by M. C. Vann
“I’m sure you can understand. Business comes first,” Henry replied.
“How about your wife?” Nick questioned bluntly.
Confused and embarrassed, I remained quiet, letting Henry answer this. I hated being at the center of attention.
“Ally understands,” Henry responded, looking at me with a smile. His hands slid behind my back to my hip, pulling me to his side. I wanted to shove him away, but with my friends here to witness our interaction, I couldn’t. It would only make them suspicious. “Thank you for taking care of her. We must be on our way now.”
“Won’t you have another drink before you go?” Nick challenged. “Come on, for old time’s sake.”
Henry’s muscles tensed slightly. He appeared aggravated with his friend’s tenacity to keep us here.
Were Henry and Nick still friends?
No, they can’t be. Even a blind man could tell by the sound of how they were conversing. It was subtle, but with my senses still in check, I knew there was some kind of anger and underlying tension in both of their voices.
“It’s getting late. Maybe another time. Let’s go home now, Ally,” Henry said calmly.
Knowing Henry, I bade everyone goodbye before this escalated to something more heated. Henry laced his fingers through mine and led us towards the exit.
“I’ll get you next time, Ally!” Nick called out from behind us.
I turned around to wave goodbye to him, only for Henry to tug me closer to him.
Once we were out their sight, I jolted my hand out from Henry’s grip. He didn’t try to grab me again as I threw him a menacing glare before I stalked away. I didn’t know where I was headed, but I wasn’t going to be man-handled by him, especially not in public.
“Didn’t I order you to return by midnight?!” Henry called out to me as he effortlessly caught up to my pace down the sidewalk. “Why are you even here? You were supposed to be with Larry.”
“It’s New Year’s, and I was just having fun with my friends. They were going to drop me off later,” I responded, a little irritated.
Henry seized my wrist, stopping me from going any further. His eyes narrowed. “Your friends?”
“Yes, my friends.”
“You’re not allowed to be friends with him,” he said harshly under his breath.
“And why not?”
“Because I said so. Stay away from him,” he warned.
Anger boiled at my ears. He was being irrational! I wasn’t going to stand here and take his shit. “Why should I have to listen to you? What do you have against Nick?”
“It’s none of your business.”
“Then our friendship is none of your business. What are you going to do about that?” I challenged him. Just as the words rolled out of my mouth, I instantly regretted it. I knew what Henry was capable of. He was manipulative and merciless. He could do anything to me with a lift of a finger.
“What are you doing?” I muttered as Henry bent down and lifted me into his arms. “Henry, let me down now.”
“No, since you refuse to follow my orders, you’re going to pay for it,” Henry said as he held onto me walking down the sidewalk.
I glared at him and remained quiet, trying not to draw attention from the people passing us.
He opened the back door of the car and heaved me roughly onto the back seat. Before I could escape, he slammed the door on me and when I tugged on the door handles, I realized he had child-locked me in on both sides.
We arrived at his house in little time.
“Let me go. I can walk on my own,” I whispered so Nana wouldn’t wake up to hear us. Like the many times before, Henry ignored me.
He grabbed me by the waist effortlessly up to the stairs and into my bedroom as I continued writhing in his grasp. Once we were inside, he let me down on my feet and pushed me forward, locking the door behind him. I fled towards the other side of the room and searched for something to protect me — anything. As he slowly edged towards me, I quickly reached for the lamp on my nightstand, pulling it out of its socket.
“What should your punishment be tonight?” he muttered creepily.
“Don’t you dare touch me,” I said, hoping to keep up this surge of bravery. I pointed the lamp at him, but he only laughed which was rightly justified.
“You think a lamp will save you?”
“I’m not warning you again.”
Henry quickly snatched the lamp from my hands, so I improvised by grabbing the pillow nearest me. I threw it as hard as I could at him, but he didn’t even flinch. I started for the door, but Henry launched himself in front of me, cutting off my path. His hands seized my wrists and slammed me into the wall. He smashed his lips onto mine and kissed me vigorously. This kiss far from being sensual. When he pulled away to take a breath, I managed to push him off and with it all my logic to think clearly went out the door, I immediately raised my right hand up in the air to strike him.
“Do it,” he said with a low and grim tone. “And you’d wish you were never born.”
Shocked and trembling with fear, I balled my hand into a fist and slowly withdrew my arm back down to my side. I thought I was terrified before, but this moment was probably the scariest yet. The way he spoke. The way he looked at me. His sharp, sinister gaze appeared as though it was ready to kill. And I was his victim.
“I. Hate. You.” I mumbled under my breath, but loud enough for him to hear it. “You asked me how it was to be human. Even if I tried to explain it to you, a person like you would never understand.”
Nothing in his expression changed as he processed my words. He wasn’t moved. Neither was he wavered. Henry was completely and utterly heartless.
I clenched my jaw to suppress my tears until he finally left. The sound of the door closing boomed through the room, loud enough for my knees to give out. Before Henry could come back into my bedroom, I rushed to the door and locked it. I turned around and leaned against the door, slowly falling to the floor and no longer holding the tears in.
