by Lane Hart
Hours later, Mina comes out of the spa and just sits in her car without cranking it. I debate whether or not I should approach her; and right when I’m about to say fuck it and throw my leg over to climb off the bike, she pulls away. I hop back on and take off after her, knowing before she pulls up in the driveway where she’s headed --- the douche’s beach house.
Maybe she’s planning to confront him about the money or why he doesn’t give a shit about me and her fucking around behind his back. This could be it, the moment it all goes to hell.
So, I wait anxiously to see how she looks when she comes out.
…
Mina
After I have my pedicure and manicure appointment that I waited too long to be able to cancel, I call Derek and tell him I’m on my way over to his place. I need to talk to him and get some answers about the things Patrick said last night.
“Hey,” Derek says with a smile when he opens the door. He’s dressed in a dark suit and looks like he was about to walk out the door.
“Hey,” I reply, letting him wrap his arms around me and kiss my cheek but not without tensing up. For three years we’ve been together, two of them we’ve been intimate at least once a week. And yet right now, after the last few days with Patrick, I want to push him away. Thankfully, he finally drops his hands and lets me come inside. “Getting ready to head to Mike’s office?” I ask.
“Yeah. Criminals go all out around the holidays. They’ve been swamped, so I’m just helping out with drafting motions and shit. It’s good experience,” he trails off while running his eyes up and down my jeans and slim-fitting black crew neck tee that hides Patrick’s dog tags. By the look on Derek’s face, you would think I was standing here in my underwear.
“I’ve missed you, babe,” he says. “With my internship and all the wedding planning, we haven’t been alone in almost two weeks.”
He raises a hand, reaching for my waist; and this time I can’t help when I step back before he touches me. There’s such an obvious difference between him and Patrick. Just a brush of Patrick’s knuckle on any part of my body can make my skin flush scalding hot and my heart race. I can’t ever remember having the same sort of reaction with Derek, not even when he and I were in the middle of having sex.
God, why did I let Patrick leave? That was maybe the worst decision of my life.
“Hold on,” I tell Derek, raising my palm to stop him when he starts to move closer to me. I push all the other thoughts, the doubts out of my mind for now and try to focus on why I’m here. “There’s something I need to ask you.”
“Okay?” Derek asks with a huff, bracing his hands on his hips.
I glance around the room at all the cardboard boxes filled with my belongings sitting on the floor, waiting for me to move in and unpack them. Before this week, I thought of this place as an escape. Now, knowing my asshole stepfather doesn’t plan to leave me alone anywhere I go, it’s obvious my prison of misery is just being relocated, controlled by a new warden who could likely be owned by the devil himself.
“Is Mike paying your tuition? For this house? Your car?” I ask Derek.
“What? Are you serious?” he throws back at me with an indignant scoff. Yet, I continue to wait without responding since he didn’t actually give me an answer.
“The truth, Derek. That’s all I want,” I tell him.
He swallows so hard his Adam’s apple bobs. “No. And I bet I can guess who has been filling your head with that bullshit,” he says, jaw clenched. “Are you still fucking your brother?”
Shit.
“No,” I answer with a shake of my head. “He’s gone.”
“Good riddance. The asshole threw me against the wall and threatened me. After he ordered me to call off the wedding, he started telling me how loud you scream and how much you love fucking him. Did he tell you that?” Derek asks with a scowl.
“No,” I lower my eyes guiltily and reply, not that I’m really surprised. “Why didn’t you tell me? And why didn’t you say anything before now if you knew we were sleeping together?”
“We’re not married yet,” he answers, sounding unconcerned. “I figured he was just a final fling or whatever for you. It doesn’t mean I don’t think you love me or that you’ll cheat on me after we say our vows tomorrow.”
“No, I won’t,” I look up and assure him. “But what if I told you that I want to move to Miami? That I want you to cut all ties with my stepfather for good?”
“Why would you do that?” he asks with a creased forehead. “He’s offered me a place to work when I graduate. And I can’t just up and leave Northeastern, which was hard as hell to get into, by the way.”
“That’s what I’m telling you. I want you to work someplace else, anywhere else,” I tell him.
“What’s gotten into you, Willow?” he asks. “You’re fucking your stepbrother, and now all of a sudden you want to up and move?”
“Moving has nothing to do with Patrick. This is about me wanting to finally be safe for once in my life!” I yell at him.
“Safe from what? You grew up in a rich neighborhood and went to an elite private school, so you have no idea how unsafe the rest of the world is, babe.”
“Nowhere can be this bad,” I tell him.
“What are you talking about, Willow?” he asks. “Are you just using the moving thing as an excuse to call off the wedding? Is that what you want? If so, then just say it!”
“No,” I tell him, since leaving my stepfather’s house is better, one step away, even if he will insist on inviting himself over.
