by JL Hallow
Greg nodded. “I do. I have a wife. We’ve been married for thirty-four years next month. We have two sons and three daughters. Both my wife and I come from big families, so naturally we had a large one of our own. How about your daughter? You just have the one?”
Those sad emotions quickly turned into something lighter when Victoria was mentioned. The little girl was her pride and joy, her biggest success in life. “Yes, just the one. She’s only four and her name is Victoria. That little girl is my heart and soul. I would have loved to have a second, but not with Aaron. I’m not sure if that will ever be in my cards. It’s hard enough having one child in the middle of this, can’t imagine two of them. But you never know where the chips will fall.” One day, maybe, she’d have another child.
“She used to ask about a brother or sister. She used to be blissfully unaware of what was happening too, but then it wasn’t just me he was hitting. I didn’t know the first couple times. He didn’t do it in front of me and Victoria wrote those bruises off the same way I did. It took a couple of times to realize what was happening but then he did it in front of me one night at dinner. And suddenly, it all clicked. I knew exactly what was really going on, I packed a bag and I left that night. It was the hardest thing I ever had to do but the moment he laid a hand on her, it suddenly became the easiest thing I’ve ever done.” She was barely taking a breath between words. “It was the smartest thing I ever did though. She was the reason why I was able to go. If she was never born…Honestly, I’d probably be dead by now. Staying safe and hidden for a while had been difficult at first but it got easier. I’m lucky to have people in my life that care about the two of us.”
“When did the abuse start?” He asked softly.
Grace lifted her uninjured hand and ran her fingers through her hair. “It all started after we got married. We went from this fairy tale couple, husband and wife after a few years of dating, normal you know? To…something that wasn’t even considered a couple anymore. Two people living in the same house with completely separate lives. We were only married for two years when I got pregnant the first time.”
“I lost that baby the same night I found out he was cheating after she called our house instead of his cell phone. Talk about an emotional roller coaster, eh?”
“Tell me about that; the first baby.” His words were gentle.
Chapter Seven: Loss
Six years earlier, Grace
It was a typical night with Aaron. Well, typical? Not so much, but she had found this was her new normal. There was screaming, cursing, and flying objects. It wasn’t always like that, none of the bad things had started until after he picked up his drinking habit.
“Just stop!” Grace hollered, her hand was gripped around the knife in her hand.
She knew she would never use it but it seemed to make her confidence grow. “Who is she?” Grace demanded again.
“No one. Someone from work. Another dispatcher that needed a shift covered.”
“Bullshit. Buuuullllshit, Aaron. I know the dispatchers. You seem to forget how small your department really is.”
“New hire.” He shot back.
“You’re a fucking liar.” She whirled around to face him.
“Okay, let me rephrase it then, it’s none of your fucking business who she is.”
Grace braced herself against the counter and looked him dead in the eye, the knife giving her all the courage she needed to spit the words in his direction. “I’m pregnant.” She was beyond tired of this bullshit.
What happened to make everything change? Where had the nice, country boy gone? What did she do to deserve any of this? In the six months after their wedding, her world had shifted on its axis. The man she thought she knew over the last four years? Gone. Replaced by something she hated, replaced by the demons he refused to get help for.
The anger seemed to melt away from his face, his mouth was left agape as his grip on the metal pan loosened and sent it clattering to the floor. Aaron was trying to process her words but failing to believe them. “You’re… you’re what?” He paused.
For a moment, there was nothing but silence, and Grace embraced it. For the first time in almost six hours he had stopped screaming. Six. Long. Hours. She was starting to regret confronting him about the phone call. His voice was rubbing away at her nerves and she was about ready to snap.
It wasn’t often she found the backbone to yell back but that night, she was a mama bear with an unborn cub to protect. Aaron glared at her, the anger suddenly returning just as quickly as it had left, this time it was in full force. “It’s not mine.” He stated.
He wasn’t accusing her, he was stating those words as fact. That child wasn’t his. Despite what he told her in the beginning, he didn’t want children. Not with her, not with any woman. He already had to listen to enough from Grace. Add a child to the mix? The stress of a kid? No, that was no longer an option on the table.
“That’s right. I’m pregnant. And it is yours. Unlike you, I don’t cheat.” She barked out a short laugh. “What happened to that man I met years ago? You were so sweet, Aaron. The man I fell in love with? Yeah, he was a good person. Now? Now look at you. When was the last time you didn’t touch a bottle for a day? You’re pathetic.” She shook her head, another laugh escaping her as she turned back to chopping the carrots in front of her.
Her laughing only fueled his rage. No longer able to contain himself, Aaron shot forward. An instant later, he had her hair tangled up in his hand, yanking her head backward. “How long?” He growled. How far along was she and was it too late to do anything about it, was what he was actually asking.
“Five and a half months.” She snarled back, the hand holding the knife shaking violently.
“You’re a fucking liar, you’d be showing already if you were that far along. You’d have a bump at the very least.”
