Twisted Hands Of Fate

******************WARNING******************************************************************** THIS BOOK IS ABOUT DOMESTIC VIOLENCE!!!!! IF YOU FIND THIS TOPIC SENSITIVE OR TRIGGERING, PLEASE DON'T READ IT, AS THE BEGINNING OF MY STORY DROPS YOU RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF IT. I WON'T TAKE ANY OFFENSE AS I UNDERSTAND HOW PAINFUL THIS IS AND CAN BE!!!! IF YOU ARE GAME ENOUGH TO READ MY BOOK IT DOES GET BETTER I PROMISE!!! MY UTMOST RESPECT TO THOSE THAT HAVE FOUGHT AND WON THE WAR AGAINST DOMESTIC ABUSE!!! ************************************************************************************************ “You stupid w***e!!!” He yelled! Not again, Althea thought to herself. He’s meant to love me and respect me, not treat me like that. Like an animal he owns! Althea Josephine Abernathy had barely finished the thought when she felt the first blow to her ribs. The first time it happened was when he hit her in the eye. She thought it was going to pop out of it’s socket because he hit her so hard, but this time - like all the others - it didn’t surprise her and she was becoming used to the pain. Althea or AJ or Thea, as her friends and loved ones called her, had met Simon Crestwood on the internet just over a year ago and their relationship had blossomed quickly. Despite internet dating being considered a “modcon”, all her friends had found wedded bliss, or long-term partners in crime, as they call their partners - all found on various different dating sites. AJ was hesitant about it at first and used her busy schedule with work as a PA for a local celebrity radio presenter as a way of avoiding too much commitment, but that had all changed the second she laid her eyes on Simon. His looks were even better in person than in the snapshots he had sent her. His six-foot figure shadowed her small height of a mere five feet one inch. A day after their first meeting, Thea came home from work to find a dozen white roses on her doorstep. At first she presumed there had been a mistake, but she took them into her apartment as she wanted to get them to the right person. Among the roses, was a little pink envelope and inside it there was a card that read "For the most incredible woman I've met. Your smile alone has left an impression on me that will last an eternity. See you soon. Simon" At the time, Thea could't remember even mentioning the suburb she lived in, let alone her complete address, but she thought he could have easily looked her up in the phone book as she was listed. Unfortunately, the days she had of freedom back then were now long gone! Thea tried with all her mental strength and physical willpower to block out the blows her body was receiving. This time around, like always. It was over as quickly as it had started, and as usual, he'd left her face completely untouched. He learnt that for the first time, as she hadn't been able to work for over a week, and when she finally went back she had made the flimsy excuse of trying a boxercise class at her gym and hadn't seen her sparring partners' right-hook coming. After living with Simon for a few days, not even a week, he had gone from a caring, supportive and near perfect in every way to an unemployed, arrogant and abusive sonofabitch! There was only one part of the latter that she was thankful for. The fact that he was unemployed meant he had had to stop hitting her face, as he didn't want "his meal ticket", as he referred to her, to get laid off. Thea was amazed at his sudden change. At first she just put it down to him losing his job and being dependent on her and her income. Now, on the flipside, they had lived together for around four months. Thea had put up with strings of kicking and beatings. Not to mention the daily incessant verbal abuse, countless r***s and other minor s****l assaults, she endured in the vain hope that one day he might snap out of the stupor he was in and change back. As she sat at her laptop writing about a topic for 'Rockin Ronny' as he was known on the air waves, but she couldn't keep focused because Simon was still up. She knew that she had to go to bed after he was asleep in her bed or she'd be subjected to who knows what horrors. When Simon moved in with her he hadn't brought anything with him other than his clothes, and he'd put all of his remaining belongings into a storage shed and Thea resented paying for it, since he'd lost or given up his job. She couldn't work out which had happened anymore, and in some way did't want to know or care, as deep down she knew that if she found out the truth she would end up with more bruises and scars. These days Thea just worked and did everything around the house. Her friends kept asking her out with them or over to their houses all done in vain from Thea’s point of view, as she always turned them down because of him, but from her friends sides of things. It was their way of keeping an eye on her and making sure that she was still alive. None of them had been told about what Thea went through, she’d never had to say. The last time she’d seen them she was sporting that bruise on her face and had regaled them all about her “boxercise” class. The second she’d finished that tale to her friends, they all knew full well she didn’t need a gym as she was the lucky one of the group. The one that could sit down on a girls night in and and eat one and a half to TWO large pizza’s, a roll of garlic bread followed by half a large tub of ice cream, washed down with a litre of soft drink in front of the TV without gaining a kilo or ruining her complexion!