by JL Hallow
Victoria ignored her mother for a long moment. She was still playing with her toys as she leaned back against Gia. She still wanted to play, why couldn’t dinner wait? Victoria stole a glance up at her mother and didn’t say anything.
Grace plopped the bowls of vegetables on the table and turned to Victoria with her arms crossed over her chest. She pinned her with a stare, foot tapping against the hardwood floor. It was her last chance to do as she was told. “One…two…” She started the countdown.
Before Grace got to three, Victoria had pulled herself up from the hardwood floor and gathered her dolls. But it wasn’t without protest; she made sure to stomp down the hallway as she headed for her room. She was lucky Grace didn’t hear the bedroom door slam behind her as she deposited her dolls on the bed.
Grace rolled her eyes, losing patience. With a sigh, she moved to scoop a cupful of dog food into the bowl, listening for the bathroom sink as she did so. When Victoria rounded the corner a minute later, her path was intervened. “Bathroom.” She pointed back down the hallway. “Go wash your hands, please.”
“I did!”
“I can hear the sink from here, you did not. Get your behind back in the bathroom and wash them.”
In the true form of ‘mother like daughter’, Victoria sighed and finally did exactly as she was told. Grace shook her head, hand coming up to pinch the bridge of her nose as she released a sigh that mirrored her daughter’s. Some days, she was confident her kid’s sass would be the death of her. But Victoria was just that, a child, and just like adults she was entitled to her bad days. Grace just had to remind herself of that every time she backtalked.
Victoria strolled back into the kitchen and held up her hands for inspection, the cuffs of her pink long-sleeve shirt had darkened from the water splashed onto it.
“Better. Now go sit at the table. What would you like to drink? Water, milk, or juice?”
“Ummm, milk.” Victoria said, pulling herself up onto the chair.
From across the house, Grace could hear the front door open. No doubt it was Aaron, he had been outside working on his truck for the better part of the day. The early nineties Dodge Ram 1500 was a constant problem child of theirs, and if Grace had her say, she would have sold the damn thing years ago.
“Aaron?”
“I know, Grace. Dinner’s done. I’m going to wash up and I’ll be right down. Have a plate ready.”
“Alright.” She poured a glass of milk for Victoria and a water for herself.
She brought the glasses to the table and returned to grab a beer from the refrigerator for Aaron. As much as she hated it, it kept him calmer when there was a cold beer with a popped top waiting for him. Grace placed the beer at his spot on the table and got to work making up the plates. Victoria was first. She put half a piece of chicken on her plate along with a scoop of potatoes, a scoop of corn, and finally green beans. She slid the plate in front of her daughter and grabbed Aaron’s.
Aaron rounded the corner right as she placed a piece of chicken on the plate. “Thought I told you to get a plate ready?”
Grace tensed, resisting a sigh. “What does it look like I’m doing?” She shot back.
Aaron came up behind her, hand lashing out to grab her hip. His fingers pinched into her skin and she bit back a whimper of pain. Instead, she forced a smile, teeth gritting. “Don’t give me that attitude.” He growled.
“It’s been a long day. Victoria was hungry, she comes first. You weren’t done washing up and I didn’t want your food to get cold.”
On the other side of the table, Victoria tensed, lowering her fork to the plate. Whether her parents tried to hide the fighting and violence or not, she wasn’t ignorant to it. She could hear the screaming, heard her mother crying… Calculating, bright green eyes that mirrored her mother’s landed on her parents as she chewed. Victoria truly was a child that had been forced to grow up way too fast.
Grace’s eyes flashed to Victoria, lips pressed into a firm line. There seemed to be a silent warning in her eyes, begging her daughter to just stay quiet and eat her food. “You should take a seat while I finish. Your feet must be aching from working on the truck all day and your beer is going to get warm.”
Aaron grunted, pushing away from her before he moved around the side of the table to his chair at the head of it. His eyes were on her as he reached for his beer and took a sip. Finally ignoring Grace, he turned to Victoria. “How was your day?”
