Chapter one:
“How dare you make me a fool, Lori?” Timothy was angry, and I could see the flush in his face and the way that he was now carrying himself with a fire that burned within him. “I just found out that your child is not mine. You are a cheating whore.” I was backing away from him, shielding my child with my hand to prevent certain injury. He was waving his hands in the air like a crazy person. I was worried he was going to do something that he would regret later. “I know that things haven’t been good, but surely we could’ve gone to therapy or done something other than fuck around behind each other’s backs.” He had just admitted without even realizing it that he had been doing the exact same thing that I was.
“I knew it. From the moment that I found that lipstick on your collar, I knew that you were doing something. You tried to play it off, but a woman has this natural intuition for these things.” I was two months along, and the man that had done this to me was a ghost. He had disappeared, and I had gone above and beyond to find him. I’d even hired a private investigator under the sly to do some very discreet digging.
“Fine, I found happiness with another, but at least I didn’t get her pregnant.” He was backing me into a corner, and I felt trapped and vulnerable. “People are going to laugh at me, and it’s all because of your stupidity. I knew that getting involved with you was wrong. My mother was right that you weren’t good enough for me. I thought that I could see past your limited education.” He was actually putting me down and making me feel like I was only two feet tall. He had his hands up on his head, squeezing his skull and touching his gel that was making his hair stand on end.
He had unbuttoned his collar and tossed away his tie in a rage that was now seeping through every word that he was saying to me.
“I think it’s time that I leave.” I took a step to the door, and he blocked me with his 200 pound muscular frame. That was one of the main reasons I had gotten involved with him in the first place. He was built, but he was arrogant enough to know it. He was intimidating, and he knew how to throw his weight around. I didn’t exactly know his business, but I had a feeling that it wasn’t legal. I had heard enough of some of his conversations to know that he was skirting the law. It was only inklings, but it was enough to raise my suspicion.
“I can’t let you leave here. People will talk and when they find out the truth, I will never be looked at the same way again. I would suggest paying you off and making you disappear, but I don’t think that’s going to work. I believe that I’m going to have to make your disappearance permanent.” Those words sent a cold chill down my spine. It was like somebody was walking over my grave.
I don’t know what came over me, but I suddenly lashed my foot out and caught his family jewels by surprise. His eyes went wide with shock as he doubled over and fell to his knees, crying out in pain. I casually stepped around him and began to run down the hallway toward the stairs. I heard him grunting, and I peered over my shoulder to see that he was stumbling out in pursuit.
“You’re fucking going to pay for that… nobody touches me without consequences.” Terrified would not be the right adjective to describe what I was feeling. I needed to protect myself, but more so the baby that I was carrying. It was innocent and it didn’t deserve his wrath. If it was just me, I might have stood my ground and tried to reason with him. “That is the last thing that you are going to do. You and your bastard child will not see the light of day.” I remembered how gentle he was the first time that we were together. That was a far cry from the man that I was witnessing coming after me with a vengeance.
“I won’t allow you to hurt this child. It may not be yours, but I intend to keep it and raise it on my own.” I knew that he had a gun stashed downstairs and maybe if I could get to it, I could use it to make him back down. Going down the stairs, I almost stumbled, but I was able to grab onto the railing for support. This was getting dangerous.
I got down and stepped onto the black marble floor, racing to his study, only to find that the door was locked. The gun was in the bottom drawer of his desk. He had explained that he had some enemies and business partners that might want to do him harm. He was just protecting what was his and, stupid me, I took it at face value.
I heard his labored breathing, and I saw out of the corner of my eye the key to the black Porsche in the garage. I snatched it up and pressed the button for the garage door. It was loud. He looked at me with realization before he suddenly started to run, despite the pain that he was currently in. He had his hand outstretched, and I placed my foot backwards to catch him with the door.
“Fuck me.” He was on the warpath. Kicking him in his balls and then trying to break his hand was only infuriating him further. I didn’t even have anybody that I could call. My parents were away on a cruise with no forwarding address or telephone reception. I had a couple of friends, but they had been out of my life for some time. Timothy had a way of keeping me to himself. I thought that it was in endearing, but now I realized that he was only trying to keep me from disparaging his name.
His idea of having a relationship was to have a woman to tend to his every need sexually and otherwise. He thought that I was a dutiful wife, but what he didn’t realize was that I had been looking over his books. Things didn’t make any sense, and I had purposely copied several of those pages. I don’t even know why I did that. I certainly didn’t think that I was going to be running for my life. Unfortunately, those pages were upstairs in a box in the closet. There was no way for me to get them. My only saving grace was that he didn’t know that they were there.
I was wearing a pair of blue jeans and a blue blouse. I was about to get ready for bed when he got the phone call from the doctor. I was in the bathroom at the time. When I came out he was pacing back and forth and slamming the phone up against his head. I knew that something was wrong, but I didn’t have a clue that he had just found out my personal business. The doctor called to make sure that I was taking my prenatal vitamins and to verify that I was going to come in for my two month checkup at my earliest convenience. I should’ve told him that Timothy wasn’t the father, but I really didn’t think that it was any of his business. It didn’t take Timothy long to do the math. I had seduced him one month ago, and before that we hadn’t touched each other for six months.
I opened the door to the garage connected to the kitchen. The black Porsche was right there and I placed the key into the lock and pulled it open in a mad rush to get inside. My hand was shaking, and I was trying to put the key into the ignition. He came out and placed his hands against the glass with his eyes glaring daggers at me from the outside.
I dropped the key and when I went to pick it up, I heard the sound of glass breaking. I looked over with my mouth agape to see that the glass on the driver’s side had spider webbed. He had actually used his fist to make contact. He was now shaking that same fist with blood pooling between his fingers.
“Stay away from me, and I never want to see you again.” It was an idle threat, and he was the one that was holding all the power in the palm of his hand. “I don’t want you to come near me.” I turned the ignition, feeling the engine coming to life underneath me
He turned and was laughing hysterically. I had no idea what he found so funny. His fist was closed, and I had a feeling that maybe he had broken something. He was smiling, and it wasn’t the jovial kind that you would find from somebody that was happy to be alive. It was more evil and sinister, which was followed by him dangling a pair of keys in front of my face. I stared at him, and then it finally came to me that he had another key that operated the garage door opener.
He pressed that button and the sound of the door closing caught me by surprise. Somehow, I had the semblance of mind to press the same button on mine. With both of us pressing the button at the same time, it seemed to cancel out each other. I put my hand on the leather gear shift, put it down to the drive position and then placed my foot on the accelerator. He barely had enough time to jump out of the way before I sailed through the opening and out onto the pavement of the driveway. I fishtailed and slammed up against the oak tree, but I continued to move forward.
In my rearview mirror, I could see that he was running down the driveway shaking his bloodied fist and most likely calling me every name in the book. I touched my stomach, and I knew that we were safe, but for how long was the question. He was certainly not going to let me get away with that. He would find a way to track me down. I had watched enough crime shows on television to know that he could probably find me if I were to use credit cards or even dip into our joint account.
“I’m sorry that I had to put you through that little one. I hope that you slept through all of that. Don’t worry; we will never see him again.” I looked at the gas gauge, and I could see that I had half a tank. I needed to find some place to lay low, but I only had around $100 on me. It might be enough for one night or maybe two at a fleabag motel, but after that I was on my own.