her as he undid his belt and slid it off him, curling it around his hand.Gutter rat. Gutter rat.
Then he dragged her out of the room.
Leo took a bite of his steak with his headphones on, listening to a soft melody as his mother’s pained shrieks tore through the house. His father’s yells turned to savage grunts as he took her without consent, reminding her over and over again where she belonged, who she answered to—wouldalwaysanswer to.
His mother didn’t leave the bedroom, hiding her bruises for days, but Leo got his way, and when he went to bed that night, he felt a twinge of remorse, but it ebbed away eventually.