“Occupied!” I called out, just as the sound of the door being pushed open sounded.
I waited a heartbeat but didn’t hear anything else.
“I’m sorry, there’s only one stall in here. I’ll be right out!” I stated loudly. Again, there was no response. Pinching my lips, I felt a shiver of fear run through my veins. I stopped breathing when I heard heavy footsteps, sounding much heavier and more firm than the steps of any woman.
“H-hello? Who’s there? This is the women’s restroom,” I informed, hoping the person was just confused.
This time I wasn’t surprised when no response came, but the fear began to nearly choke me. I stood, pulling my pants up and then grabbing for the tube of pepper spray I kept in the bag I always carried with me.
“Hello!” I called again, this time much more firm.
Just as it sounded as if the person was on the other side of the door, the footsteps began moving farther away. I heard the door open and close again.
Trembling, I stood there with the pepper spray in my hands, but then I remembered … “The kids!” I whispered out loud right before pushing through the stall door and moving to the exit as quickly as possible. I needed to get to Kyle and Kennedy, to make sure they were all right.
I ran over to where I’d left Daniel with the children, and to my relief the three of them were playing a round of duck-duck-goose as Daniel dutifully watched over them. I turned, hand on my head, looking around for anyone that seemed to be standing too close or out of the ordinary. I tried to remember the self-defense tactics my instructor from years ago said about how to keep aware of your surroundings. No one nearby sent off any alarm bells. Most looked to be college students or retired individuals just taking in a fall walk in the park. I sighed, closing my eyes, willing my heart to slow down.
“Patience. Everything all right?”
I turned my eyes on a concerned looking Daniel.
“Everything’s fine. Just fine,” I muttered the last part.
Everything was definitely not fine.
****
“Thanks for waiting and for picking up Diego,” Michelle said as she pulled me in for a one-arm hug.
I waved a hand, dismissing her thanks. “It was nothing. Those three can’t get enough of one another.”
Michelle laughed. “That’s true. I hate that I’m late though. I had to stay late for a client and then I wasn’t feeling well.” She shrugged. “Anyway, where are the superhero costumes? Those should be the easiest to pick out for the boys.”
I nodded, looking around the high-end department store we’d entered to do the children’s costume shopping.
“Come on, Mama!” Diego urged Michelle, taking her by the hand.
“I guess they’re over there,” she laughed, looking toward me but then pressing her hand to her stomach.
I narrowed my gaze.
“You all go on ahead, I just need to grab something real quick.” Michelle gave little argument and the three children walked with her to the far end of the store where the costumes were held. I moved to the cooler that sat up front by the registers, grabbing a can of ginger ale and a small box of Saltine crackers. I quickly paid for my items and proceeded to open one of the packs of crackers while moving in the direction of the costumes.
“I want this one, Mama,” I heard Diego shout as I rounded the aisle.
I came to see him holding up an Aquaman costume.
“Kyle, you should get this one.” He pointed to a Spiderman costume.
“What about me?” Kennedy asked, frowning.
I moved closer to Michelle, as the three children debated, and talked amongst themselves. “These are for you,” I whispered in her ear.
She looked down at the food and beverage in my hand, her wide eyes then returning to me.
“That first trimester is a bitch, isn’t it?”
Her eyes ballooned even more. “Is it that obvious?”
I giggled. “Not to anyone who isn’t familiar with it.”
“Thank you,” she sighed, taking one of the crackers and biting into it.
“Those were the only things I could keep down during my first tri with those two.” I nodded in the direction of Kyle and Kennedy.
“I had such a smooth pregnancy with Diego. Hardly any symptoms beyond some mild queasiness. But this one…” She trailed off, shaking her head.
“It’s a Townsend. They come into this world making their presence felt from the very beginning.”
She giggled. “If this baby is anything like their father.”
I tutted. “Don’t I know it.”
We both laughed.
“How far along are you?”