“Good.” Victoria responded quietly, her voice barely audible in the presence of her father.
“Do anything fun?”
“Helped Mama.” She had no interest in talking to him.
“Good.” He grumbled around the top of his beer bottle.
A moment later, Grace put a plate down in front of Aaron. She quickly fixed her own and finally took a seat. Her body relaxed against the wood as she picked up the fork. She wasn’t hungry but knew it would only start an argument if she didn’t eat.
“So, how are things going with the truck? Fixable?”
“Always is.” His voice was like ice.
Grace sighed and went back to eating in silence. What was the point of trying to hold a conversation with someone who had no interest in your existence at all? When she caught Victoria still not eating out of the corner of her eye, she nudged her leg with her foot under the table.
“Can I have some bread?” Victoria asked nervously, pointing to the fresh rolls in front of her.
“Of course you can, butter?”
“I got it.” Victoria scooted to the edge of her chair, tongue poking out as she stretched her little arm to reach out for a hot roll. She managed to snatch one but knocked over the full glass of milk as she drew her arm back. Her eyes went wide and before she could get out a sorry, Aaron moved faster than either one of them could blink.
He sprung up from his chair, hand lashing out as he backhanded Victoria so hard it knocked her from her chair. “Clean it up!” He screamed at Grace.
On the floor, Victoria blinked, staring up at Aaron in utter shock for almost twenty seconds before hot, thick tears started to stream down her stinging cheek. The wail came almost immediately after. “Didn’t.” Hiccup. “Mean.” Hiccup.
More tears.
Rage shot through Grace as she stood. She was scary calm as her hand darted out and slapped her glass of water over, the liquid mixing with the spilled milk. Next, she flipped her plate onto the table. Her hands grabbed for the glass dish with the chicken, lifting it up she slammed it down onto the table so hard it shattered. Then her body moved faster than she thought possible as she moved to grab Victoria from the floor, settling her on her hip. She kept her eyes on Aaron, watching him simmer in his own rage, trying to process her deliberate actions.
Grace kept the table between her and Aaron, holding Victoria close to her body. She knew she wasn’t going to make it out the front door and to the car before he reached her. “Get. Out.” She didn’t recognize the voice that came from her.
It certainly wasn’t her own…or was it? Aaron had never laid a hand on her child, their child…not that she knew of. But as the wheels started to turn, the angrier she got, the more feral she became; like a grizzly ready to lay her life down to protect her cub. From the living room, Gia barked maniacally from her crate, paws slamming furiously against the door as she tried to escape.
“Get the fuck out of this house. Get out!” She was screaming at the top of her lungs as she used her free hand to shove the kitchen table into him.
Aaron’s body jerked back to avoid the table, snarling in her direction. He grabbed his chair; picking it up, he threw it across the table at Grace. Grace ducked out of the way, clutching Victoria closer to her as she tried to shield her the best she could. She did her best to keep her distance, moving every time he did.
Finally, Aaron gave up, storming through the front hall. Only after the front door slammed so hard the frame shook and her car started, did Grace breathe a sigh of relief and loosen her hold on V
ictoria. Moving into the kitchen, she set Victoria on one of the chairs. “Stay here, don’t move, okay?”
Victoria sniffled and nodded.
Leaving her daughter in the kitchen, Grace headed down the hallway and deadbolted the front door. He had a key and it wouldn’t stop him from getting in but it would slow him down at the very least. Peeking out from behind the curtain, she cussed when she realized he had taken her car instead of the truck. He said it was fixable, not that the damn thing had been fixed. She moved away from the window with a sigh, swinging by the living room to let the dog out of her crate before returning to the kitchen.
“You okay, baby?” She asked, opening the freezer to get an ice pack.
“Yeah.” Sniffle. “I’m sorry, Mama.”
