“Okay. Let’s talk.” I keep my voice calm, and I try to push Matt’s hands off my shoulders.
No dice. He holds me in place, face close to mine, eyes insane. Beer on his breath. “I don’t want to talk anymore. Not now that I’ve seen his picture on the station website. Not now that I’ve seen his house. You little whore.”
“What? Jasper is just a friend!”
“Right, a friend. But you left and ran to this big, gorgeous house, with a big, gorgeous man.”
“I ran from you!” I shout back. I get loud.
Matt slams me into the wall, and the mirror that hangs over the little hall table falls to the ground with a bang.
How soundproof is Jasper’s room? How loud do I have to scream to get the neighbors to notice?
“You get the baby, and we’ll talk in the car. Go. Move!” Matt shakes me, his fingers digging into my forearms so hard that I feel my fingers starting to go numb.
“You’re hurting me! You said you’d change. Do better. This isn’t better,” I protest. I try to dig my feet in, but I’m in cotton socks, thick white ones that have no traction.
“I would have done better if you weren’t having an affair! I never cheated on you, Loretta, ever! Not even when I hadn’t had any from February to almost the end of June!”
I think about all the times he tried to have sex while I was almost eight months pregnant to eight weeks post-partum. “You mean normal husbandly restraint after your wife gives you a child?” I snap.
Matt doesn’t like it. He looks stunned, then furious. “You have a smart mouth on you that you didn’t use to have. Get from wrapping it around some weatherman’s dick?”
“Ew!” I shriek, and I shove back. “You are sick! You are lying and sick! I never cheated on you, either. I just ran away because you—you’re a wife-beater!”
“I never hit you!”
“You mean you never hit me with a closed fist? You hit me with words, and you left marks and bruises. You think ‘cause you don’t throw a punch that you’re some kind of hero? That shaking me like a ragdoll and slamming me into a wall makes you better? You’re not. And Jasper Wainwright is twice your size and gentle as a lamb with me—and no, I’m not his girlfriend, I’m just a houseguest and housekeeper. I had to get a job after I left my home.”
“A home you weren’t supposed to leave. We made vows!”
“Love, honor, and cherish!” I yank my arm away hard and unzip my top to show him the healing bruises on my arm. “From a week ago. This isn’t love. There’s no honor in hurting people when you lose your temper. There’s no cherishing in scaring the mother of your child until she runs away. You get out of here now, Matthew Lane, and I won’t call the police. I have an order of protection against you, and it’s in effect.”
“Yeah, your rich boyfriend got you all set up to ruin me. But there’s no order that a man can’t get his baby from his whoring wife.”
The world cartwheels and goes white as I’m spun and slammed down on the ground. Mirror shards grind under my hands, cutting my palms.
“Where is she? She’s my daughter!” Matt roars.
I scream loud and long for all I’m worth. I ignore the broken glass that cuts my palms and crawl towards him, but he’s too fast. “Help!” I scream and keep screaming. I will take him on alone if I have to, but I want help.
Sarah’s words echo in my brain. Deadly force if he’s trying to hurt Ari.
Who knows what he’ll do, especially if he ever gets it into his head that I was cheating for a long time, if he wonders whether or not the baby is his?
I push myself to my knees, and the world wobbles. Matt’s already up the stairs. I don’t know where my phone went.
I don’t know how fast the police can get here, but it won’t be before Matt makes it to the second floor, where Ari is sleeping in our room.
MATE. IN TROUBLE.
Screams. Blood. Smell the blood from far away.
Scratching. Howling. Long, low howling.
Door won’t open when I claw. When I bite.
Pup in trouble.
