Chapter 2
1594 Words
Whether talking to Richard would be beneficial or detrimental, Rose wanted evidence of their meeting, so she turned on the voice recorder on her phone and walked in after safely tucking the device in her bag.
She met him standing over the piles of divorce papers he refused to touch, the sight of his back reminding her of their simpler, happier moments.
“Are you that excited?” he asked, his voice low and somewhat dangerous.
“A-about what?” She should be glad to finally hear his voice, but that happiness could not surface.
Instead, her brain warned her to maintain a distance.
Richard turned.
Without a doubt, he was angry. “Did you think reporting me to the Pastors has earned you this moment?”
Rose’s eyes squinted. She did not expect a swift intervention from the church.
“Are you that eager to hear my voice? Can’t you be a little more patient?”
“Richard?” She frowned. “Patient? You expect me to be patient in this situation?”
“What situation? Do we have a situation?” He crossed his arms, and his refusal to act out of concern for her predicament shot heavy cuts into her heart. “Oh.” He laughed. “Because I have not spoken to you in a while?”
“In a while?” She could have laughed, but was there anything funny? “Richard, for years… for so many freaking months, you and I have been under the same roof… Yet! Yet… this is the first time you’ll speak to me since we became husband and wife. Richard, I don’t remember the last time our eyes connected. I don’t remember what your touch is like. How could you…?”
Rose felt weaker with each statement.
She wished to faint and wake up to realise that the last five years were nothing but scary dreams.
But she did not want to collapse in front of him. She needed him to see how much he hurt her.
“Why… How could you laugh as if you haven’t made my heart bleed? How could-?”
“Oh, please. Shut the f**k up.” He dragged a nearby dining chair and sat on it. “ You have no reason to complain just because I want to spend some years away from you.“
“Richard!”
“Rose!” The chair flew back, and the papers on the table flew into her face. “You won’t even apologise for taking our business to the church?!” He glared. “I’ve ignored these silly pleas to get divorced. I trusted that you would gain some sense and adapt to the situation. But look at you? Your senses have rotted so much that you find it easy to tell people that I haven’t touched you.”
“Is that a lie?!” she retorted, pushing past the chaos within her. “You’ve made a fool of me for years, Richard!”
“No! You made a fool of me!” He rushed to grab the back of her hair, his angry breath causing her fear to grow. “I am your f*****g husband, Rose! I can decide to touch you when I feel like it.”
“You did not feel like it for five years?” Despite her fright, Rose chose to fight for herself. “I don’t believe that. You’re lying. Ah!”
He yanked her hair, pain filled her, and she wiggled desperately to escape his deadly touch.
“I can f**k whoever I want, Rosie.” That nickname sounded sour, unlike the last time she heard it. “So stop asking these ridiculous questions.”
“Then why on earth did you marry me?!” She pushed him with all her might, and he crashed onto the floor. “I am not your toy!” Her legs hurried to the door for easy escape if needed. “I am not yours to own! Richard, I did not force you to marry me!”
With a vicious grin, he got up. “Is that why you told those people that we have not had s*x? Were you that desperate to f**k, Rose?”
“f**k you, Richard!”
“Why did you hide the rest from them? You should have told them that we haven’t had a conversation in years. Were you scared they would blame you for that?”
“Richard…” She sighed to manageably calm the storm within her and quietly asked, “Is there a reason you called me here?”
“Yes.” He moved closer, intensified his overpowering presence and forced her away from the entrance, his hand slamming the door shut while he tossed her to the ground he had just got up from. “Stay down.”
Rose clutched her bag.
Should he discover that she was documenting their conversation, the situation could worsen, and unspeakable things could happen.
After all, she was now seeing a side of Richard that he had hidden well for years. He surely looked like the kind of monster that spent years lurking in the shadows, waiting to feast on the essence of her soul.
“Right.” He squatted in front of her. “You’ve always been my good girl, Rosie. Don’t make me regret choosing you.” With manufactured affection, he wiped off the sweat building on her forehead. “My dear Rosie.”
Her eyes fought to remain open, she could not dare close them for fear that he would s***h her once she did.
“Answer me!”
Her body and soul jumped. “Y-yes.”
His anger became a soft smile, and his knuckles traced the acne scars on her cheeks, the very ones he once confessed made her uniquely beautiful.
“My Rosie, I understand that you might be frustrated, but as I said,” he leaned closer, “you have to be patient. Ask me what I mean.”
Scared that he would torture her with the growing evil in his low voice, she whispered while fighting back tears, “Wh-What do y-you mean?”
“I will never divorce you, Rose.” His hand captured a fistful of her hair again, and the earlier pain returned. “If you like, walk into the top broadcasting company in this country with a megaphone and placards about your terrible husband, I will never leave you. Rose,” he pushed her closer, a wince almost leaving her, “the day you try to leave me will be the worst day of your life. I promise you.”
“Richard…” She could not hold back anymore. She pushed her hands to his chest for some distance. “I’ve not done anything to deserve this, Richard.”
“True.” He smiled, and it became clear to Rose. “You haven’t wronged me.”
Her husband was psychotic.
“But, you’ll definitely regret complaining about my silence.”
Everything was a play to him. From their first meeting to their fun moments, down to their married life… everything was a game he plotted.
“Rose…”
That realisation made her crash; it was only a long time before she would fall deeper into despair.
“Look at me, my Rosie.”
She could not.
“Look at me!” He almost snapped her head, and for a second, she wished he had accidentally killed her. Surely, dying had to be better than living like a voodoo doll with the worst fate.
As she struggled to keep her eyes open, her husband showed her his sickly smile, and with a boastful tone, he continued, “As of today, you will not step out of this house until I say otherwise. The day you make the mistake of stepping out of that door, I will make sure you don’t escape the hell I have prepared for you.”
How did her life come to this? How did she go from loving a man to being tortured by the same man?
Just what had she done with her life?
A wicked bite into her lips snapped Rose out of her inner cries.
Richard had dug his teeth harder into the flesh of her lips; he almost drew blood while he feasted on the pain he was igniting.
“Tasty as always. Maybe one of these days, I should f**k you,” he jested. “You can’t be too bad as a virgin.”
A groan of resignation left Rose when Richard stopped trying to tear off her lips.
“You… f*****g bastard!”
She pushed him, but she was the one that ended up falling flat on the ground.
She closed her eyes when she heard him scoff.
She knew she should be fighting back, she knew she needed to find a way to run away, but…
But…
She could not do it.
She could not move.
Maybe she was too tired, she had no idea. But she really couldn’t.
“Let’s have fun from now on, Rosie. I-”
A loud bang sounded.
She sat up and watched with shock as Richard fell unconscious with a loud thud.
Rose sniffled and lifted her eyes.
There was no one or nothing around, so her confusion grew bigger.
Then…
Broad shoulders appeared in the shadow of the daylight. Next, she was ensnared by the walking pattern– majestic and overpowering— that made the person’s full hair bounce.
When she saw his eyes a light gasp jumped out of her.
- Writer
