One Day You'll Be Mine(39)

Hollis flew over the bed, and slammed me against the wall. My head cracked against the hard surface, almost rendering me dizzy. My vision blurred. I started seeing double as I held my head. I can’t believe he hit me again.

“Listen to me, very clearly.” Hollis towered over me, leaning in so his words transmitted directly to my ears. “I have taken care of you since we were teenagers. Since your mom ignored you and left you to run after whatever man she needed to fill the emptiness left when your father abandoned you. I’m the one who made sure you had everything you needed. I’m the one who helped you buy new shoes with my allowance so you could study and pass your classes. I’m the one who convinced my parents to let you eat dinner with us because your mom was ‘working’ - when we both know she was spending the night at another man’s house for days. And I’m the one who married you so you could escape her miserable drinking and haggard attitude when you finally started working to pay for school, only to have her demand you pay her rent.

“You have not spent one day worrying about the bills, food, or clothing on your back since we married. You have not had to worry about anybody harming you or threatening you with homelessness or neglect since we’ve been together. I have always had your back!

“You want the truth, Natalia? Fine!” He clapped his hands together loudly. “I have been seeing Presley. I have been sleeping with him for over a year. No, I’m not leaving you for him. But I told him what I needed to continue to get what I want: some stress-free tension relief, something I cannot get with you, because when I look at you, all I see is responsibility. So if you think you can handle being on your own, fine. You pack your shit, and you leave. But I’m going to make it very clear for you right now. You are not taking my boy with you. You leave by yourself, and stay gone. You won’t last three months before you come crawling back on your hands and knees, begging me to take you back in.”

Shock, horror, and disgust filled my being. I saw red as I hauled off and punched Hollis in the jaw. I don’t even know where the strength to reach that high and hard came from. I don’t remember much of anything else, after that. I just remember shouting, screaming, and yelling, throwing things all over the room, and threatening to kill him if he ever touched me or spoke to me like that again.

Hollis continued yelling, but he stayed on the other side of the room, calling me all kinds of “ungrateful bitches” as he did. We were going at it so much, I didn’t notice Jordan was present until he screamed for us to stop fighting. Making matters worse, base police showed up, banging on the door.

Citing they’d received calls about a disturbance in the area, the police separated Hollis and I, and questioned us both. The officers asked us to step outside. Jordan started freaking out even more. He screamed that he didn’t want his parents to go to jail, and he ran between us.

“Can you both stop fighting?” he wailed, looking at Hollis and then me. “I don’t want to see you go to jail. I don’t want to see you go to jail either!”

Hollis grabbed his son and picked him up. “Nobody’s going to jail buddy. Your mom and I are just fighting. It’s normal. It happens.” I volunteered to speak with the officers in private while Hollis consoled Jordan.

Once we were outside, the interrogation started. “Is everything okay, ma’am?” One officer asked. I nodded, explaining that we’d simply had an argument that got out of control.

The officer shined his light on me, and paused at my neck. “Has this altercation gotten physical in any way?”

I denied that it had. As angry as I was, I still couldn’t put Hollis behind bars, and leave Jordan unattended. When the office questioned the bruises around my neck, I came up with some lame excuse. The look on his face said he obviously didn’t believe me, however, he couldn’t do anything but accept my answer at this point.

“Look officer, my husband and I have just been fighting lately. A lot, quite actually. This argument started because I’m leaving for a while. I made a decision to give him space, and I started packing my things. He didn’t like the idea of me leaving.”

I gestured toward the Kia. “In the morning I’ll be finishing my packing, heading to my last day of work, and then taking a vacation. I’m just going to visit my family for a while to let our situation cool off.”

“Are you taking your son with you?” The officer said. “You know school starts next week.”

“I’m quite aware,” I nodded in affirmation. “He’s going to stay here with his father.”