She closed the distance between her and Victoria and placed the ice pack on her cheek gently. Leaning forward, she kissed her forehead. “Oh baby, I’m so sorry. You have nothing to be sorry for, it was an accident.” She was not going to make any excuses for Aaron this time.
None of the usual; “He had a long day, Daddy’s tired”, blah blah blah. It was all bullshit. Aaron had a violent temper and a line had been crossed when he laid a hand on their daughter. Glancing at the clock, she took in the time. 7:30 P.M. The bar closed at 2 A.M. She had a few hours to make a plan.
~
Seven hours later, Grace heard the front door rattle, followed by the sound of a kick to the wood. He wasn’t expecting the door to be locked and she was glad she had done so. Like she predicted, it gave her a warning.
In the time that Aaron was gone, Grace put Victoria in the bathtub and washed her, then put her to bed. She waited until she was fast asleep, snuggled up with the dog on the edge of the bed. When she was, Grace started to pack. She grabbed a backpack for herself, stuffing the essentials into it; a few pairs of socks and underwear, a couple t-shirts, a pair of jeans, sweatpants. She grabbed her important documents from the safe and stuffed them in there along with her most important jewelry. Then she moved into Victoria’s room and packed a bag for her; it was similar to her own, only opting to grab a few pairs of shoes too. She had only put a single pair of sneakers in her bag for herself.
Before going downstairs, she grabbed her keys and clipped them to the zipper of the bag. Once down there, she stuffed the two bags in the closet by the front door and went upstairs to bed after cleaning the mess in the dining room.
When Aaron got home around two-thirty in the morning, she was fast ‘asleep’ in their bed. The lights had been turned off, her book placed on the side table with her fully-charged cell phone. Judging by the stumbling going on, Aaron was hammered. First, he bounced off the door, then the dresser, finally the edge of their bed. He struggled to take off his boots, tripping over himself twice before he managed to get them off. The same thing happened with his jeans.
Finally, the mattress dipped with his weight as Aaron dropped down onto the bed. Grace barely moved a muscle, her back to him as he adjusted obnoxiously, without any care of potentially waking her up. Once settled, Grace listened to his breathing.
The seconds ticked by like minutes, the minutes like hours, but after what must have been only five minutes, the gentle snoring sounded from beside her. Grace blew out a sigh of relief, eyes snapping open. Once Aaron was asleep, he was asleep. Thank God for that.
Carefully, Grace pulled the comforter back and slipped out of bed. Grabbing her phone, she spared a look at Aaron’s sleeping form before sneaking out of the bedroom. She quickly made her way down the hallway, glancing over her shoulder every so often. When she got to Victoria’s room, she slowly opened the door open and practically ran to her daughter. Grace bent down and gave her a gentle shake.
“Ma-”
Grace shook her head, holding her finger up to her lips in an attempt to quiet her daughter. It seemed to work. Leaning down, she scooped Victoria up into her arms and gave Gia’s collar a gentle tug to follow. Her sock covered feet were quiet on the hardwood floor as she made her way down the hall, careful as she passed their bedroom. She held her breath as she made her way down the stairs. When she reached the landing, she peered up the stairs, making sure Aaron hadn’t woken up.
Quietly, she opened the closet door and pulled out her coat and Victoria’s. She helped Victoria first, then put hers on in a mad rush. As silently as she could, she unclipped her keys from the bag and held them tight to avoid the jingling and grabbed the two backpacks in one hand. She motioned for Victoria to follow as she moved toward the front door and opened it. When the three of them were out of the house, she closed the door gently and picked Victoria up. The ground was cold on her feet as she made a run for the car.
Her chest was tight, panic gripping her as her eyes flashed to the house again. At any minute, he could wake up. When Grace reached the car, she yanked the back door open and put Victoria into her seat, buckling her quickly. Next, she tossed the bags in and moved for the dog to jump in the back seat. Before she knew it, she was in the driver’s seat, locking the doors and starting the car. She didn’t turn the lights on until she was backed out of the driveway and was almost a half a mile away from the house.
For the first time in what felt like hours, Grace took a deep breath.
