Authors: Nicole Chance
Tags: #Romance
Drew would not stop texting me. I never thought I’d regret writing my number on that signup sheet.
I miss you. Can we talk?
Why haven’t you been showing up to practices?
I’m sorry about what happened.
I need to talk to you. I might have my issues, but nothing like your husband. I can help you.
Please. Let me help you.
Each and every text pained my heart when I read them, but I had to delete them immediately. Matt narrowed his eyes every time he heard my phone buzz. I learned to silence it and keep it on me at all times.
“I’m going to The Pink Room,” Matt grunted. He chugged another beer and tossed the can onto the floor. “You seen my keys?”
He didn’t need to be driving, but it didn’t matter to me anymore. If he died, Jase and I were free. Perhaps it was morbid, but some days, it seemed like that was the only way out.
“Right here,” I replied, picking them up from the coffee table. “Here.”
He grabbed them and lit his cigarette. I hated when he smoked around our son.
“I’ll be back late. Don’t wait up.”
As instructed, I didn’t wait up. Instead, I went to bed around eleven and prayed that Jase would stay asleep.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t Jase that woke me up. It was Matt, and he was infuriated.
After he drunkenly slammed the door behind him, he started screaming for me. I pretended to be asleep and hoped that he would calm down. Then, he started slamming cupboards. Jase began to cry.
“SHUT THAT BABY UP!” he yelled. “AND GET YOUR ASS OUT HERE!”
I rubbed my temples and got out of bed. I did not want to face him. I knew he would take it out on Jase if I didn’t, though. It was my responsibility to protect him.
“Coming!” I shouted, slipping on my robe.
I walked out the bedroom door and started looking around. Finally, I found him. He was in the bathroom, going through the medicine cupboard. I wondered if he was looking for the rubbing alcohol again.
“I’ve told you a hundred times, Matt. You can’t drink that,” I grumbled. “Stop.”
“I ain’t lookin’ for that!” he shouted. “I’m lookin’ for superglue. A needle and thread. Gauze. Anything.”
“What do you need those for—oh my God!”
He closed the medicine cupboard and I got a glimpse of his face. His face was bloodied and bruised. Assault was probably too light of a word for whatever had happened to my husband. Oddly enough, he had done much more damage to me in the past and he wouldn’t even acknowledge that it looked bad. Maybe this was his karma.
“What
happened?
” I asked.
“I’ll tell you what happened,” he spat. “That guy—the one we met at the bar. He was at the strip club tonight. Why is he so obsessed with what I do to my own woman? Jesus Christ.”
I looked down at the floor. I was trying my best not to act suspicious. Matt had a sixth sense for that kind of thing, though.
“You mean that big guy? The one with the chick that stopped us a few months ago?” I asked, trying to play it off. “What’d you do to piss him off?”
He turned and glared at me.
“
Apparently
, he’s still mad about what happened in the bar,” he grunted. “If you ask me, the dude was just lookin’ for a fight.”
I nodded, still staring at the floor.
“Yeah, sounds like it. Guy is an animal,” I mumbled. “Do you need to go to the ER?”
He shook his head.
“No, but I guarantee that the other guy’s gonna be going to the ER. Me and my buddies did a little number on him. Hurt him so bad he couldn’t even get up. You know the idiot’s got a bad arm? Comes swinging at me with his good one. Can’t block with the other. What a dumbass!”
I reached into the medicine cabinet, trying to hide my discomfort.
“W-well, he had it coming.”
He cocked an eyebrow as I applied some gauze and surgical tape to his face injury.
“Something wrong with you?” he asked. “You seem nervous.”
I smiled and shook my head.
“I just don’t like seeing you hurt.”
As the days passed, Matt’s face began to look better and better. The swelling was going down, and I knew I should have been happy, but part of me wasn’t. Part of me wished he and Drew could’ve traded places. Drew never deserved to be beaten up by Matt and his cronies.
