Her Second Chance at Love

6 April’s POV

****Warning **** There is some content in this chapter that some might find disturbing.

April’s POV

(Flashback Continued.)

When the semester was done, he told me that the owner of the gym, Dan, his uncle, was looking for someone to do accounting for him. I figured that it wouldn’t hurt to start to get work experience, so I told him I would do it. I went to the gym with him and worked on the books while he was working on his training. As time went on, he started to tell me that I needed to start watching what I ate and that I was starting to gain weight. Then he started to pick out the clothes that I would wear, saying that they were too revealing and distracting to the other fighters. One day I got done with the books early and went to go sit at the front desk. A guy walked in and started to ask questions about the gym membership. I told him about them and handed him a pamphlet about the different memberships. He said thanks and left.

On the way home I could tell something was wrong. We walked in and he went straight to the bedroom. After a few minutes, I walked into the bedroom to get a change of clothes and to shower. When I walked to the dresser to get my stuff, he grabbed me and tossed me on the bed and held me down. He reached over to the nightstand and pulled out a set of hand cuffs and cuffed me to the bed. I was screaming at him to let me go and he slapped me across the face. I held my cheek as tears started to fall from my eyes and my ears were ringing. I couldn’t believe he hit me. He just stood there and looked at me with his hands clenched into fists. As I was about to say something he told me to shut up, he didn’t want to hear it and he didn’t want to hear my lies. He said that if I wanted to act like I wh**e the least I could do is not do it in front of the others at the gym. I tried to ask him what he was talking about and that I didn’t talk to anyone at the gym other than Dan. He wouldn’t listen to me and just walked out of the room.

About an hour later, he walked back into the room and he told me that he had some rules that I would be following from now on. I couldn’t go anywhere without him; I was not allowed to talk to anyone when we were going out and he will be picking out my clothes from now on. I told him that the rules were ridiculous, and I shouldn’t have too. He said he didn’t care what I thought and if I didn’t like it, he would just lock me there in the apartment until I agreed while he was gone or I could leave, but I was leaving with the clothes on my back, no money and no job. I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t have anywhere to go if I left and, with no money or job, I couldn’t even pay for food. I only had one option and I thought I could live with it until I got a paycheck or two from the gym to leave, so I told him fine. I agree with his rules, plus the next semester is starting in about two weeks, so I can go back to the dorms.

Everything was going fine for a week. I didn’t talk to anyone at the gym. I just stayed in the back office all day. When we went out to eat, he would order for me. When we got home one night, I was looking through the mail for a letter from the college about the coming semester. It had all my information about the coming classes and fee information. When I didn’t find it, I asked Colton if he had seen it and he said he had. When I asked about it, he said it doesn’t matter because I am not going back. I told him I had to go back to finish my degree. That it was important to me that I finished. He said he would not pay the fees and I should just forget it. I told him that I could pay the fees from my paycheck when I got it from the gym. He said that would be impossible, since he is now the new owner of the gym. He said his uncle Dan passed the gym to him and moved to Florida to retire. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I just stood there staring at him. When what he said finally sunk in, I told him that he couldn't just have me do the books and not pay me. He stood up and walked to me. When he got in front of me, he grabbed my chin and squeezed hard. He said that his taking care of me was my payment for working at the gym. He also said that there was a new rule that if I disobeyed him in any way I would get a punishment and my talking back was also not allowed. I just rolled my eyes and the next thing I knew I was on the floor. He walked up to me and bent down and grabbed my hair ruffly and said next time it would be worse and walked out the room.

The next few months, I found out that he was not kidding about the punishment. The first time, the punishment was being locked in the bedroom for a whole day because I refused to go to the gym with him. The second, I ended up with bruises around my neck from him chocking me because dinner was not done when he got home. It didn't matter how small the incident was that resulted in the punishment. I did try to run once but he ended up finding me at a cheap motel about 4 miles away from our apartment. I took money from his wallet when he was sleeping or in the shower a little at a time so he wouldn't notice it was gone and hid it until I had enough to leave. I had to wait for him to fall asleep before I could make my move to leave. When he finally fell asleep, I snuck out and started to walk. I thought going to the campus dorms and finding Cassie would be good, so I set out that way. When I got to the dorm room that we shared, I knocked on the door. When the door opened, a girl I didn’t recognized answered. I asked her if Cassie was there. She said that there was no Cassie in this room or that she knew in the building. I said thanks and left. I decided the best thing was to get a room at a motel. I started to walk until I found one and checked in. I even checked in under a different name. The first night I couldn't sleep because I was so worried that he would find me. The next day, I went back to the campus to try to find Cassie.I waited in the building for hours hoping to see her going to class but didn't find her.I did that for the next 2 days but she was never there. I saw a classmate and asked them if they knew where she was. They told me that she transferred to another school to finish her degree. I went back to the motel and cried. I didn't know what else to do. I got ready for bed and fell asleep. The next day, when I woke up, Colton was sitting in a chair in the room. I jumped up and ran to the door but he grabbed my hair and yanked it back so hard and I fell to the ground. As he hovered over me, I asked how he found me. He said that I didn't need to know. He grabbed me by my arm and pulled me to the door and shoved me into a car.

The drive to the apartment was silent. As we walked into the apartment, I ran to the bathroom, and slammed the door and locked it. I didn't know what he was going to do. A few minutes later, he knocked on the door and told me that if I didn't open it my punishment would be worse. I looked around the room to find a way out. I saw the window and bolted to it. As I was trying to open the window, Colton started hitting the door to knock it down. As I got the window open, the door crashed open and Colton grabbed me by the leg and pulled me back into the room. I fell on the ground and my head hit the floor. My vision went black for a second and then came back. He grabbed me by my hair and dragged me to the bedroom and threw me on the bed. I was still dazed by hitting my head and when I could focus he was pacing the room. I scooted up from the bed to the headboard and wrapped my arms around my legs. After a few minutes, he looked at me and started to walk towards me. Then there was a knock on the front door. He looked back at the door and then at me. As I realized that someone was there, I tried to yell but he covered my mouth with his hand. I tried to get out of his grip but he wouldn't let me go. After a few minutes, the knocking stopped. He told me we were moving and walked out the door and locked it. We ended up moving to the apartment above the gym.

After we moved, I really wasn't allowed to leave. I did the books up in the apartment. There was only one way out and that was through the gym lobby. Trying to leave again wasn't going to work. i realized after a few weeks that there was no out for me and i gave in to my fate.

I later found out he had put a tracking device on the necklace I have that my parents gave me before they died and watched me for a few days before paying the person at the desk of the motel to give him my room key. As time went on, he did give me more freedom to leave the apartment, but I was too afraid to try to run again. I didn't know if he would find me and I didn't want the punishment he would give me. I tried my best not to anger him, but small things would set him off. Supper not done, the apartment not cleaned, laundry not done on time, or even refusing to not wanting to have s*x. It didn't matter what it was if he didn't like it, I got punished.