I made a vow to myself that I’d never resort to abuse ever since my mother left. I was never going to use violence to solve my problems. But I’d realized that when Henry was around, I started to become more rash, more impulsive, and more abusive … just like my father.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Since New Year’s, two weeks had passed by already. Nothing horrible has happened between Henry and me, which was out of the ordinary. He was home the entire time, but we didn’t talk. We didn’t share any meals. We didn’t even look at each other. We passed each other in the hallway, but he would walk on without even acknowledging my presence. However, when Nana was around, he behaved the complete opposite.
But I felt it in my bones. This was just the calm before the storm. I had to be on my guard at all times.
Henry already left early for work this morning, so it was just Nana and me at the table for breakfast.
“Ally, do you have any plans today?” Nana asked as I ate my bowl of Cheerios.
“No, I don’t, Nana,” I said, eagerly sitting up in my chair. “Is there something you need me to do?”
I wished she did have something for me to do. I never had anything to do nowadays since I hadn’t found a job yet and staying in this house bored me out of my mind.
“I was thinking we could do a girl’s day,” she said. “You know, like go shopping and have some lunch. You’ve been cooped up too long in this house. How about it?”
Somewhere during her words, I jumped from my seat and wrapped my arms around her. I couldn’t agree more. “Of course, I would love to.”
I knew Henry told me to refrain from getting close to Nana. But I wasn’t going to sit around and surrender to such irrational demands.
I went upstairs to get ready, more excited than I have been for the last two weeks. Henry banned from spending time with my friends and since he stayed home all the time now, I couldn’t sneak out to see them. Every time they called me
to hang out, I had to lie and make up an excuse. I was out of town or I was busy. I hated him for it, but I hated myself more for lying to my friends.
But with Nana, it should be okay. Henry wouldn’t be able to do anything if Nana had anything to say about it. I knew she would stand up for me and Henry would never do anything to upset her.
I put on a green dress and threw on a white pea coat. It felt like such a long time ago that I was actually looking forward to something.
Larry drove us to the Water Town Mall downtown. For a Friday morning, it was quite busy. I couldn’t remember the last time I came here to shop. It must have been months ago before I met Henry.
Shopping with Nana was so much fun and I didn’t expect anything less. I found myself smiling freely and naturally like before — it was such a foreign feeling. We walked through so many stores that my legs were finally beginning to hurt, but Nana had some endless source of energy that kept her going. She wanted to buy me so many things from dresses to shoes to new pillow covers, but I resisted. I was already indebted to Henry enough. I didn’t want to feel indebted to her either.
How did such a sweet, generous woman raise such a cruel person like Henry? I don’t blame Nana. I could never blame her.
It was afternoon when we finally finished our shopping. The trunk of the car was completely filled with our shopping bags.
After we had climbed into the car, Nana told Larry to dropped us off at Monteverde. She wanted me to meet her friends for dinner tonight. I wondered what kind of friends Nana had. Were they nice as well? I could only hope.
The Italian restaurant was just fifteen minutes away from the mall. Her friends were already seated inside the restaurant when we arrived. One of the two ladies was an Asian woman with surprisingly thick, shiny red hair while the other was Caucasian with thin, short hair pulled back into a proper bun. Nana proudly introduced me to her friends, Juliet and Patty, as Henry’s wife.
Juliet, the fifty-year-old Asian lady, was taller than her friends, but she couldn’t be taller than five feet and five inches. She fixed her black squared glasses as her eyes opened wide when she learned I was the woman betrothed to Henry.
“Well, I can see why Henry married you,” she said, shaking my hand. “You have such nice skin.”
The other ladies laughed.
“Thank you,” I responded. I giggled along with them even though I didn’t really understand the joke. I guessed Juliet was kind of like the cool, hip aunt everyone wanted in their life.
Patty, on the other hand, was short and in my opinion, adorable. Up close, I noticed that her style was much like Nana’s.
“You’re such a babe, Ally,” Juliet said, wriggling her eyebrows after the waiter took our orders. She nodded in Nana’s direction. “Henry knows how to choose his woman, Fran.”
“I couldn’t agree more,” Patty said. “If only my grandson had found you first.”
Unsure of what to say, I simply nodded and smiled.
“Your grandson is always going out — partying with randos. Of course, he’s not going to run into girls like Ally,” Juliet spoke carelessly and bluntly to Patty who laughed it off. She took a generous sip of her champagne. “Ally, do tell us how you and Henry met?”
I wished she hadn’t asked the question. It brought back the painful memories of our tainted first meeting, but I obliged with a smile.
“We met at a Tulip Festival,” I started. That moment flashed in my head. “I had dropped my camera and he helped me pick it up.”
“How magical,” Patty exclaimed. She and Juliet both sighed with envy as they leaned in forward to hear more details.
“Then we met again at the hotel while I was working and yeah, that’s pretty much how it started.”
“Did he call you first or did you call him?” Patty prodded.
“Who made the first move?” Juliet chimed in.
“One question at a time, ladies,” Nana spoke with a chuckle. “You’re going to frighten her away.”
