by Marcus Weber
“It’s all not true,” Antonio had said. “I didn’t fuck her. I comforted her. She was sitting in her car before the fundraiser, freaking about all that mess that had happened with Rod. So, I went and talked to her. I was just trying to be a good friend. But that was it. What makes you think I’d do some shit like that? With your best friend?” He knew that he was lying, he knew that she knew he was lying, but he couldn’t stop himself. Paige was the last thing that he had, and he knew that if she knew for sure, that if he confirmed what she thought was true, it was over. He thought about an alternative defense, that maybe if he explained that she had come on to him, Paige would be lenient, but he knew that it wouldn’t matter.
Paige had finally stopped moving and stared straight across the car at her husband. The knot that had formed in her chest finally unraveled like a ball of yarn that had been dropped. He must think that she was stupid.
“You know what Antonio? You’re a fucking liar.”
“I’m not!” he had said spiritedly. He was falling deeper and deeper into his lie. He put his hands up. “Why is this different? You always at least listen to me. You always at least try to understand my side.” He could feel how ridiculous he sounded, but he couldn’t stop. Paige’s face went dark, and for the first time ever, he could see that she was her father’s daughter.
“You stupid piece of shit. you stupid fucking piece of shit. What is this then?” Paige flew over to Antonio, and for a second he thought that she was going to hit him, but instead she launched her manicured hands into his shirt and pulled on his collar so hard it ripped at the seams. Antonio fell back.
“What are you talking about?” he yelled, trying to pull his shirt back to the way that it should be.
“Look in the fucking mirror,” Paige said, her voice heavy with malice. Antonio walked backward and positioned himself so that he could see the part of his neck that Paige had exposed. Right under his shirt collar, barely noticeable, was a hickey. He could have kicked himself right then and there. All that time spent defending his lie, trying to protect Paige’s feelings, and he had just made himself look worse and worse with each word. He looked at Paige, and the light had gone out in her eyes. They both knew that his performance earlier had only dug him deeper into the hole.
“You are a sociopath and I will no longer go along with your lies. I will not continue in this marriage with you. You will not embarrass me anymore. It’s bad enough that you keep getting traded from teams, then you get cut, and then woman after woman. Let’s not even mention you getting caught drinking and driving, and all of staying out late at night you’ve been doing when you should be looking for a damn job . . . a real damn job. Be a real man like my father for once in your fucking life,” Paige had unleashed, jutting her finger accusingly at Antonio. She regretted the words immediately after they spilled from her mouth. Like always. But there would be no turning back.
Over the years, she had kept a lot of her real feelings to herself so that Antonio wouldn’t feel emasculated by her or her family. Or, made to feel like he was living in the shadows of her father. But the dam of restraint she had built had finally broken that night, leaving nothing but the ugly truth spewing from her mouth. Paige had had enough.
“Embarrass you any more than I already have?” Antonio had repeated, his words slightly slurred. “That’s what you’re going with Paige? I embarrass you? Be like your father? The man who cheats on his wife openly, plays on both sides of the legal system, and would step on all of your necks to get ahead? That’s who I should aspire to be?” Anger flared and flashed in Antonio’s eyes. Paige recognized that look, but she didn’t care. He had started this fight, but she would finish it. He’d committed the worst crime against their marriage he possibly could, so fuck it . . . the gloves had come all the way off.
“Fuck you, Antonio! Team after team. City after city. I followed you like a good wife, but you ruined everything. You let your past break our future. You wanted to run around with your hood friend who burned the shit out of you. He took everything, because you were too stupid not to be loyal to someone like him. But me . . . you couldn’t ever be loyal to me! Now you want to run behind a father who never wanted you. Again . . . loyal to people who don’t give a fuck about you! And Michaela? You think she cares anything about you or me? She’s selfish! You knew this for years! You’re a fucking total failure, Antonio! You failed at making your mother proud and you certainly fucking failed me as a wife!” Paige spat, all the veins in her face visible. Tears covered her face and spit had flown out of her lips. She was shaking like mad.
