Page 67 of Property of Player

Suddenly I feel a presence at my side, and the phone is jerked from my hand.

Randall fills the doorframe, and his eyes are molten with anger as he reads the words on the screen. Then he grabs me by the throat.

“Who the fuck is Player? You been fucking around on me, bitch?”

He backs me against the sink, and the vanity cuts into my hip.

I claw at his hand. “He’s no one. Just someone I grew up with.”

“Don’t fucking lie to me, you little slut.” His eyes blaze and then fall to the curling iron.

He reaches for it and holds it in front of my face. Terror fills me, and I start begging.

“Please don’t do that. It’s not what you think. I swear.”

“I should burn your fucking face. Then no man would look at you, but I wouldn’t want you in my sight, either.” His eyes shift to my arm as I clutch at the hand that squeezes my throat.

A moment later he presses the iron to my forearm, and unbearable pain like white-hot lightning jolts through me.

I jump and thrash and twist away.

Randall laughs and releases me with a shove. I fall to the floor, clutching my arm, the skin is burned with a scorched mark the length of a cigar. I begin trembling, wondering what to do.

I hear Randall slam out of the door, and I call Kayla with shaking hands. I’m crying so hard, she can barely understand my words. “I n-need h-help.”

She’s here in minutes. I’m still on the floor in the bathroom crying, but Randall left the door unlocked, so she finds me quickly and gathers me close. “Baby, what happened?”

I wince when she brushes my burn.

She pulls back, and her gaze drops to my arm. She covers her mouth, and her eyes fill with tears. “He did that to you?”

I nod.

“I’m going to kill him. Where is he?”

“He left.”

Kayla hooks an arm around my waist and pulls me to my feet. “Come on.”

“Where are we going?”

“I’m taking you to the emergency room.”

Before I know it, I’m hustled into her car and on the way to the hospital. I argue with her the whole way there. She wants me to file a police report, but I know that would only provoke Randall more, and even if they arrest him, they’d eventually have to release him, and then I’d pay.

In the end, I tell the hospital staff I slipped and fell against my curling iron.

The doctor who treats me looks like he doesn’t believe me, but he doesn’t push for more, except to offer to keep me overnight if that will help. I tell him it’s not necessary.

He gives me a shot for pain and a prescription for painkillers.

After he leaves, a nurse comes in and passes me a card with a women’s shelter written on it. “Just in case you ever need it.”

“Thank you,” I whisper, and Kayla and I leave.

With my arm bandaged, Kayla takes me home. She wants me to stay with her, but I don’t want Mom to see that I’m hurt and get upset, and it's better if I’m there when Randall returns.

After Kayla leaves, I do a video call with Player, needing to see his face right now. I try to be happy so he doesn’t suspect anything is wrong, and I keep my bandaged arm hidden from him. Just seeing his smiling face and hearing his voice gives me the strength to get through this.