~Chapter 14~
Suzanna~
When we got back to the ranch, Branch’s mom was there with Isabella. She had some shopping she needed to do, so she needed to drop her off early. Sometimes the Lord does work in mysterious ways. After what had just happened with Branch, there was nothing I needed more than to see my little girl. Just seeing her smile could erase what her father had put me through today.
“Sweetie, Momma is gonna work in the barn for a bit. I want you to stay right here on the blanket and holler at me if you need anything, okay?” I handed Isabella her coloring book and crayons. I wouldn’t be far away and there were so many people here helping today, I knew she would always be watched.
“Yes, ma’am. I’ll stay wight here. I pwamise.” My baby had the sweetest little voice. I loved that baby more than life itself. She was my miracle - the only thing that made my life bearable. Well, that and my job.
“Momma, I pwamise I won’t move,” Isabella repeated as she looked up at me, with the only thing she got from her father, her beautiful big blue eyes.
“I know you won’t, baby. Momma will be right inside.” About that time, Clay walked over, covered from head to toe in dirt and soot.
“Hey, Izzy B. How’s my favorite girlfriend doin’ today?” he asked as he sat down on the ground beside her blanket, so as to not get it dirty.
Isabella was grinning from ear to ear. She loved Clay as much, if not more, than she loved Cade. “You’re dwirty, Uncky Cway,” she said in her adorable little voice.
“I know hon. It’s awful dirty in the barn. I’ll keep an eye on her, Suz. Don’t worry ‘bout a thing.” He shot me that sexy-ass Walker smirk. I just shook my head and started into the barn.
It was looking a lot better. Everyone in town had been over helping with the clean-up. Today most people were working outside, trying to clean up around the barn and helping with some of the cattle that were left. There were only about a hundred head that had been out to pasture the night of the fire. All of the other animals had been in the barn. They lost all the new babies, the horses, all the bulls, and all of the heifers that were in the barn recovering.
I felt so bad for Colt. He was gonna be in the hospital for quite a while. I hated that I couldn’t visit him more, but Branch didn’t like me to spend time with any of the Walker boys without him around. Isabella missed her Uncle Colt. She made him a picture to hang on the wall in his hospital room. It was a picture of a horse and two stick figures. She told him one of them was her and the other was him. She told him she couldn’t wait for him to get out of the hospital so they could go ride horses together. He tried to smile at her. It was nice to see him smile, or try to at least.
“What’re you still doin’ here, hon?” I heard Cade say as he walked up behind me.
“Last I checked, I still work here,” I replied as I turned back toward him.
“Ain’t much left to work at, Suzy Q. It’s so goddamn depressin’.” It had been a long time since I had seen so much sadness in his eyes. I couldn’t help it - I had to comfort him. I put my arms around him and held him tight. He hugged me back and as we started to step away from one another, I felt his warm breath on my ear. He ran his nose along my jaw and when he got to my lips, I was sure he was going to kiss me.
Just as our lips were about to touch I heard, “Momma, I’m hungwy.” I looked at the doorway and Clay was carrying Isabella into the barn.
“Um, sorry to interrupt, but Izzy B is starvin’ to death. I promised the kid some lunch, but I ain’t no cook.” Clay grinned as Cade took Isabella from his arms.
“What’s my girl hungry for?” Cade asked while tucking a strand of her bright red hair behind her ear.
“I want Mickey-Donalds,” she answered with a little pout on her face. At only three years old, she could play these big cowboys better than anyone I’d ever seen. She was looking up at Cade and batting those long eyelashes over those blue eyes. He would’ve done anything in the world for her at that moment. He’d always do anything for her…I thanked God every day that Isabella had the Walker men to look up to and to act as male influences, because her daddy sure wasn’t a man I wanted her to be influenced by.
“Now sweetie girl, you said you was starvin’ to death. It’s gonna take me at least a half an hour to get you to Mickey-Donalds. You sure you can wait that long?” Cade asked with a little smile.
“I weally want it, but I’m so hungwy. Can Uncky Cway make me a sandwich?” She shot that innocent little look Clay’s way.
“Well I don’t know. Let’s ask him. Uncky Cway, can you make Izzy B a sandwich?” Cade asked in his best Isabella voice, as he and Isabella walked over to Clay. She was flashing him her prettiest little smile and still batting those eyelashes. Clay was now putty in my daughter’s hands.