Antonio’s fingers curled into fists.
“Don’t ever mention my mother,” Antonio snarled. “You’re not worthy to even say her name. She was a real woman who held it down without a man . . . something you don’t know shit about. You went from depending on your daddy to depending on me! What the fuck can you say you contributed to this marriage? It was my career that provided for you all this time. And now you got the nerve to act like I don’t matter? You just gonna say shit out of your mouth. I didn’t sleep with her! You ever think that our marriage failed because you were too busy buying material shit and not taking care of my needs? You think I wanted to chase pussy? You think I wanted to find happiness in the bottom of a fucking bottle, Paige?”
Paige chortled. “Oh, now it’s my fault. I stick in this shitty game we call a marriage for the optics of it all, but frankly, I’m fucking embarrassed by you. You ain’t no fucking real man, no, you’re a sorry excuse for one,” Paige said maliciously. The words had rolled off her tongue so fluidly she had to wonder who she’d become.
Antonio jerked his head back as if Paige’s words were a stinging bite from a poisonous cobra. He was on the move before she could even blink twice. Paige hadn’t been able to move out of his path as he barreled toward her like a bull on the charge. She let out a short-lived scream as Antonio grabbed her neck and squeezed it.
Paige had smelled the liquor hot on Antonio’s breath. She had seen the rage and fire flashing in his eyes. Fear had come over her until she felt like she was going to die.
“Bitch! I took care of you even when I was feeling like shit about myself! I did the best I could, but nothing, nothing was ever fucking good enough for you!” Antonio boomed, breathing in her face with tears rimming his eyes. He was cutting off Paige’s air supply.
Paige swung her arms wildly and caught him across the right cheek with her fingernails. “Let me go, Antonio!” Paige had croaked out. Her throat had felt scorched.
“You have no fucking respect for me. All I ever did was try,” Antonio grunted, still gripping her neck.
Paige dug her nails into his hands and spit at him. “Please,” she whispered. “You’re going to kill me.”
It was as if Antonio had gone to another place and then suddenly returned. He quickly released his grip on Paige’s neck and put his left hand up to his cheek and felt blood dripping from the welts on his face. Paige dropped to the floor, gasping and wheezing. Antonio shook his head.
“This is what we’ve come to? How? How Paige?” Antonio had croaked out, his mouth dry like he had hands full of sand. Paige had sobbed so hard it took her a few seconds to gather herself.
“You made us come to this,” she had said through tears.
“Right. It’s always my fault. Always,” Antonio said, his voice low and mournful.
He put his hands over his face and sobbed for what they’d become. For what he’d become. He hadn’t cried in years—not since he’d lost his mother. It was one thing for Antonio to know the violence of killing a man, of taking a life, but putting his hands on a woman, let alone the mother of his child, was something that he never thought he could have done. But he had, and he hadn’t even realized it.
Tears had leaked from Paige’s eyes, and she couldn’t move. She could barely catch her breath and her entire body had felt tense. Antonio was very lucky. For now. Her father was a powerful man. He wouldn’t take kindly to Antonio putting his hands o
n her like that. Antonio had never done anything like that before, and Paige wanted him to know that it was not going to ever happen again.
“It’s over. I want a divorce and I never want to see you again,” Paige rasped, barely able to get the words out from her bruised neck. “I will never be your wife again after today.”
* * *
“Sis, you don’t look too good,” Junior said, breaking up Paige’s nightmare.
She shook her head. “No, no, I’m fine.” She smiled weakly.
“I’d say that’s a stretch, but, if you say so,” her brother shrugged. “I have to run out for a few. Just try to get some rest.” He gave her a short side squeeze.
Paige looked up with tears in her eyes. “Thank you, Junior. I love you.”
* * *
“Don’t hurt my mommy! Get off of her!” a little voice screeched, pure terror underlying every word.
Paige thought she was dreaming. She could hear her son Christian’s voice as her eyes fluttered open.