I was changing Jase’s diaper when Matt peeked into the nursery. He looked like he was up to something.
“Hey there,” I said, cheerily, trying to avoid conflict. “What’s up?”
“What’s up?” he asked. “Is that all you got to say for yourself?”
I finished putting on Jase’s diaper and furrowed my brow. I had no idea what he was talking about.
“I mean…I guess so. What’s wrong?” I asked.
He held up my cell phone. Suddenly, my insides were in knots. I just hoped that Drew had taken the hint to stop texting me.
“Yeah? What about it?”
I had to play dumb. It was my only chance. I didn’t want Jase to witness any more violence.
“Well, from what I gather, it looks like this fella was here just the other day, huh?” he asked, flashing the screen at me. “Here. Let me read these. ‘Hey, sweetie, I was wondering how you were doing.’”
“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about. I never read those—”
“Yeah, but they’re in your phone, ain’t they?” he accused, towering over me in anger. “This guy’s name is Drew, huh? Funny that happens to be the name of the guy that beat my ass the other day. You didn’t think I’d find out, did ya? I heard him give his name when he was tabbing out at the strip club.”
“I-I have no idea who that is. It must just be a coincidence—”
“Coincidence, eh?” he asked, his face purple. “Is it a coincidence that he asks why you haven’t been making it to the library? So that’s what these little study trips were for. So you could go hook up with this guy. Real nice, Aimee. Real goddamn nice.”
He kept getting closer and closer to me. He was going to hit me as soon as I gave him the chance. I just knew it.
“You can’t accuse me of something I didn’t even know was in my inbox!” I shouted. “He could be a stalker. I don’t know who sees me at the library.”
He got in my face. Hatred was in his eyes.
“Do you think I’m stupid, Aimee? Do you really think I’m so dumb I’d believe a word you said?” he screamed. “I know you’ve had this guy in my house. I know you’ve been seeing him since before the bar. You always say you don’t give me a reason to act the way I do, but Jesus Christ, Aimee. You do this kind of thing? We’re married. I ain’t your boyfriend. I’m your husband.”
“I didn’t do anything,” I sobbed. “And what about all the times you cheated on me?”
“Yeah, and I said I was sorry!” he shrieked.
Jase was crying again. We were terrible parents.
“Except I actually had real proof,” I muttered, crossing my arms. “You just have some text messages in a phone. Messages I never read or responded to.”
“God, I’m so sick of you being such a smart mouth!” he growled.
And then he did it. He hit me, right across the face, as though I were a grown man. I tumbled backwards and my head hit the window sill.
I thought he was finished, but he wasn’t. He came in for a kick in the rubs. I cried out in agony.
Then, suddenly, I heard a knock on the door.
“What the—did you call the police?” he spat. “Did you?”
I shook my head. I hadn’t had a chance to. If he were sober, he would’ve known that.
“N-no,” I stammered. “I-I haven’t been able to get to a phone—”
“That’s right,” he grumbled. “Probably also why you didn’t get to those messages to delete them before I saw, huh? You stay put. I’m going to go get the door.”
I couldn’t have moved even if I wanted to. I watched him walk to the front door and crack it open.
Then, I saw my savior.
“Is uh—is Aimee home?” Drew asked. “I need to talk to her.”
“Anything you need to say to her, you can say to me,” Matt retorted. “Unless you planning on going back there and screwin’ her under my own roof. Again.”
Drew and I had never had sex in the apartment.
“I don’t know what you think has been going on, but I think you really need to lay off the drinking,” Drew said. “Now, if you’d please just let me check on Aimee, I’ll be on my merry way.”
Matt shook his head.
“Fuck you.”
Then, Drew took a swing. Matt toppled to the floor and Drew came bolstering in. His face was bruised and bloody—much more so than Matt’s even on the night that the fight had happened. I could only imagine how it must have looked a few days back.
“You alright?” he asked me, leaning down to help me up.