“I’ll be twelve weeks next week. We wanted to wait until I passed the first trimester to tell anyone.”
I made a zipping motion across my mouth. “Your secret is safe with me.”
“I appreciate it. And these,” she stated, holding up the crackers. “I never really thought they worked but my nausea is so much better than when I walked in here.”
I winked at her. “Old tricks of the trade.”
We finished our shopping. I was happy Kennedy decided to stick with the superhero theme the boys had chosen and opted to be Wonder Woman. Unfortunately, my husband wasn’t going to be so thrilled about her choice in costume.
****
Aaron
“I told you to send me a picture of her costume,” I growled, arms folded over my chest as Patience and I stood in my downstairs office.
She poked out her hip, placing a hand on it, exposing just a tiny bit of the flesh of her abdomen in the sleeveless silk top she wore. “No. You told Kennedy to send you a picture but she doesn’t have a phone, so …” She shrugged.
“And her mother neglected to follow through on my request because?”
“Because I’m not your secretary. What’s the big deal anyway?” she asked, holding up her hands. “It’s just a Halloween costume.”
“What’s the big…Have you seen the costume? Have you seen that movie of a woman running around in some skimpy outfit? No,” I barked. “Take it back!”
“No!” Patience folded her arms over her breasts.
My chest tightened.
“Kennedy wants to be a superhero like her brother and cousin. That’s the costume she chose.”
“She’s five! She doesn’t get a choice!”
Patience sucked her teeth. “That seems to be your theme song. Not giving anyone a choice.”
I narrowed my gaze.
“Don’t look at me like I’m talking nonsense. You did it with me and this marriage. And you’re doing it to Kennedy. At least trying to.”
I took a threatening step in her direction.
“I’m not backing down, Aaron.” She dropped her hands as I took another step her way. “Kennedy wants this. You had no problem with Kyle’s costume.”
“Kyle’s costume covers him. My five year old daughter will not be out trick-or-treating in a costume that was designed by nerdy, middle-aged men to ogle a woman’s body!” I seethed.
“She’ll be wearing tights and we can get her to wear a cape, like in the movie.” Her voice was still full of resolve but it had softened just a little bit.
I ground my teeth, mulling over her words. I hated compromising. On anything. It was a sign of weakness.
“Please.”
“You’re still angry I forced your hand into this marriage?”
Her eyes blinked, a V deepening on her forehead. “Where’d that come from?”
“You just said it.”
“I didn’t–”
“You said I didn’t give you a choice in this marriage.”
She sighed, looking down and away from me. “You didn’t give me a choice. It was either marry you or lose my children.”
“Our children,” I corrected.
I should’ve felt some type of guilt or remorse but I didn’t. “You don’t enjoy your life here…with me?”
Another force of air from h
er lips. She shook her head. “Aaron, don’t do that.”
“Ask for your honesty?”
“Yes, you always ask for my honesty, my truth but never tell me yours.”
“I never tell you the truth?”
“When it suits you. You’ve never given me the full story–” She held up her hands. “No, we’re not doing this right now. This is about Kennedy being able to wear the costume she wants.”
“She’ll wear it with tights and a cape. A very long cape.”
“Fine.”
She waited, hesitated, to turn from me. I knew she wanted me to shed light on the events of our past. I knew that’s what Emma had meant when she said Patience and I had so much further to go to get to the place we deserved. Patience wanted me to explain Alicia, my ex-fiancée. The one who’d shown up on her doorstep as we’d slept in her bed, after yet another night of pleasuring one another into the wee hours of the morning. But I had no explanation. Not yet.
“I’m going to bed,” Patience informed, giving me one last look before turning and heading out of my office.
I watched her back until the door closed behind her. Picking out a bottle of water from the fridge, I opened the cabinet doors that held the TV monitors connected to the security cameras. I turned them on just in time to see Patience moving up the stairs then down the hall to our bedroom. I surveilled the monitors while she climbed into bed and pulled her Kindle out from the nightstand next to her side and began reading. I stared intently for some time, the contentment of just knowing she was mine was all I needed for the night.