“Yo, you just gonna stand there lookin’ dumb? Shut that fuckin’ kid up. Matter of fact, take him out of here while I handle this right here! I can’t even fuckin’ think straight with all that hollering,” a man’s voice growled.
Paige’s eyes flew open, only to find herself staring down the barrel of a gun and two men standing over her. The other man immediately went into action, holding Christian around the waist like he was a little rag doll.
“Mommy! I want my mommy!” Christian screamed as he kicked, squirmed, and stretched his arms in the direction of Paige.
At the sound of her son’s distress, Paige went into attack mode, like a mother bear in the wild protecting her young from a predator. She clawed, kicked, and writhed fiercely against one of the men’s grip. Her petite frame was no match for the bodybuilder biceps of her attacker.
Paige moaned against the leather-gloved gorilla hand that covered her nose and mouth. She tried to drop her weight in an attempt to ease out of his grasp, but that also proved futile.
“Keep still bitch! If you wanna save yourself and save your kid, you better keep the fuck still!” the man spat, his shitty breath hot and stale against Paige’s ear. The mention of her son and the terrifying thought that something might happen to him, made Paige go still for a few minutes. The man’s accomplice carried her son, kicking and screaming toward another room in the house.
“I want my mommy! Stop! Mommyyyyy!” Christian screamed until he lost his breath.
Paige moaned loudly. She couldn’t stop the tears from flowing down her face now. With a gun pressed to her spine, there was not much she could do for her son right now. Her body quaked with emotion. Her legs weakened, but her will to live and to protect her son from these goons grew by the minute.
“Yo! Don’t hurt a hair on his fucking head. The boss wants him as leverage. We ain’t tryna fuck this up,” the leader of the two assailants yelled out to his partner as he kept Paige in a tight grip.
Paige was crying so hard she could barely catch her breath. Every time she sucked in, she’d get a mouth and nose full of the odor of the filthy, worn leather of the man’s glove.
“Yeah, now back to you. So, I heard you’re a little kept rich princess. I heard your daddy is supposed to be the shit and your man thinks he’s the shit,” the masked assailant hissed as he held her from behind and spoke directly into her ear.
Paige felt his dick growing against her ass as he spoke. Her stomach immediately curdled. She wanted to vomit.
“I think before it’s all said and done, I wanna know what it’s like to fuck a rich bitch. Maybe I’ll let your little bitch ass boy live, if I can get some of that tight, rich, stuck up pussy. Whatchu think? I heard you rich bitches got the prettiest pussies around. Is your shit pretty?” he provoked. His own lecherous thoughts distracted him enough that he removed his gun from Paige’s back and shoved it into the back of his pants. He needed a free hand so he could fondle her perfect, ample breasts. He was already going against the specific instructions he’d been given—get in, do the deed, get the kid and the bitch, and leave. He thought he might as well enjoy himself a bit before getting the job done.
Paige cried out as the man’s hands slithered like a venomous snake over her body. He pinched her nipples and ran his tongue over her neck and ear. She felt so sick to her stomach a little bit of vomit crept up her throat. She closed her eyes and thought about Christian.
“Dayum . . . you taste so good. Hard to believe your stupid ass husband left you. I guess that it don’t matter now. I’ll be your husband for a few minutes,” he hissed, invading her crotch with rough hands.
Paige pleaded for him to stop but he had tuned all of her noises out. She could still hear her son crying out for her from some place in the house. When he was a baby, Paige never let him cry. She would hold him close until he was calm enough to be put back down. People claimed she spoiled the boy too much, but she never wanted him to feel abandoned or alone. Now, unable to comfort him, his little cries cut through her like a million knives. Paige said a quick silent prayer that if God let her survive this attack she would find out who was responsible and reign sheer terror on their life.
“A’ight, miss rich bitch. We can try this the easy way, or the hard way.” The man briefly removed one of his hands from Paige’s body to reach into his back pocket. Paige saw a small window of opportunity and decided she would jump on it. With a boost of courage that could’ve only been sent from God, Paige lifted her foot and brought her heel down on top of the man’s foot with all of the force she had in her slim body.