They had made it.
Chapter Twenty-One: Bravery
Grace and Greg, present day
“Wow.” Greg sucked in a breath, running a hand over his heavily greyed hair.
The word fell heavy in the silence of the car; a silence that stretched out for over a minute. “He hit her for spilling a glass of milk?”
Greg thought of his own children, all five of them. Not once could he ever think of a single thing bad enough they could have done that would warrant him to lash out and strike them so hard across the face they fell from a chair. Especially not at the age Victoria had been. She was a child, practically a baby, and it had been an accident. A damned glass of spilled milk. It wasn’t like the glass had broken or anything else for that matter. No damage.
He looked down at his hands, wondering how a man’s hands could inflict so much pain on his loved ones. He couldn’t picture it. Hell, he couldn’t picture yelling at a child for something so trivial.
Finally, Grace spoke up. “Yeah, he did. But then she told me that wasn’t the first time it had happened. It had just never been her face before and that’s why she had been so shocked.” she said, leaning back against the seat.
Green eyes peered ahead at the falling snow, quiet as she mulled over how much she wanted to share when it came to Victoria’s abuse. But she had come this far with their story, why stop there? “I didn’t find out until after we were settled at Caroline and Mike’s friend’s the next day. I asked her about it, asked if he ever hit her. She said a couple times. Her sides, she told me. He grabbed her a few times, hard enough to bruise her wrists but whenever that happened, she told me it had been because she fell. I was so stupid. I should have known better.” Her voice quaked, tears threatening to fall. “I guess I just wanted to believe he would never hurt her. She is his child. It’s different when it comes to me. I’m not justifying it, I’m just saying that it’s different. The call that started it all had been because of a child dying and then the mother’s suicide. Why would he take that anger out on his own kid? It’s not something I’ll ever be able to understand. And frankly, I don’t want to. I don’t want to know what demons someone holds to take their anger out on another person like that. The demons that can change someone the way they changed him.” Grace felt numb as she relived the trauma.
“I’m sorry. I know it isn’t any kind of consolation to you but I truly mean it when I say those words. It’s not pity. No one deserves to live the way you’ve had to. No one deserves to be abused in such a fashion. And I pray that justice finds you and Victoria.”
“We’ll see. I have very little faith in the system these days. He has so many connections from his years in the field that I worry he’ll use them to his advantage. And his lawyer? His lawyer has been his f
riend for years. And he’s good. I couldn’t afford one, I’m fighting this on my own. But because I never filed a police report because I was too afraid to until the end, I worry he’ll get away with it. By then, the bruises were gone. There was no proof, just my word against his and you know as well as I do that wouldn’t stand up in court. I should have reported it all, I shouldn’t have cared about his job. The problem is, my heart is too big and my brain is too small.”
“You caring does not constitute you having a small brain. Just makes you a good person. You worry about his connections. I get it. His lawyer must be one hell of a shark if you’re so worried… But what is it you’re scared of? Or who? The police? The courts?”
Grace shook her head. “I was never worried about the officers he worked with. Never. None of those guys would ever tolerate what he did, but I worry about what Aaron would do if I ever told his department about what was going on. If he was arrested, he would be bailed out. I wouldn’t be able to hide fast enough or far enough. He would have more than enough time to kill me and I truly believe he would this time.”
“But he’s not in jail now, is he?” Greg asked.
“He’s not, no. I have my address set as my father’s old house but I’ve moved since then; A house deep in the woods, away from neighbors. Some people, like Caroline, think it isn’t safe, but I’ve got enough protection that I don’t worry. He has no idea where I am. My stepmother forwards my mail to me. I always make sure I take different routes coming home and watch to make sure I’m not followed. I work from home now. I go to stores far out of the way to avoid him. I think he’s lost the will for that fight but I know he doesn’t want to give up Victoria. But we were married, her birth certificate acknowledges him as her father. He won’t let me take her without a fight just so he can hurt me more.”