Sins Unleashed
Chapter 1
I have always been tall. Ever since I was young I remember being taller than all my friends. I remember people telling me how strange my height was. I remember people telling me that I should play women’s basketball.
But to be honest, I’m not even that tall. I’m only 5’6. Some of my shorter friends, who barely make it past 5’ would glare at me right now, but it’s true. There are some girls out there who are legitimately six feet tall. I only achieve that height when I am wearing high-heeled shoes, which I will admit is quite often. So, okay, maybe I do appear to be 6’ tall most of the time but I’m not some freakishly tall monster.
Even with my height and even with my stilettos there are men who are taller than me, so that was never a problem. Plus, it’s not like I discriminate against short men; they can be just as fun to date. However, none of this is the point.
The point is I never played basketball like everyone encouraged me to do. Instead, I became a lawyer. I did pretty well in school, paying my way through expensive universities with my good grades. It always amazed people that I was smart and beautiful (but I’ll never admit this myself). I ended up getting a lot of romantic interest as I made my way through law school.
Despite this, I locked my sights on Michael. If I could go back in time and stop myself I would. At the time, he seemed perfect. He was handsome and smart. He was top of the class and had a bright future ahead of him. Many of our professors claimed that he would be one of the best defense attorneys in the state. I believed them.
When Michael and I ended up having class together he noticed me. He thought I was cute and asked me out. I, of course, said yes. Who wouldn’t have said yes to Michael’s pearly white smile? But I should have seen right through that fake smile. But I didn’t.
Instead, Michael and I started going out. Shortly after passing the bar, Michael proposed, and once again being a fool, I said yes. We married shortly after that and it didn’t seem to bother me that our relationship was moving so quickly. I didn’t seem to mind that things were not as sweet as they used to be in the beginning. All I cared about was marrying Michael.
After our marriage, my career really took off. I was never out of work and had a pretty good success rate. I was climbing the rungs and becoming one of the best persecutors in the state. Many people claimed it was due to my height and beauty, along with the pure confidence I was able to radiate in court. I will admit that the courtroom was where I felt most at home. People started to call it ‘Brooklyn’s Den.’
Brooklyn, by the way, is my name, sorry I never mentioned it before. I got a little carried away with setting up the scene that I never mentioned it. Anyway, my name is Brooklyn.
Getting back to the story, Michael hated my success. Instead of supporting me and being happy for me like any other good husband, he instead bathed himself in jealousy. Unlike me, his career had not been as flawless as mine. Despite what the professors said he did not turn into the best defense attorney in the state. Instead, he was one of the worst.
For this reason, Michael started to resent me. He hated that I was more successful than he was. He hated that I was the breadwinner of the relationship. This hurt his pride more than anything else.
Michael had been raised in the south and still had some of those backcountry morals flowing through his veins. By this, I mean, he still thought that women were inferior to men. I mean it is the 21st century, women have fought for their equality for ages and have proven themselves worthy of equality but yet there are still people like Michael who stick to old backward ways.
If I had known that Michael was a sexist bastard I would have left him from the very beginning but he was very good at concealing this very dark truth from me. He was very good at pretending to be a saint when he had a million dark values swimming around in his soul. Looking back at it now, I feel like a fool for ever falling for him.
But I did fall for him and there is nothing I can do about it now.
The point is that Michael was getting very jealous of me. As our marriage continued he started to get bitter. He no longer treated me sweetly like he used to when we were engaged and, in fact, he was often rude. As time went on things only got worse and worse.
Three years into my marriage and I was well accustomed to the verbal abuse Michael used to throw my way. For some reason, I never thought to fight back. I don’t know why but I never did. As a lawyer, I could have put him in his place, but I never thought about it. There was something taboo in the thought of going against my husband.
For this reason, as my career raised in status so too did the violence that Michael incurred on me. By the end of our fifth year together he wasn’t just verbally abusing me, but physically abusing me as well. He was smart to keep the violence to parts of my body I could hide with clothing.
He would bruise my arms and then force me to wear a long-sleeved shirts, even in the summer. I became very good at coming up with excuses. It seemed no one would ever notice my silent pleas for help that I was slowly dropping. It seemed like no one cared about me.
What I didn’t know was that I was close to my breaking point.