“Of course I can. That don’t involve no cookin’. We got this. Come on, Izzy B.”
Clay took her from Cade’s arms and as they were walking out she yelled at Cade. “Love you, Uncky Cade.” She said those words with the biggest smile on her little face. She was definitely made with love. Anyone could see that.
~Chapter 15~
Suzanna~
I helped out the rest of the afternoon and into the evening. We all tried to make the best of the situation. As the work was getting done, we were horsing around and having a good time. I couldn’t remember an afternoon where I had more fun in an awfully long time. What I hadn’t realized was, while we were in the barn with Cade, we were being watched. I didn’t know that until I got home with Isabella later that evening.
We walked into the house and Branch was sitting in the living room on the couch. He was holding an almost empty bottle of Jack and his eyes were glazed over. I very quickly realized that it was gonna be one of those nights. I rushed upstairs with Isabella and started to run her bath.
“Momma is gonna give you a bath and then I want you to snuggle up in bed and go night-night, okay?” I was quickly rinsing the shampoo out of her hair.
“’Kay, Momma. Is Daddy gonna yell at you tonight?” My heart about dropped out of my chest. My baby knew it was one of those nights too.
“He probably is, sweetheart. You just go to sleep and don’t come out of your room unless momma comes to get you, okay? Promise momma.”
“I pwamise, Momma. I’ll stay in my bed.”
I got her out of the tub and when she was all dried off, I put her favorite yellow ducky, footie pajamas on her. After I made sure she was snug in her bed I walked out into the hall and tried to brace myself for the unholy wrath I was about to receive. I walked into our room and prayed he was still downstairs. That prayer wasn’t answered.
“I fuckin’ saw you today,” he screamed, lunging for my throat. He had both hands clasped in a vice grip around my neck before I even knew what was happening. “I saw him touching you and I heard her tell him she loved him. She loves him? Why the fuck do the two of you love that asshole so fuckin’ much? He’s nothin’ but a dick with legs. He’s screwed every woman in this town. You included.”
He released his grip on my throat and punched me in the stomach. I doubled over in pain. He hadn’t hit me that hard in a long time. He grabbed me by the hair and pulled me out the bedroom door and down the hall toward Isabella’s room.
“Please don’t do this, Branch. Please. I’m begging you. Don’t let her see you do this.” I was crying. My heart was about to beat out of my chest. I was so scared and my throat was burning, so my voice was really scratchy. Branch still had a death grip on my hair as he dragged me down the hallway. When he drug me past the mirror hanging in the hallway. I didn’t even recognize my own eyes looking back at me. Who was this woman that I had become? How did I let this happen to me? This monster had done this to me. He had turned me into this sad shell of the woman I used to be.
“I want her to see exactly what kind of woman her mother is. I want her to watch me teach you a fuckin’ lesson.” He turned the knob on her bedroom door. Branch dragged me by my hair over to her bed. He pulled back the covers, but all that was there was her long body pillow that she slept with. “Where the fuck is she?” He pulled me into her bathroom. She wasn’t there either.
“I don’t know. I made her promise not to leave her room. I need to find her, Branch. Please let go of me,” I begged. “Please, let me find our daughter.”
“We’ll find her. Apparently, I need to teach her ass a lesson too.” When he uttered those words, my stomach lurched and my heart literally stopped. I had allowed him to hurt me all these years, but he would never hurt my baby. I would kill him before I allowed him to lay a hand on my little girl.
“I need to find her, Branch. You’re scaring her. Please don’t do this.”
“This is your fault. If you weren’t such an ungrateful slut, I wouldn’t have to do this. I wouldn’t have to teach you a lesson. You bring all this on yourself.”
When Branch started to force me down the stairs, I looked toward the spare bedroom and I saw Isabella hunkering down in the doorway. She was on the phone. I didn’t know who she was talking to, but I was so proud of her. She was going to save us. I had never seen Branch this crazed. He was gonna hurt me tonight...worse than he ever had. I knew in my heart that he planned on hurting her too.
We got downstairs and Branch yanked me into the kitchen. He pushed me down on the floor and hollered, “Isabella, sweetie, where are you? You’re momma needs you.” He leaned down and whispered, “Call her now. Get her to come
save
her precious momma.”
Something inside me took over. I was done. This shit wasn’t gonna happen anymore. I spit in his face then I whispered back, “Like hell I will. You stay the fuck away from her, because I swear to God if you ever lay a hand on her, I will kill you or even better yet, I’ll let Cade do it for me. He would get so much pleasure outta watching you take your last breath. Especially after I tell him what you’ve done to me all these years.”