My body ached, but I fought the pain and got to my feet. I rushed over to Jase and picked him up.
“It’s okay, baby,” I whispered. “It’s okay.”
Then, I saw something behind Drew. Matt was moving.
“Watch out!”
It was too late. Matt pulled him into a headlock. Drew tried to fight him off with his good arm, but Matt had too strong of a hold on him.
Suddenly, Matt lost his footing and they ran into the desk.
I had lit a candle there earlier to get rid of the smell of Jase’s dirty diapers.
As the candle toppled to the ground, the wick touched the nearby curtains. Before I knew it, there was a wall of fire before me.
Then, it all went black.
Machines were beeping. My eyes fluttered open and I began to take in my surroundings. Everything hurt, but parts of me felt numb at the same time. I opened my mouth to speak, yet I couldn’t.
I heard a chuckle. I had no idea someone was in the room with me.
“You’re on a lot of pain medication right now, Mrs. Arnold,” the voice said.
They sounded so distant. I could not even tell if the voice belonged to a man or to a woman.
“Your side was burned very badly during the fire in your apartment. We have done some skin grafts and you should be back to normal soon,” the voice went on. “This is about the tenth time I’ve told you, so hopefully you’ll remember this time.”
“D-do er—do I er—have a-a—maybe a concussion?” I rambled.
I couldn’t put my words together.
“No concussion,” the voice replied. “Dr. Sanchez was very sure of that. This is all just from the pain medication.”
“M-my baby.”
“Your baby boy is fine. Luckily for him, your friend got him out of the building right before he could sustain any major injuries. He was a real hero.”
“W-where uh—where is he? I’d—um—I’d like to say thanks.”
The voice laughed.
“He is in the same place you are—just a different unit. He and your husband are being treated. They both sustained some pretty serious burns. Your husband—he is not in good condition.”
“M-Matt?” I asked. Things were starting to become clearer. “Where is he? Is he going to be okay?”
The doctor gulped.
“We’ll see soon, Mrs. Arnold. For now, I think you need to get some more rest. Are you in pain?”
“In some places,” I admitted. “Some of that is from—” I cleared my throat. “—falling down the stairs.”
She looked skeptical.
“I see,” she murmured. “And is that what your husband and this man were fighting about?”
I thought about it for a minute.
“No. They were fighting over—over something that happened in a bar.”
The doctor nodded.
“Okay, then. I’ll be back to tell you how your husband is doing. Would you like anything to eat? I can send a nurse up.”
I shook my head. I couldn’t even think about food.
“Try to drink some water. There’s a bottle on the nightstand.”
And with that, she left.
I must have fallen back asleep. The painkillers made everything feel like a dream.
“Sorry to wake you, Mrs. Arnold, but I thought you’d like to know about your husband’s condition,” the doctor said. “He’s doing great, but he
is
going to require a lot of at-home care.”
I could hardly hear her. My vision was fuzzy.
“And what about Drew?” I whispered.
It wasn’t the first question I should have had.
“Drew is going to be just fine. He needed a few skin grafts, but they were mostly on his paralyzed arm,” the doctor explained. “If you’d like, I can have him wheeled in to see you, but you won’t be able to see your husband until one of you is mobile.”
“I-I’d like that.”
The doctor instructed the nurse to fetch Drew. It did not take long before I saw a large blur in what seemed to be a wheelchair.
“I’m uh—I’m sorry about your apartment,” he muttered. “I just uh—I guess we bumped into the table and—”
“Why did you come over?” I asked.
“What?”
“My apartment. I told you it was off limits. Why did you come over again?”
He closed his eyes.
“I figured something was wrong when you didn’t respond to my text messages. Turns out I was right. If I didn’t come, he coulda killed you.”
“And you could’ve killed all of us!” I shouted. “Where am I supposed to go? Where am I supposed to live? My husband might need extensive care! They don’t even know for how long! It seems like you got the most out of this whole situation!”