Shutting the monitors off, I turned to the computer on my desk to finish up some work before I headed upstairs to bed myself.
Chapter Twenty-One
Aaron
“No! Stop! Please!”
I roused out of my sleep, anxious, every muscle in my body tensing, ready to fight.
“Stop! Stop!” came more shrieks from the woman lying beside me.
I reached up, turning on the bed’s overhead light. I glanced down to see Patience squirming in bed, her eyes tightly shut, but cries and pleas still pouring from her mouth. I relaxed but only a little at realizing she was just having a bad dream. Slowly, I turned to her, pressing a hand to her shoulder.
“Patience, wake up,” I said low in her ear. “It’s just a dream. Wake up, sweetness.” My voice was more soothing than I ever remembered. “Pati–” I was cut off when I had to duck from a fist that flew in my direction. I stopped a second fist, just an inch from my face. “Patience! Wake up,” I called more firmly, seeing she had turned from scared to violent. I wasn’t concerned for me, but I didn’t want her to harm herself.
Slowly her eyes opened, showing her sepia irises, but they still looked foggy. She looked around, confused. “The children!” she screeched before leaping off the bed and running to the door. I pushed the blanket from over me and made it through the door of our bedroom in three steps, only to see Patience darting into Kennedy’s room. A few seconds later she attempted to dart past me to get to Kyle’s room.
“Hey,” I called, wrapping my arm around her waist.
“I need to check on them!” she insisted, squirming, but my grip tightened.
“The children are fine. No one’s getting into this house.”
She blinked, looking up at me, her eyes cleared a bit but her breathing remained heavy.
I waited for her breathing to steady. “Come here.” Grabbing her by the hand, I pulled her behind me as I walked down the hallway and then down the stairs. When we arrived in the kitchen, I took out a bottle of water, handing it to her. “Drink,” I ordered.
She hesitated, but eventually took the bottle from my hand, taking a large gulp.
I stared at her hard, arms folded across my chest. I saw as she avoided eye contact, eyes flittering about the kitchen, everywhere except on me.
“I’m sorry for interrupting your sleep.”
“I don’t give a damn about my sleep.”
She finally looked up at me, clearing her throat. “I’m fine now. We can go back to bed.” She attempted to exit the kitchen only to be blocked by my body.
“Tell me,” I insisted. I’d known there was something wrong. Something off. She often had dreams that seemed to make her restless, past her usual wild sleeping behavior. I heard it in her voice that night before the way she’d called out my name.
“It was just a nightmare.”
“You don’t have nightmares.”
Her gaze sharpened on me. “You don’t know everything about me.”
I moved on her. “Tell me what I don’t know.”
She bit her lower lip.
“You can tell me now or I’ll find out my way.” I pulled her chin between my thumb and forefinger, turning her head up to me. “You won’t be able to sit for a week if I have to find out my way.”
“Bully,” she grumbled, pushing my hand away but not backing away from me. She cleared her throat. “I was attacked,” she stated just above a whisper.
I can’t even begin to describe the feeling that moved through my very bones. Rage was much too calm to describe it. “When? How?” My voice was filled with something indescribable.