Grace was lying about how far along she was. She was still pretty early into the pregnancy, maybe two months; a hard maybe but she wasn’t about to tell him that. Without thinking, Grace turned that knife on him. Her hand darted up, aiming for his arm. She had every intention of slashing his flesh with the sharp object.
That swing of the knife had been her greatest mistake. His free hand sprung up from his side and grabbed a hold of her wrist, twisting it violently until she screamed out and dropped the knife to the ground. It fell to the floor and a quick glance confirmed it was out of her reach. Aaron yanked her head back and threw it forward, smashing her face on the side of the counter. He didn’t say or do a thing when her body slumped to the floor, unconscious. He snarled, not bothering to check if she was still breathing as he stepped over her crumpled body. He did, however, make sure to grab the car keys hanging by the front door when he left the house.
~
When she finally came to, her head was pounding; a deep, dull, throbbing against her skull. Grace whimpered, pulling her wrist to her chest. Her body ached, protesting with almost every move she made, and the room was spinning around her. Gingerly placing her right hand out, she pushed herself up into a sitting position and leaned against the cabinet. She took a second to compose herself before digging her phone out of her pocket. She was surprised the screen hadn’t been broken during the struggle. Her hand hovered over the nine button as she debated calling 911. Aaron was 911 and the last thing she wanted to do was call attention to their house and the situation. Instead, she dialed the number for her childhood best friend.
Caroline Donovan had been friends with Grace for eighteen years before she met Aaron. Like everyone else, she had been fooled by that soft-talking farm boy. It wasn't until he stopped letting Grace go out with her, and Grace started making ridiculous excuses, that Caroline started to catch on. And this tear-filled phone call? It wasn’t the first over the last few months, and she was positive it wouldn’t be the last from Grace. That didn’t mean she would leave Grace high and dry though. Granted, she would never understand why her friend stayed with the man, and neither did her husband Mike, bu
t there was only so much they could say and do.
She pulled up to the house a half an hour after hanging up with Grace and let herself in the front door with the spare key. “Grace?” Moving into the kitchen, she paused to glance down at her friend on the floor.
Her forehead already had a growing lump with a two inch gash and her wrist was twisted at an odd angle. “Jesus, that fucker.” Caroline bent over and helped Grace to her feet.
Once she was upright, her arm snaked around her waist to help steady her while she guided her through the front door, walking her to the car. Caroline stopped long enough to grab her purse on the way out the door, sure they would need the insurance card.
~
Four hours later, Grace shifted uncomfortably on the hospital bed. “Can I go now?” She asked, annoyance growing in her words.
Aaron would be home soon and when he got home and found out she wasn’t there, there would be hell to pay. More hell than what she had already been dealing with. The short, stout nurse turned to face her, long blonde hair tucked at the top of her head in a sloppy bun. She glanced up from her clipboard, “Honey, you’re pregnant, you fell downstairs, or so you say, your lip is busted, you have an egg on your forehead that still needs some stitches, and we need to cast that broken wrist.” She glared at Grace before scribbling something down on the chart. “You’ll be here for a while, sit tight.” She said, turning to walk out.
Grace sighed and looked around the room, flopping back against the bed with her hand on her stomach. It was no different than any other hospital room she had been in; White-walled and sterile, reeking like disinfectant. That distinct smell always made her nostrils twitch. The cabinets above the sink had all the basic medical supplies; the purple gloves placed to the right of the faucet came in three sizes, the heart monitors were to the left of the all white bed. It was plain, very plain. The only pop of color was a tacky dull green and pepto pink curtain to block the window that would have given her a view of the hallway.
Grace yanked the sheet over herself. There was a chill in the air from the air conditioning that left her shivering. Her eyes began to close just as Dr Armstrong came back into the room. He paused to look at her, studying her with those intelligent green eyes. She was sure he saw the bruises around her wrists, her neck. They were faded, weeks old, but they might as well have had neon signs pointing at them. Those were evidence of a fight weeks prior.
“So the nurse tells me you took quite the fall down a flight of stairs, is that true?”
No, she thought. “Yes.” She replied.
He threw her a sideways glance “How many months along are you?”
“I don't know exactly. Almost three, I think.”
He jotted more down on the chart then turned to face her “Did you fall down the stairs? Or were you helped down those stairs?” Blunt, to the point but what did she expect from a mandated reporter?
Grace knew the drill. “I fell” she repeated, jerking her gaze away. “Look, can you just tell me if the baby is okay and let me go on my way?”
“We’re going to keep you here for a few more tests. I want to do a blood test and an ultrasound and from there we want to keep you overnight to monitor you and the baby. And just for good measures I want to keep you on that IV overnight as well. You’re pretty dehydrated.”
Grace felt the tears well and her throat tightened but she nodded anyway. “Okay.” What else was she going to say?
She waited until he walked out of the room to grab her phone. The first text was to Caroline, letting her know what was happening and that she was being kept overnight for observation; that and the orthopedic doctor wouldn’t be in until the following morning to cast her wrist properly, so she should head home.
Thankfully, it wasn’t bad enough to need surgery. It was just a nasty fracture.