“Good,” Derek replies. “Then drop all this stupid shit, forget your asshole stepbrother, and I’ll see you in a few hours at the rehearsal,” he says, kissing me on the cheek before walking out the door.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Trick
I watch as the prick gets in his expensive sports car and leaves the house without Mina. It took all of my restraint not to go storming in there thinking of the two of them alone, of him possibly touching her. The painful jealousy is so intense I want to kill someone, but she’s made her decision. She’s gonna marry him, and there’s not a fucking thing I can do to stop it. It’s the shittiest feeling in the world knowing that tomorrow Mina will belong to another man. He’ll be the only one for the rest of her life who gets to hold her, taste her, fuck her while I go back to my pathetic lonely life wishing I was him.
A few minutes after law boy leaves, Mina steps out on the porch and locks up the house, but she doesn’t get in her car. Instead, she walks down the sandy path to the ocean. Leaving my bike, I walk down a ways further, past several houses to take the public access to the beach. Able to see her clearly from the walkway, I lower myself down onto the sandy stairs.
Mina’s sitting in the sand with her arms wrapped tightly around her legs. Even from this distance, I can see her shoulders shaking. She’s crying. I wish I knew why, and I wish I could be the one to comfort her. Does she miss me? Has she changed her mind about the wedding after talking to Derek? Did he admit to being bribed by her stepfather? God, I want to know every thought that’s in her head.
My questions are all answered a few hours later. Once Mina returned home, she and everyone else left moments later in her mother’s SUV. Of course, I followed them, all the way to a goddamned church. If there wasn’t going to be a wedding, she wouldn’t be having the rehearsal.
I feel sick to my stomach and know for certain that I can’t do this anymore, keep following her, hoping for an outcome I’m never gonna get.
Riding right past the church, I stop at the first bar I come to. I plan on drinking until I can no longer see the face of the women I love but who doesn’t want me.
…
Mina
There haven’t been many times in my life when I’ve missed my worthless, biological father who long ago abandoned our family, but now is definitely one of them.
The fact that Mike, my perverted abuser, is going to be the one who walks me down the aisle and giv
es me away makes me want to puke.
“You need to get more sleep tonight,” my mother frowns at me and says disapprovingly as we wait in the vestibule for the preacher and groomsmen to all get in place. “The makeup artist is gonna have a tough time covering up those dark circles under your eyes.”
“Uh-huh,” I mutter in response, knowing that I probably won’t get much sleep tonight either, and not by choice.
That belief is verified after my mother and the bridesmaids are directed by the wedding coordinator to go down the aisle. Mike and I are at the very end of the procession, which means I’m, unfortunately, left alone with him.
“Tonight you’re gonna pay for fucking my son under my roof,” he warns under his breath as he tightly grips my arm that’s linked with his.
“I hate you,” I tell him, the words out before I even consider holding them back.
“And I love making you hate me,” he replies. “In a few hours, you’re gonna despise me, abhor me, loathe me before I’m done with you.”
The wedding planner finally returns from the sanctuary and tells us it’s our turn to go right before the pianist begins playing “Wedding March.” As the devil and I begin our slow walk down the aisle of the mostly empty church, I realize that tomorrow at this time the place will be packed with friends and family. And instead of going back to my bedroom in the same house where this monster lives, I’ll be sleeping in the bed with my husband. There, I’ll very likely endure boring, unpassionate missionary sex before Derek comes without giving me even a hint of an orgasm and falls fast asleep.
At least Derek doesn’t repulse me and he would never force himself on me. In fact, I already have a feeling that I’ll be getting lots of headaches during our marriage, severe migraines, which Derek will know means I’m not in the mood to have sex with him. I may not ever be happy, but I’ll survive, though, both the days my perverted stepfather visits and the nights sharing a bed with a husband I don’t love.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Trick
After midnight, I throw back a few glasses of water as the numbness of the many hours of alcohol consumption begins to unfortunately wear off. Surprisingly, I’m even more depressed than I was to start with and find myself back on my bike, driving through the dark neighborhoods just to be near where she’s sleeping.
There are no lights on in the house except for a dim lamp in Mina’s bedroom. She must still be awake. I hope she’s up there having second thoughts about the vows she’ll be saying in a few hours. It’s not over until the preacher pronounces them man and wife. I haven’t exactly ruled out lurking around for the “speak now” part.
While I watch her bedroom from the driveway, a tall shadow passes through the light, too big for Mina’s lean frame or her fiancé’s.
What the hell?
Did she invite some other man over to fuck her tonight since I’m not available? Jesus, have I been wrong about how she’s felt about me this whole time? Was it nothing more to her than meaningless sex?
Needing to know for sure, I climb off my bike and slip around the side of the house to sneak into the back, remembering where the spare key is in one of the potted plants.
It’s time for me to get some answers, even if they’re not gonna be the ones I want to hear.
…
Mina
Around midnight, my bedroom door creaks open.
The inevitable.
All through the rehearsal dinner, Mike was happily refilling my mother’s wine glass before it could go empty; and then she had a few more glasses after we all got home. I knew what he was doing since it was a common occurrence whenever he intended to extend his nightly visits. He makes sure my mom’s passed out drunk for the hours of torture he had in store for me.
My warm sheets are wrenched off of me, the chill from the air conditioner making me shiver. A second later, he’s climbing on top of me, forcing me to my stomach with the weight of his body while yanking my pajama bottoms and panties down my legs.