She waffled a little, licking her lips before finally telling the entire story. “I was eight months pregnant, moved to Oakland just five and a half months earlier. I was living in an apartment complex in what I thought was a safe neighborhood. One night, in the middle of the night, I woke up to a man dressed in all black and a ski mask in my bedroom.” Her voice faltered. “I-I was terrified. As soon as he saw I was awake, he lunged to the bed, trapping me with one arm around my waist and another held a knife to my throat.” She wiped away a stray tear. “I begged him to not hurt me. But he said, I deserved it. Said that I was a lying whore who pretended to be innocent–” She stopped abruptly, and took a deep breath. “God, I remember every word he said. I should kill these babies right now, he repeated over and over. Kept calling me a liar. Then,” she swallowed, “he, uh, he began undoing his pants, saying he was going to force himself down my throat before he took me. I began to fight then. I punched him as hard as I could and tried to scramble off the bed to get away. He caught me by my ankle and dragged me back across the bed, punching me in the face first and then my stomach. I didn’t even feel the pain. I was so scared for the twins. I kicked and tried to claw at his face but he was all covered up. Finally, I landed a kick to his groin, which was still exposed. It gave me enough time to get away. I ran out of the bedroom, to my front door and into the hallway. I banged and knocked on three doors before a woman answered.” She peered up at me through a sheen of tears.
“Ms. Sheryl. She took me in, locked the door, and called the police. I hadn’t even realized I was bleeding until I saw her hands covered in it. I had a busted lip, cuts all over, and my stomach…the pain was horrific. By the time the paramedics arrived, they determined I was in full on labor, caused by the trauma. I gave birth at five in the morning, three hours after being attacked.” She wiped tears from her face, swallowing deeply.
“D–” I stopped, trying to rein in my feelings to not scare her even more. “Was he ever caught?”
She nodded. “Not that night but months later the police contacted me. By then I’d moved. Apparently, there was a serial rapist in the city. They connected him with a number of break-ins and assaults on single women in the area. There was no DNA left at the scene of my crime, except for mine, so they couldn’t connect him to my attack, but the police assured me they had the right guy. But …”
“But what?”
“I don’t know. I just, I can’t be a hundred percent sure. I never saw his face, no DNA.” She shook her head. “But the police were certain so I didn’t press it. I did my best to forget. I was just grateful Kennedy and Kyle were okay. They were born more than a month earlier than expected but there was no permanent damage from the attack.”
“You’re still having nightmares,” I commented.
“It happens every so often
. Just a side-effect, I guess.”
She was trying to downplay it. For my sake, not hers. She knew I wasn’t taking this well, though I hadn’t even said anything beyond a few questions.
“Aaron.” She came to me, tugging on my clenched fists. They were sealed so tightly my own fingernails had begun to dig into the palms of my hands.
Animalistic.
That was the only way to describe what I was feeling. My family had been in danger and I was nowhere around to protect them.
“Aaron, it was just a night–”
“Don’t.” It came out on a whisper but it still echoed around the kitchen. “Don’t downplay this.”
“I’m not,” she defended. “I-I’m just saying don’t feel whatever it is you’re feeling right now. I can see it in your eyes. You’re blaming yourself. It wasn’t your fault.”
“Who’s fault was it then? I should've–” I stopped, my fist going into wooden overhead cabinet. I heard Patience gasp. I pulled my fist back, seeing the blood from the impact and then the dent in the cabinet but not feeling the pain.
“No!” she yelped, grabbing my arm as I went to punch the cabinet again.
“You need to go to bed.”
She shook her head. “No.”
“Patience—”
“No! Come with me.” She pulled at my arm.
“I’m not going to do anything rash.”
“Then come to bed with me. Please…I need you.”
I grunted, but bent low to pick her up in my arms.
“I can walk.”
“So?”
She folded her arms around my neck and laid her head on my shoulder as we ascended the stairs. I carried her into our bedroom and laid her on her side of the bed.
“We need to clean your hand and put some ice on it.”
“In the morning.” I knew my hand would be throbbing by the morning but I had no intention of worrying about it until then. Patience snuggled into my side, resting her head on my chest. She moved, wrapping my arm around her, until I squeezed her waist into me. Even being in this position that always seemed to calm the jarred edges of my emotions, wasn’t enough that night. By the time I heard my wife’s soft snores I had already formed a plan in my head on how I was going to handle this. I knew the first person I needed to see. She assuredly would be liking this visit with me even less than our last one.
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