If only Nana knew Henry had done that himself already. She was so proud to show me off to her friends. She would be heartbroken if she learned of my thoughts to divorce her prized Henry. How could I ever break Nana’s heart?
After the conversation had shifted to a different topic, dinner with these ladies became comfortable than I expected. I was anxious that I might have been judged by others like at the gala Henry brought me to, but Juliet and Patty surpassed my expectations. Though they were Nana’s age, they were still hardworking and humble upper-class women with aspirations and manners.
“Ally, it was a pleasure to meet you,” Juliet said. Then she placed a goodbye kiss on my cheek before taking out her wallet. “Here is my business card. Feel free to call whenever you want to have lunch again.”
“Here’s mine,” Patty said, slipping hers into my hand. “Call me if you ever need anything.”
“Alright, alright, are you two trying to steal away my granddaughter-in-law?” Nana accused them playfully. We all to giggled. Nana and I bade her friends goodbye and headed back.
—————
I gave Nana a hug and thanked her for the wonderful day before returning to my room.
As I sat on the edge of the bed, I took out the two business cards Nana’s friends had given me. Juliet Voltemas was the Executive Director of some shelter called Sally’s Place and Patty Yale was the CEO of H. Corp. I was about to search what the H stood for until I noticed that I wasn’t alone. I quickly looked up and my eyes locked right onto Henry’s. He was sitting on the chair in the corner quietly. Was he watching me the whole time?
“What are you doing in here?” I demanded to know as he eyed my hands. Standing up, I hid the cards behind me and held on to them tight.
“What do you have there?” he questioned, intrigued.
I placed the card back into my purse. “It’s none of your business.”
He walked over to me, not satisfied with my answer.
“Give them to me,” he demanded sternly.
I pressed my lips together and surrendered to Henry. I opened my bag roughly and threw him the cards. “Nana took me out to dinner with her friends and they gave me their cards,” I spat out, annoyed that I even had to explain myself. He glanced from me to the cards, then back at me. “Are you happy now?”
I glared at him before turning to leave the room, but Henry suddenly stopped me. He dragged me over to the chair where he sat and pulled me to sit on his lap.
“What are you doing?!”
“Can’t I show my wife some affection after a long day of work?” he spoke with an eerie tone that sent goosebumps along my skin.
“Let me go,” I said, staring away from Henry as I felt his gaze burn on my cheek. He tightened his grip around me firmly as he nuzzled his nose into my neck. The touch of his skin on mine caused me to shiver with disgust — at least that was what I desperately hoped. I sighed deeply to display my level of irritation, but he could care less about my feelings.
“Don’t you want to know why I was in here?” he asked, his breath fanning against my skin. I kept silent. “If you don’t say anything, I might just—”
“Why?” I spoke up, not wanting him to touch me again.
“It’s none of your business,” he replied, but I knew he was lying. There was definitely something buried under his smooth tone. Henry stood the both of us up, keeping me close to him. He lowered his head to the side of mine and whispered, “I just wanted to tell you … good luck.”
Why would he tell me that?
Henry backed away long enough for me to see that smirk on his lips before he walked out of the room. He didn’t turn around to glance at me as he exited.
What kind of game was he playing now?
Henry had to know something I didn’t. I could never catch up to him. He was always one step ahead of me.
—————
Today was the day of Chris’ hearing. I told myself over and over again I should
n’t expect too much. I kept reminding myself that whatever the outcome was, I’d be strong to accept it.
I ate a quick breakfast with Nana before heading out to my brother’s hearing at noon. She asked me where I was going, but I didn’t want to tell her. I was ashamed and afraid to reveal the truth to her. Instead, I lied and told her I was meeting my friends.
I arrived at the correctional center before noon with a heavy, but somewhat hopeful heart. It was just going to be me today. I called Eve a couple days earlier to ask if she could make time out of her schedule, but she couldn’t with work, her kids and how far she was. I told her that I’d call her after with the decision.
Chris’ hearing was in less than a quarter of an hour. A couple of people were seated in the room already as I walked in and instantly, I saw the back of my brother. He sat in the front with the orange prison uniform on. He turned around and noticed me, pressing his lips together to give me a smile. I waved to him, and he raised both hands in the air. I was stunned for a moment to see the heavy metal shackles around his wrists and his ankles. I guessed it was for safety measures, but seeing him locked up like that while they were deciding his fate, it was a little contradictory.
I seated myself in the audience stand, just about five rows from the front. At the head of the room was the commission panel and stationed around the room were a couple of masculine, hard-faced patrol officers. I didn’t pay much attention to the people in the audience stand. The nerves began to kick in.
The crowd strangely settled down just as another person entered the room. I turned around to look at who everyone was stunned to see.
My eyes widened in shock and my heart sank to the floor.
What was he doing here?
Seeing him was like being hit by a freight train. I tried to fight it, but it hit me over and over again. The devil in the black suit looked straight ahead without noticing me. Something in his eyes revealed to me … he had been crying. They were bloodshot red.
I nervously watched with confusion. He confidently strolled down the middle aisle and seated himself at the empty spot in the front.