“Fucking slut,” he snarls quietly, grabbing a fistful of my hair to jerk my head backward. “Now I’m gonna make you hurt for every time you avoided me.”
The first smack of the belt lands on my ass, so much harder than any other time before. I start to cry out in agony before he pushes my face down into the pillow.
Whap! Whap! Whap!
I’m barely able to catch my breath between each painful slap and struggle to get any air with the pillow covering my face.
“Next week we can be as loud as we want, can’t we?” he reminds me.
“St-stop!” I turn my face to the side as much as I can to tell him, the stuttered word still mostly muffled by the pillows.
“If you don’t shut up, I’ll make a special trip to Miami next week,” he warns.
“But Derek will see the marks tomorrow night…” I try to explain.
“Do you think I give a shit?” he asks, followed by more brutal smacks of the belt.
When they finally stop, his heavy, now naked body flattens mine into the mattress. His hands slip underneath me, harshly squeezing my breasts while his erection presses into the crease of my stinging ass.
“You’re really gonna regret being a whore. Remember how much you love when I take your ass?” he whispers next to my ear as he positions his dick to enter me.
“No, please don’t,” I beg, tears streaming down my face and puddling on the pillowcase. Nothing hurts as much as when he fucks me without any sort of preparation or lube. But it’s too late; he’s pushing inside me, tearing me open. Gripping my hair, he forces my face down into the pillow harder, nearly suffocating me to stifle my sobs of anguish.
“God, I love when you clench your ass, trying to keep me out. Only makes it tighter, even better for me,” he says as he starts slamming into me over and over again while I cry.
Suddenly, the bedroom door flies open, the sound of wood splintering and exploding before the overhead lights flickers on. Well, I guess my mom won’t be able to blissfully ignore what’s going on anymore now that she’s actually seen it taking place. Although, I’m sure she’ll think that I asked for it…
“What the fuck?” A deep masculine voice shouts.
Recognizing Patrick’s voice, my breath catches as my face turns in the direction of the doorway even with Mike’s grip still on the back of my head. Seeing Patrick standing there causes so many emotions to well up inside me --- surprise, happiness, and then humiliation when I see the obvious disgust on his face caused by seeing me participate in such depravity. I never wanted him to know about this or see me this way, because I couldn’t handle having him think I wanted it, or even worse, have him figure out the truth and then try to kill his own father.
“What? Did you think she was only a dirty little slut for you?” his father asks him. And then time seems to stand still as I wait for which god-awful conclusion Patrick will reach.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Trick
My mind still hasn’t made any sense of what my eyes are seeing.
Is this really happening? Am I actually looking at my father naked on top of Mina? Not just naked, but currently in the process of fucking her?
No, there’s no goddamn way…
Even though my father insulted me, he remains frozen, his fingers still tangled in her dark hair. Mina’s beautiful face is pressed into a pillow, her top still on and her bottoms pulled down with him buried inside of her. And I’m so fucking angry seeing anyone with her, especially him, that it feels like the room is spinning out of control. I grab the doorframe when the entire foundation underneath my feet begins to crumble.
“What? Did you think she was only a dirty little slut for you?”
Although it’s obvious what’s happening, it’s still not adding up. How could she?
Then, I see the tears and despair on Mina’s gorgeous, broken face and I know…
The day she sagged into a sobbing puddle on the floor, this is who she was talking about, my own fucking father!
“How did you get the marks on your ass?” I asked.
“He hit me with a belt,” she replied. “Twelve. Thirteen times.”
“You didn’t want it?”
She sniffled and shook her head. “No. It hurt. Really bad.”
The reason she had the welts on her ass; why she doesn’t like for me to take her from behind; the reason she would marry a man she doesn’t fucking love...
The pieces all fall in place right before my eyes.
“How long?” I ask through gritted teeth, my blood boiling.
“Get the fuck out!” my dad yells as he finally starts to move off of her to pull on some shorts. He doesn’t bother trying to cover Mina’s partial nakedness up, and I can see the bright, red streaks across her ivory ass. My feet are moving for a closer look before Mina reaches down and tugs her panties and bottoms back up to cover the welts.
The fear on my father’s face increases with each step I take toward him, both of my fists clenched by my sides.
Instead of him, I look back at the tearful face of the woman I love more than anything in this world and repeat my question. “How long, Mina?”
“Don’t be fooled, son. She’s a whore, begging me for it,” my father says quickly. “Tell him, Mina!”
I’m unable to glance away from her, waiting for her answer even though I already know the fucking truth. She can lie for him all she wants, but I see the pain in her eyes. Her mouth opens and closes several times before she says the three words that seal his fate. “Don’t kill him.”
My right fist rams into my father’s face so hard he instantly goes down, and I follow him to the ground. He’s out cold, not even able to try and block the blows that I rain down on his face over and over again.
“Patrick! Patrick, stop! He’s not worth it!”
Mina’s words are muted over the sound of the blood rushing through my ears as I keep pounding my fists into his bleeding face, his stomach, and his ribs.
