Page 28 of Lethal Weakness

We were only casually dating a few months when I found out I was pregnant with Avery. I was scared to death, but he promised everything would be okay and that it would all work out.

I walked the stage at my college graduation 12 weeks pregnant, and I cried the whole day.

Now, I wouldn’t change it for the world because I love my girl so much, but then, I was sure that my life was over.

“Avery, you up?” I call down the hallway even though I can already hear Barney playing from her toy room.

“Good morning, Mommy,” she sings, running out of the room with a muffin.

“Where did you get that?” She’s eaten half of it already, and I’m stunned. We don’t even have muffins in the house.

“Mr. Jack gave it to me.”

“When?”

“Earlier.” She munches into her muffin, dropping beige crumbs all over the floor.

What the hell is she talking about… With my blanket wrapped around my shoulders, I peek out the window towards Jack’s house, but I don’t have to look far. He’s in my driveway with my car jacked up, working under the hood.

“Stay inside, okay? I’ll be right back.”

“Kk.” She skips back to her playroom, and I tiptoe out the front door. It’s only 8 a.m. I am not awake enough for this.

“Uh, good morning,” I say groggily.

He wipes his hands on a rag before closing the hood. “The fuel pump got here about an hour ago. Should be all set now.”

“Just like that?”

“Yeah.”

“How much do I owe you?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“Jack, please. You’ve done more than enough for me. I can give you some money.”

“I don’t need your money, Linden.” He doesn’t look at me as he collects his tools, but I can tell something is off. He seems more distant than usual, which is odd because he is already the most distant person I’ve ever met.

“Um, okay. How about breakfast? As a thank you.”

“I already ate. I tapped on your back door earlier to get your keys because I thought you’d be up, but Avery answered and said you weren’t.”

Ah, that explains the muffin. And I need to remind her not to open the door for people.

“I feel like I owe you,” I admit.

“You don’t owe me a thing. You don’t owe anyone anything. Do yourself a favor, and take this chance to get away. Run from this place now that your car is working.”

I shake my head. “You don’t understand, Jack. I can’t. I don’t have anywhere to go. My parents’ house caught on fire a few years ago, and they live in a studio apartment now. They’re on a fixed income because my dad is disabled. They can’t help me. Besides, I can’t leave. They won’t let me.” I shove my finger in the air, pointing to the house on the hill that looms over me and all of my decisions.

“They are exactly why you should go.”

“You don’t get it. No one gets it. I am stuck just like I always have been. Stuck growing up in a poverty. Stuck with a man I didn’t even love because I got pregnant. Stuck in this town because my in-laws threaten to take my daughter from me every time I breathe wrong.”

“They’ve threatened to take Avery from you?”

I scoff. “That’s the least of it. They have more money than God. They convinced me to marry their son, and they swore they would take care of us, but the second that he went off the fucking deep end, they abandoned me. They told me I was lying when their son came home drunk every night. They ignored me when I begged them to get him help. They dismissed all of his symptoms of mania and delusions that made him attack me countless times in my own home. The one time I finally had the nerve to report him to the police, they got it swept under the rug before the charges were even drafted. They can win any legal battle. They can turn any judge against me!”