The Silencer: A Bad Boy MMA Romance

by Aubrey Michelle

  Ashley called her husband on her way home and told him how happy her mom was and how excited the girls were. Overwhelmed with too much grief and sadness, he didn’t respond as enthusiastically as she had hoped for, but she understood. That night, they spent the evening watching their favorite shows on Netflix as they cuddled on the couch. It was just what Keith needed; he seemed as though he was in a better place, even though the funeral was the next day.

  The next morning before the funeral began, Brenda called Ashley to find out what size shoes the girls wore as their old sneakers’ tags were faded and she couldn’t read the sizes.

  “Chloe wears a size 5 and Brooke’s probably about a size 3 by now. But, mom, you don’t have to buy them new shoes, we can afford it.”

  “No, I insist. I’ve never really been able to buy them anything before so I want to do this for my grandbabies,” she contended. “Plus, I thought it would be nice to buy them a little sympathy gift. I know that you’d said how much they loved Keith’s dad.”

  “Okay, what time are you bringing them home?” Ashley asked as she got ready for the funeral.

  “Oh, I don’t know. I figured after shopping, we’d have lunch and then I’d bring them home. Maybe around three or so? Will you be home by then?”

  “Yeah, we should be back by then. I hope.”

  As they attended her father-in-law’s funeral service, Ashley thought of how nice it was to leave the girls with her parents. Aside from being occupied with the funeral, she wondered how things were panning out with the kids at her parent’s house. Chloe was usually pretty cooperative, but Brooke could have a mind of her own when she wanted to. She hoped the girls were minding their manners while they were there. Keith seemed to be relieved not to have to chase the girls around, and it allowed them to socialize with the other adults. The whole process had been a long and tiring one, but at least the girls were having fun shopping with their grandma.

  §

  As Brenda began getting the girls ready for their shopping trip, Tim did nothing to offer any help. He laid on the couch, listening to his wife argue with the girls, explaining that they needed to get dressed. Chloe was already getting herself ready, excited to go on the trip, but Brooke was throwing a temper tantrum. Ashley had been in the process of potty training her, and sometimes she wouldn’t go when she needed to. She didn’t want to go potty before they left, insisting that she didn’t need to go.

  “You have to go potty so you can wear your big girl pants when we go shopping,” her grandmother explained to her.

  “But I want to wear my diaper!” Brooke yelled on the verge of tears.

  “No, your mom said that they were only for bedtime. In case you have an accident. I know you’re going to go soon because your diaper is dry right now. Let’s try to sit on the potty,” she attempted to reason with her.

  “No! I’m not going potty! I want my diapers!” Brooke continued shouting as she ran away from her.

  Aggravated, she turned to her husband and said, “I’m not taking her if she won’t go potty. She’ll end up going in the middle of the store and I’m not dealing with it,” she professed.

  “You’re not leaving her here with me while she’s acting like that,” his tone hostile as he became aggravated with the situation as well.

  “Yes, I am. Come on, Chloe, grandma is ready to go,” she picked up her purse. “Brooke, you know you could’ve came if you would’ve just went potty and put on your big girl panties. I’ll see you later,” she said as she and Chloe left to go on their shopping trip.

  When the door closed and the realization set in that she wasn’t going with her grandma and sister, she began balling and throwing herself onto the ground. After a few minutes, when she hadn’t calmed down, Tim yelled at her to shut up. This only made the tears worse as she cried harder and louder.

  “Shut up, Brooke!” he screamed at her, standing over her.

  “I want my gramma! I want my sissy!” she continued screaming and crying.

  “Shut the fuck up!” he shouted at her.

  She continued balling and began banging her head on the wall. “I want to go bye-bye!”

  “I said shut the fuck up you fucking baby! Stop doing that!” he continued hollering at her.

  Now scared, her crying continued as she sensed the rage that was becoming apparent and carried on with her temper tantrum.

  Snapping, Tim snatched her up by the back of her shirt and began shaking her as he yelled at her, “Stop fucking crying! Just shut the fuck up!”

  She began screaming louder as he terrified her.

  “SHUT UP YOU FUCKING BRAT!” he yelled as loud as he could, hitting her with an open hand as he said each word that came out of his mouth.

  She began screaming as though someone was murdering her. She wasn’t used to getting spankings. It set Tim off even more. His rage was out of control. He put her over his knee and began beating her bottom with his hand and a belt, over her diaper. Each blow stung, causing her to flail and cry out in pain. The more he hit her, the more she screamed. After beating her until he grew tired, he finally threw her into the backseat of his car and squealed the tires as he peeled away from the curb in front of his house.

  §

  Coming home from the funeral, Ashley and Keith were talking about how they were going to change their clothes as soon as they got home. The hot, humid St. Louis heat had made them profusely sweat as they said their final goodbyes at the graveside. Keith was beginning to loosen his tie as Ashley’s phone started to ring.