Shocked by her actions, the perverted intruder startled. Paige took her elbow and reared it back into the man’s rib cage with so much force she felt something in her own arm pop. That backed the man up. She used her bony elbow for one more driving stab to his midsection.
“You bitch!” the man screamed in pain. Paige was able to get out of his grasp as he stumbled backward a few steps. She completely knocked the wind out of him. Thinking of her son propelled her forward.
“Help! Help me!” Paige screamed at the top of her lungs, running straight for her brother’s front door. She figured if she could get one of the neighbors to hear her cries they’d at least call the police. Right now, she needed to work on getting her son away from the other attacker. Paige ran to the front door but quickly realized that deadbolt was in place. Junior had always told her to put it on the door to keep her and Christian safe and now it was the one thing standing in the way of her freedom, she was trapped inside.
“Please!” she cried, still facing the door as if her cries could magically open the lock.
“Oh, you fucked up now!” the masked man barked as he took ogre-like steps toward her. “You looking for this key? You dumb bitch!” He was on her within seconds. Paige felt his weight crash into her from behind. She hit the floor with so much force she saw small flashing stars squirming in the corners of her eyes. Her will to live and her desire to save her son were stronger than any common reasoning. Paige planned to fight to the bitter end, if necessary.
Somebody help me!” Paige kicked and clawed at the beast on top of her. She swiped at the man’s face mask, but she couldn’t pull it all the way off. She managed to claw a chunk of skin from his exposed neck, however.
The man roared like an angry bear. “You ’bout to get yourself fucked up!” he growled like a hungry wolf, slamming his fists into the delicate bones of her face. Paige felt her skin split like the seam of a fat man’s pants. An explosion of pain vibrated through her entire skull. The hit rendered her temporarily immobile.
“Help me,” she gasped, not able to get enough air in her lungs this time to even speak. Paige had put up a good fight. Her face was now a bloodied mess and her head pounded. She could feel her eye slowly closing. It was all for nothing. The other man came rushing back into the room, his gun out in front of him.
“Yo! What the fuck, man? This is taking too fucking long!” he said, beginning to panic. “I’m sick of si
tting in there with that crying ass kid! I don’t care whose kid it is, if that fucka don’t stop screaming I’ma silence him for real!”
“Shut the fuck up and help me. This bitch just tried to escape!”
“Keep on fighting us and your baby is a goner,” the man who held Paige’s son captive warned as he assisted his accomplice with subduing her. Paige stopped dead after she heard those words. If it meant saving her son’s life, she would do whatever they asked her to do.
The leader of the two, the one she’d fought aggressively, hoisted her up from the floor by her hair.
“I see you wanna play hard to get. Don’t you know that payback is a bitch?” The man wheezed between breaths. “Help me tie this bitch up!”
Within minutes, Paige was in a helpless position with extension cords binding her to a kitchen chair. A wet dishcloth was shoved into her mouth and tied in place with string that usually held her recycled newspapers together. Paige hung her head. What had she done to deserve this? Paige couldn’t think of any legitimate reason for the attack today.
“Now, like I was saying before you fucked up and thought you could make it out of here in one piece . . .” the leader said, yanking her head up by her hair. He clearly took great pleasure in her suffering. A sick bastard. That’s who stood before her. Paige looked into his eyes with her one good eye. His eyes seemed eerily familiar. It was the only part of his face she could see, really.
“I heard your family got money. Is that true or not?” he growled, yanking her head in a full circle so hard she heard something at the base of her skull crack.
“Mmmm hmmmm . . .” Paige moaned, shivering. All she wanted to know was if her son was okay. She pictured his innocent doe eyes, perfect button nose, and heart shaped lips and began to struggle all over again.
“Good, ’cause we gon’ try out that pussy right now,” he spat, his words like a reptile’s tongue hissing against her ear.
Suddenly she heard the locks on the door clicking. Paige’s heart almost stopped. Junior! She began bucking against the restraints, but it was too late. Her brother walked right into a trap. The two men descended on Junior like lions on an unsuspecting antelope.