“What are we going to do if we go home and he’s trashed the inside of the house? I won’t be able to prove it’s him. His fingerprints are all over the place.” I started to cry and Brooks put both arms around my back, holding me and offering comfort.
“Kat, he can’t hurt us. He’s there and we’re here. When we leave tomorrow night, we’ll worry about it. If he’s done something, we can figure out what to do when we’re there. Please don’t let him ruin our last day together. Mom and Dad want to see us smiling today, like we don’t have a care in the world. Focus on Branch and Melissa. Talk about their wedding like you’re excited for them. Do whatever it takes to keep your mind off of that asshole, okay?”
“Asshole.” B giggled, like she knew it was a bad word.
“Daddy’s sorry. Don’t say that. It’s bad!”
“Asshole.”
I covered my face with my hands. “Oh my God. What else?”
“Asshole.” She giggled.
Brooks looked to me for guidance on the situation. Seeing him smiling was making it hard to be serious. “Don’t laugh at her. If we make a big deal about it, she’ll keep saying it. Let’s just go downstairs and ignore her.”
He picked her up. “Let’s go eat breakfast. Are you hungry, bug?”
“Asshole, Daddy.”
Brooks pushed me along, trying his best to ignore our potty mouth daughter. “For what it’s worth, she learned it from you.”
He then laughed as we walked down the stairs. “Yeah. Live and learn.”
Thank God, by the time we made it to the kitchen, she’d lost interest. Melissa snapped a look of worry at me and I smiled at her, as if everything was right with the world. I couldn’t let anyone see that inside I was scared out of my mind.
Our trip to be with the family again was a great reprieve, but as we neared the end I knew it was just a pause on what was to come. Assuming everything would be unicorns and sunshine wouldn’t have been realistic. I had a very angry husband out there that knew wherever I was, I was with Brooks. It didn’t matter to Bobby if I was in love, he was the father of my child, or even that I was happy. All that mattered to Bobby was that I wasn’t with him.
I’d seen and read so many stories regarding abused women. In my opinion, things hadn’t gotten so bad that I feared for my life. I’d been slapped around and threatened, but never beaten to the fear of losing my life, like other women. Still, knowing that he was willing to hurt me was enough to scare me for what might come.
Given the right circumstance, and if he’d been drinking, seeing me with Brooks could put Bobby over the edge. There was a chance that when I got home he was going to stalk and wait for Brooks to leave so he could hurt me and hurt him. I feared that in Bobby’s eyes, if he couldn’t have me, neither could Brooks.
I kept a smile on my face while in the kitchen with my family and pretended to be overjoyed with being home. I was overjoyed, but at the same time, I was scared; scared of them not knowing the truth and how dangerous it could be, and scared of what would happen if they ever did find out.
Needless to say, I had a lump in my throat for the whole time we ate breakfast and even as we cleaned it up. It was a blessing that Brooks was too infatuated by B to notice that I was falling apart inside. He was usually the first person to be able to read what went on in my head.
After breakfast was cleaned up, I retreated to our room to change into my bathing suit. Since I knew everyone in the house was downstairs, I took a few minutes to calm down before I was face to face with Brooks. After giving myself a pep-talk in my head, I walked downstairs determined to make our last day full of happy memories. After all, we were all reunited, even if there was still things to be worked out, we were on the right track.
Climbing in the pool and being greeted by my beautiful daughter and her equally handsome father was like instant comfort. My fake smile was replaced with real ones and I felt like life couldn’t get any better. I’d never felt so in love and happy to be where I was at.
Brooks pulled me into his arms with our daughter and floated us around together. B kept laughing when we kissed and telling us to do it again. She didn’t say the curse word again either, which was always a great thing.
Melissa and Branch were poolside, discussing some wedding plans with Walt about the hall they wanted to hold the reception in. One thing I noticed was that they were holding hands and neither of them were paying any attention to me, Brooks or even B.
They’d moved on together and I was at peace with that, as long as they were happy. I didn’t even care if they were secretly in love with each other when I’d been engaged to Branch. All I cared about was moving forward. Finally, my life had meaning and I’d do whatever I had to do to protect it.