He punched me in the ribs. I could literally hear them crack and the pain was almost unbearable. It was taking everything in me to stay quiet. I didn’t want Isabella to hear me scream and come and try to help me. Then he started punching me in the head. He normally didn’t touch my face, but I guess he wasn’t planning on me living through this beating. He was brutal...he wasn’t letting up. Then I heard her and I prayed to God to let her get away.
Please dear God in heaven...don’t let my baby girl watch her daddy kill her momma.
Cade~
When my phone rang at that time of night, it was normally not to share good news. Usually, it was Clay drunk somewhere or about to get the shit beat outta him by some pissed off husband or brother or dad. So I was surprised when I saw the name on my caller id.
“Hey, Suzy Q. What’s goin’ on?” I asked waitin’ to hear her voice. What I heard next scared the hell outta me.
“Uncky Cade...daddy’s hurtin’ momma. He’s pullin’ her down the stairs. Come help us, Uncky Cade. I’m so scared. Daddy’s hollerin’ at me. I have to go downstairs.”
“Izzy B, what’s goin’ on? Where are you at right now, hon?” I asked while I pulled my boots on and headed out to my truck. Thank God she called me on my cell phone.
“I’m in the extwa woom, upstairs. I’m hidin’. But Daddy yelled at me, so I need to go down to him.”
“No, hon. You don’t. Your momma needs you to stay right where you are. Uncle Cade will be there soon. I want you to stay on the phone with me, ‘kay?”
“Kay, Uncky Cade. I won’t hang up. I’m so scared. Momma looked so scared when Daddy was pullin’ her hair. He was pullin’ it really hard. Momma looked so sad.”
That bastard pulled her hair and pulled her down the stairs? What the hell? That fuckin’ man wasn’t gonna live to see tomorrow.
“Izzy B, has your daddy hurt your momma before?” I asked, but goddamn I didn’t want to know the answer.
“Yes. He yells at her all the time and momma cwies so much, Uncky Cade.”
“Sweetie girl, why didn’t you ever tell me that?”
“Momma told me not to tell anybody what Daddy does.”
What kind of man was I that I didn’t know this was goin’ on?
“Izzy B, I’m at your house. I want you to stay right where you are and don’t hang up the phone. I’m gonna come in the house and check on your momma.”
I pulled in the driveway and flew into the house. I’d grabbed my shotgun outta the back of my truck and I was fixin’ to blow that asshole’s head off. I heard her moanin’ in the kitchen. The sight in front of me stopped me dead in my tracks.
Suzy Q was layin’ on the kitchen floor. She was covered in blood and curled up in the fetal position holdin’ her stomach. She was whimperin’ and shakin’ all over. She was awake. Thank God she was alive.
“Where the fuck is he?” I whispered as I leaned down toward her.
“Gone. Where’s Isabella? Find my baby, Cade. Don’t let him hurt my baby.” She was frantically tryin’ to push herself up off the floor.
“Just stay here. I’ll go find her.” I pulled the phone outta my pocket. “Where you at, baby girl?”
“Is she on the phone? She called
you
? You were on the phone?” Suzy Q whimpered as I nodded and started upstairs to find Izzy B.
When I got upstairs, I saw Izzy B sittin’ in the doorway of the extra bedroom. I scooped her up in my arms and the poor thing was shakin’ all over. “It’s okay, Izzy B. Uncle Cade’s here now and I won’t let your daddy hurt you or your momma ever again. I promise.”
She put her little arms around my neck and hugged me with all her might. “Thank you for saving me, Uncky Cade. I wub you.”
“Uncle Cade loves you too, baby girl. Always.”
Suzanna~
I didn’t argue with Cade when he told me we were going home with him. I knew it was for the best. I knew we had to leave that house. So many bad memories were attached to that house. It had always just been a house. It had never felt like a home to me.
Cade helped me sit up at the table. He had gone upstairs and grabbed some of my stuff and Isabella’s stuff and threw it into an overnight bag. He walked over to me and he looked more pissed off than I had ever seen him look. His jaw was locked and his eyes were dark and he was scarin’ me a little bit. I knew he would never hurt us, but he really wanted to hurt someone. I knew who and I really didn’t want to have this conversation with him tonight.