Her next text message was to Aaron. ‘I won’t be home tonight. I was brought to the hospital to check on the baby and have my wrist put in a cast. They want to keep an eye on me overnight. I’ll be home first thing in the morning and leave the mess, I’ll clean it.’
Like she expected, her text wasn’t returned. Not an ‘are you okay?’ No, ‘I’m sorry about what I did’…nothing. If he hadn’t picked up an extra shift, he was probably picking up some chick at a bar. Or maybe even another bottle. Whatever, his issue, not hers. Grace rolled onto her side and did her best to get comfortable. It wasn’t easy, but eventually she managed to fall into a deep but fitful sleep.
Sometime around three A.M, Grace shot up with wide eyes. Pain rippled through her abdomen. She didn’t have to look down to know she was bleeding. Her shaky hand moved to grab the call button, pressing the small red symbol three times before an unfamiliar voice crackled through the tiny speaker. “How can I help you?”
“I’m bleeding.” No emotion, her tone was completely stoic. “I…uh… I think… I think I’m having a miscarriage.” She was so unsure.
Those cramps couldn’t be normal and the blood? Oh God, the blood. That fragile female was bawling by the time the night shift nurse walked into the room.
“Oh honey. It’s okay. It’s going to be alright.” She was by her side in a flash. “Come on, let’s get you into the shower and get you cleaned up. My name is Denise, I’m your nurse for tonight.”
Denise helped her work her body off the bed and guided her toward the bathroom.
Keeping one hand on her upper arm, her other one reached out to turn the shower on for her. Every so often she stuck her hand under the water to test the temperature. When she was satisfied it was warm enough, she helped Grace take the ruined hospital gown off and step into the shower.
“Are you dizzy at all?” The nurse asked.
“No.” Grace said shaking her head.
“Okay, hold onto the bar. I need to go clean up in the other room but I’ll leave the door cracked and I’ll be in yelling distance. Okay?” With one last look, Denise vanished back into the main room.
It was a pretty quick clean up. The sheets were changed and replaced with fresh ones and when that was finished, she found a fresh gown for her, along with a pair of maternity panties with a pad.
Finished, she went back into the bathroom to check on Grace. “How are you doing in there?” Her voice was so gentle. “We’ll have the Doctor in shortly.”
The only thing more painful than having her wrist intentionally broken was the confirmation that she had indeed, lost the baby.
Chapter Eight: Conversation
Present Day, Grace and Greg
“So that was it. I had a miscarriage that night. It was the first of three before Victoria came along. The other two happened naturally, they had nothing to do with Aaron. She’s…my miracle baby. That night though? He left me alone in the hospital. He didn’t come that night; never answered his phone, never tried to reach out to me or even Caroline. Hell, he didn’t even pick me up when I was released the following day. Caroline came and got me. It was…difficult. I went home the next day and was ready to pack my stuff as soon as I walked in the door. I was so set on leaving that time; I finally had had enough. Caroline promised me a place to go where he couldn’t find me; It would be at her cousin’s in another state. He beat me home though. He was there before I even left the hospital and I couldn’t pack a damn thing when I got back.” Grace shifted in her seat, snuggling down into her coat.
The bitter cold was starting to get to her despite the heavy winter coat she had on. The Vermont winter was not kind that year and the snow was still falling hard. At this rate, it would be getting later, the temperatures dropping instead of rising and they would really be screwed. It was cold out, just below freezing when she checked before. The drop of adrenaline was a shock to her battered body and that did nothing to help cease the shivers.
“Are you cold, Grace?”
“Ah, a bit. Yeah, but I’ll be fine.” She had a blanket in the back of the SUV, if worse came to worst, she could make another trip through the snow to grab it. She realized she had stopped t
alking in the middle of explaining what happened when she made it back to the house, but before she could continue, Greg cut in.
Greg shook his head. “I’m sorry. I wish I had something better to say than that but I don’t think there’s anything I can say. What happened when he found you packing?” He was expecting her to say he lashed out and caused some more unfathomable damage but the next part of her story surprised him.
“I wasn’t packing. Not yet, I didn’t get a chance to. Caroline picked me up from the hospital…”
Chapter Nine: Safe
Six Years Earlier, Grace and Aaron; The following day
Thank God for Caroline, Grace thought as the tall blonde walked into the hospital room. “I brought you some clothes. Figured Aaron never showed up last night and you would want something comfortable to wear.” Caroline offered up a weak smile and handed over a small bag. “There’s a toothbrush and toothpaste in there along with a t-shirt and sweatpants. They’re mine. I…wasn’t going to head back to your place after all that. Just in case.” Caroline wasn’t terrified of Aaron but she didn’t trust him not to hurt her simply for helping Grace get to a hospital and Mike was working.
And who would she call if Aaron did do something? He was the law and this was a small town. “I’ll just be right outside in case you need me. Holler if you do.”
“Thanks Car, I owe you one.” She owed her more than one but that was beside the point.
She worried that Caroline would think she was angry with her for not staying the night, but Caroline had a husband and two small children of her own at home counting on her. Grace was a big girl, she could handle it herself. Well, it might have been a little difficult, but she managed.