He sighed.
“I wasn’t trying to stroke my ego. I just didn’t want you to get hurt. He beats your ass, Aimee! It’s completely unacceptable!”
“Shhh!” I hissed. I lowered my voice. “If they hear you, they’ll get child services involved. I can’t lose Jase.”
“And Jase can’t be around that kind of shit, Aimee!” Drew shouted. “You can’t let this go on forever!”
“This isn’t the time to leave, Drew! Not when things are so messed up. Not when—not when he needs me.”
“So that’s how it is,” Drew grumbled. “Fine. Just fine. If you want to let him keep doing this, be my guest. I’m not gonna come to your rescue anymore, Aimee. It’s becoming a bit too dangerous.”
He wheeled out.
It was goodbye.
It took several more days before I was mobile, but they updated me on Matt’s progress every day. The skin grafts took time to heal. Childbirth was the only thing as painful as the burns—and at least childbirth only was fourteen hours. The pain from the burns lasted
weeks
.
“Are you ready to see your husband for the first time in almost a month, Mrs. Arnold?” the nurse cooed. “I can’t imagine how hard this has been on both of you.”
In all honesty, I had enjoyed the time away from my husband.
“Yes, it was the worst,” I lied. “Never want to go through it again.”
She wheeled me into Matt’s room. There he was, loaded on painkillers, and a grin on his face.
“Aimee! My darling Aimee,” he sang. “I missed you so much!”
He reached out to hug me. I looked up at the nurse, who grinned and wheeled me closer.
“I’ll just leave you two alone. I’ll be back in about fifteen minutes,” she whispered, before scurrying off.
“They say I’m gonna be alright, you know,” he said. “Bunch of skin drafts but the drugs are pretty good, eh? They give you some of the good stuff too?”
“Yeah,” I murmured, uncomfortably. “They gave me loads of it. Kinda needed it for the burns and all.”
“Well, and all those bruises.”
I averted my gaze. I knew he was taunting me.
“Y-yeah. From the fall.”
He smirked.
“Yeah. Down the stairs. Took a little tumble.”
He was making my uneasy.
“I-I love you. We’ll get you in-home care,” I stammered. “For your burns.”
His eyes were glazed over from the painkillers.
"A cute li’l twenty-something-year-old nurse would be nice,” he mumbled. “Someone to take care of me while you heal. I know you won’t—I know you won’t be wantin’ to do it for awhile but I got needs even when I’m a cripple.”
I could not believe his concerns were so shallow during a time so dire.
“Well, we’ll see. Have you gotten to see Jase? They brought him in to see me for a little bit. He’s fine. They’re letting him stay with my mom.”
He gazed at me, groggily.
“Are we gonna get him taken away?” he asked.
I shook my head and smiled.
“No.”
“Good,” he whispered. “His dad might have some problems but I love him. He’s my boy, you know.”
I bit my lip.
“You don’t really have
problems
, though,” I tried to rationalize.
He looked me in the eye and chuckled.
“I have problems, Aimee. You know it. I know it. Hell, that’s probably why you’re screwing that psycho that jumped me,” he rambled. “There are things I think about that you don’t even want to hear.”
I gulped.
“Try me.”
He laughed a little. The painkillers were giving him loose lips. I was going to take advantage while he was immobile.
“Just last week. Jase was cryin’, right? His diaper smelled. He’d smeared his food all over the walls. I was drunk. It was a lot on my plate.”
I looked down.
“I know what you mean. I’ve been there.”
He gave me a dark look.
“You haven’t thought what I’ve thought though, Aimee. I wanted to
kill
him. I thought about
strangling
him. Lucky you grabbed him before I did. He might’ve died that night, had you not picked him up. You know that?”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
I called for the nurse so I could be taken away from his presence. I didn’t know what to think, but I certainly knew I couldn’t let Matt be around Jase ever again.
It was the last straw.