  “Hello?” Ashley answered as she scrambled to pick up before the voicemail did.

  “You might want to go get your fucking kid out of the garage! She’s out there crying,” he warned her.

  “Oh my God! What?” Ashley’s voice heightened with fear as she looked at Keith. “What do you mean she’s in the garage?”

  Ashley looked at Keith in horror.

  “I brought her little ass home since she wouldn’t stop crying. She’s out in the garage!”

  “But we’re not even home! Why would you leave her in the garage?” she yelled into the phone.

  Sensing what was going on, but not knowing the full extent, Keith pressed down on the gas pedal as he sped home.

  “I told you,” he hissed, “she wouldn’t stop crying. That fucking kid of yours is a brat. I’m not dealing with that bullshit!”

  “Keith! We’ve got to get home! He left Brooke out in the garage!” she said to her husband. “Did you at least leave the garage door open?” she screamed at her dad, still on the phone, thinking about how hot it was outside. If he’d closed the garage door, she’d likely suffocate. If he left it open, she could wander out and get hurt or much worse.

  The phone went silent as her dad hung up on her while she was telling her husband to get home.

  “I can’t believe him, Keith! He hung up on me!” tears flooded her face as she began crying in the car, worried about her baby.

  “For God’s sake, Ashley, she’s only two and a half! What is wrong with that man?” he said as he continued speeding down the highway. They were still at least 30 minutes away from home.

  “I don’t know, but we can’t even call the Jenson’s next door because they’re out of town. Keith, we’ve got to get home faster. Run every light and stop sign. There’s no one who can help her!”

  “How did he even get into the garage?” Keith wondered as they sped home.

  “I’m telling you, he’s notorious for stuff like this,” she replied, still panicked and worried. “I’ve got to call my mom.”

  She fervently called her mother and told her to bring Chloe home immediately.

  “Why? We’re still out shopping,” Brenda explained.

  “Because that asshole left my baby out in the garage. Mom! Do you have any idea how hot it is outside? We’re not even there. Keith’s driving as fast as he can to get to her right now!”

  “Oh, Ashley, I’m so sorry. I feel terrible.”

  “I can’t believe
you left her with him!” she blamed her mother. “Why would you do that? You know that initially when we went to court, we only asked for you to have supervised visitation because we were afraid that if it weren't supervised, you’d let him around them—alone! This is all your fault!”

  “Ashley, baby, I’m sorry. We’ll leave right now and I’ll bring her straight home.”

  They made it back about twenty minutes later; the garage door was shut. Ashley prepared for the worst as Keith hit the button on the remote and opened the garage door. She closed her eyes, expecting to see her baby dead; covered in sweat from the heat. Her eyes remained shut until the car started moving again; she opened them. Brooke was curled up in the middle of the garage, face tear-streaked, fast asleep with her hair matted to her forehead with sweat.

  Startled, Brooke awakened when she heard the car inch up into the garage and immediately started crying. She’d been so scared that she wet herself, expecting to see Tim again. As they were approaching her, Brenda’s car pulled into the driveway. He left Ashley with the baby as he walked over to his mother-in-law’s car to get Chloe. Ashley swept Brooke up off the dirty garage floor and began coddling her, telling her it was going to be all right as Keith unbuckled Chloe from her booster seat in Brenda’s car. Her mom got out of the car as they all clustered around Brooke, still visibly shaken and traumatized by the events that day.

  “Let’s get her inside where it’s cool,” Ashley said, making her way towards the door to enter the house.

  As they sat their things down, Brooke confided in her mom that she’d went potty in her diaper.

  “It’s okay, honey, mommy will change you in a minute,” she said as she asked Keith to bring her the wipes and a pair of her training pants.

  “I’m so sorry your dad did this,” her mom apologized for his behavior.

  “He’s not my dad. His name is Tim. He only donated the sperm that created me,” Ashley said, darting her head towards her mom as she gave her a stern look.

  “Okay, your Tim.” She corrected herself. “I’m sorry that your Tim did this. I had no idea that she’d act like that or that he’d do what he did. Please, forgive me. Forgive him.”

  “Are you nuts?” Ashley protested.

  Keith returned with a clean pair of training pants and the container of wipes so Ashley could change Brooke out of her soiled diaper. As they all gossiped about what had happened and what might have provoked him to do what he did, Ashley unfastened Brooke’s diaper and pulled it down. With a baby wipe in hand, she grabbed Brooke’s feet, slightly lifting her bottom off the ground so she could clean her up. That’s when she saw it. Bruises and welts were plastered across her bottom. You could see each individual fingerprint from Tim’s fingers as they were bordered in bruises. The belt impressions ran through the dark blue, outlined handprints.

  “Oh my, God! Keith! Look at this!” she yelled as he walked over to them and looked down. Her mom followed behind to see what she was talking about.

  “What the hell is that?” he growled.

  “He must’ve done this before he brought her home,” Ashley’s eyes filled with tears as she remembered him doing the same thing to her when she was little and how bad it hurt. “She’s only two,” she cried.

  “Ashley, I swear, I’m going to beat the shit of him!” Keith threatened as he grabbed the car keys off the counter.

  “No, you can’t do that,” she insisted. “If you go over there, you’ll be the one who gets into trouble.”

  “What are you going to do?” Brenda asked her daughter.

  Ashley looked to Keith for advice, but she knew better than to ask him his opinions. With his jaw tightly set and his fists balled up, his solution was to go pay Tim a visit.

  “I don’t know, mom. I’m going to call him right now to see what he has to say for himself.”

  She fished through her purse, grabbing her cell phone and began dialing her dad’s number.

  “What the hell is your problem? I just changed Brooke out of her diaper and she has bruises and welts all over her bottom! They’re in the outline of your handprints. Oh, and belt marks run through the handprints. What would possess you to do that?” she demanded.

  “I don’t know. She just wouldn’t stop crying,” he explained as he tried to sound remorseful. It was an act; one he’d put on many times after beating her and her mom. It wasn’t working.

  “She wouldn’t stop crying? So you beat her? What the fuck is wrong with you?”

  Keith looked at her in disgust as she repeated her dad’s words so everyone would know what was going on. He balled his fist and shook it in the air.

  “I…I guess I snapped,” was all her dad had to offer.

  “You know what I don’t do when my kids make me angry? I don’t beat them! I put them in time out so we can both cool down.”

  Ashley looked at her mom, standing there like a deer caught in headlights. She was speechless.

  “I’m sorry,” he said sarcastically.

  “Well, you know what, Tim? Don’t expect to see your granddaughters ever again! I hate what you did to her! That’s my baby, and I’ll be damned if you treat her like you treated me!” she hung the phone up.

  She turned to her mother, “I want you out of my house right now! I can’t believe that you’d leave him with her. Do you see what that monster did? And you used to stand by, watching him do the same thing to me. You guys haven’t changed one bit! Get out now!” she screamed pointing to the front door.

  “Ashley, I’m sorry, I didn’t…” Brenda tried to apologize again.

  “Get. Out. Now!” she grabbed Brooke, holding her tight and turned her back, heading into her room.

  “I think you better leave now,” Keith asserted.

  Teary-eyed, Brenda hugged Chloe goodbye and told her she loved her as she made her way to the front door and left. Keith locked the door behind her and went into Brooke’s room. Taking her from Ashley, he hugged her as she cuddled him and fell back asleep.

  “I swear Ashley, your parents will never see them again. It’ll be a cold day in hell over my dead body,” he promised her.

  As the couple sat in her bedroom holding her as she slept, they spoke in hushed tones, debating how Tim was able to get into their garage while they were gone.

  “I’m telling you, Keith. He can—and does—things like this. If I said everything he’s ever done to my mom and me over the years, you’d be scared. Very scared. He’s not right in his mind. I don’t know how my grandma ever raised him.”

  After discussing it for several weeks, the couple decided it was best to move—with no forwarding address. They knew what was at stake if Tim began indulging in his drug activities again though they weren’t entirely confident that he hadn’t already done that. His erratic behavior was definitely a concern for them. As they looked for a new place to move their family to, Ashley slowly began filling her husband in on all the horror stories she had about her dad. He realized that he was dealing with a slick psychopath who was magnificent at evading the law. What worried him most is that it took that long for him to recognize who—and what—exactly Tim was. He would’ve never guessed by the way Ashley was. She was the complete opposite of her parents. She was sane and in control of herself; he couldn’t say the same for her parents, or at least her dad.

  Chapter 4

  Several months had passed since the incident with Brooke in the garage when Ashley received an email from Tim. She was astonished at the audacity he had to even message her. When she saw his email sitting in her inbox, her jaw dropped as she dared herself to click on it. She could only imagine what it said. Knowing him, it would be an email blaming Brooke for the whole mess that caused all the chaos in the first place. She shook her head as she clicked the link to open the email.

  Ashley,

  I’m sorry for what happened with Brooke. I really am. Your mom’s not doing well and she wants to see you and the kids…just in case. I hope you can forgive me and have it in your heart to let your mom see
everyone before it’s too late. She doesn’t have much time. Please come see her. It would mean everything in the world to her. She’s been crying for you and the girls every day.

  Love,

  Dad

  Ashley was eight months pregnant, and she didn’t want her mom to die without seeing them and knowing she had a grandson on the way. But she wasn’t sure how things would blow over with Keith if she presented the idea to him. He still had very hard feelings over what her dad had done to Brooke, but her mom hadn’t done anything wrong. She sent Keith a text message asking him to call home on his lunch, and he did. Explaining the contents of the email to him, she asked what he thought.