Lilly
She was desperate.
Every second longer she searched was one second closer to being unable to escape. It had to be somewhere. She just didn’t know where.
“Come on,” she muttered, searching through his drawers with care. Nothing could be left out of place, or else he might know that she’d gone through his things. That would be bad. Not as bad as Damien coming home and realizing what she intended, but it would be close. Lilly would like to avoid both outcomes, so she took her time.
She finally found it stashed in the back of a drawer, under some fancier clothes he never wore anymore. Not since he’d joined his motorcycle club and switched to black graphic T-shirts and jeans. Ugh.
Lilly hit the power button, but nothing happened. It was dead. Damn. She ran back to the bedroom and found the charger. He hadn’t taken that away. Probably because he hadn’t thought of it. Her hands shook as she plugged the phone in, missing the little slot once, then realizing she had the charger upside down. Turning it over, she slotted it home and then tossed the phone down on the bed.
Waiting was going to be the worst part. Her short, chubby legs carried her back and forth across the room she shared with Damien, what was left of the faded beige carpeting rustling underfoot. Like the paint on the walls and everything else in the house, it had fallen into disrepair. Her fiancé no longer cared about anything at home. Including her.
She twisted at the engagement ring on her finger, twirling it around, wondering if she was making a big mistake. Mild irritating pain flared up in her right arm, and she rubbed gently at the bruise there. No, there was no mistake being made tonight. The only mistake she’d made was waiting this long.
“Let’s go. Hurry up,” she said, pleading with her phone to gather enough charge to turn on already. It might all be for nothing if he’d canceled her data plan. She no longer knew the password for the Wi-Fi at home since he’d changed that too.
The phone screen finally blinked on with that annoying power-up music. Lilly leapt at it, smothering it underneath her in an attempt to silence it. Nobody was home, but she was paranoid that somehow someone might hear and let him know what she was up to. Lilly wasn’t sure what would happen if he found out, and she was determined to keep it that way. Even if that meant awkwardly leaping onto the bed to cover her phone with her boobs and smothering its speaker in chest flesh. Oh well.
The phone was on now, and the first thing she did was turn the volume off and dim the screen fully. Then she hunkered down next to the bed, putting it between her and the window.
“Please have your phone on you, Dee. Please,” she whispered, pulling up her texts, ignoring the dozens of unread ones. She ignored all the ones from Dee and started typing, her fingers so shaky she had to erase and start over half a dozen times.
Lilly: Dee, are you there?
She hit Send, her throat constricting tightly. Things had been set in motion now. Things she wasn’t sure she could ever undo. This was the way it had to be though. For her safety, and for someone else’s.
Lilly rubbed at her stomach in slow circles, trying to think calm thoughts. Tears gathered at the edges of her eyes, but she refused to let them fall. Right now she had to be strong for her child. If it were to have a future free from the suffering she now endured, then Lilly would have to face her fears and do whatever was necessary. A mother protected her cubs.
She bared her teeth in a half-snarl half-smile as her phone lit up with a reply.
Dee: Hey! Where have you been? I’ve been trying to talk to you for like two weeks now!
Lilly wasted no time. She literally didn’t have it.
Lilly: I’m in trouble. I need help, and I don’t know who to turn to.
The reply this time was almost instantaneous.
Dee: Where, when, and what do I bring?
Lilly: No. Not you. It’s too dangerous for you to come here. I need out. Can you loan me some money? I’ll meet you somewhere. It’ll be safer that way.
Dee: Lil what’s wrong? Tell me how I can help. Are you in trouble?
Lilly: It’s Damien. He…didn’t take the news so well. Things have been bad. Listen, Dee, I don’t have much time.
This time there was a longer pause, perhaps thirty seconds or so.
Dee: Give me your address. Don’t give me any excuses. Address. Now.
The tears did fall now. She didn’t want to drag her friend into her mess. This was Lilly’s problem, and she was going to solve it on her own. Yet Dee wasn’t about to back down. She knew that tone of voice, even over text. So she gave her the address.
Dee: Okay. How long do you have?
Lilly: An hour. Maybe two at most.
The pause was much longer this time. Perhaps two minutes. She started to freak out. Lights flashed on the far wall and she jumped up to peer out the window at the driveway, terrified that she’d run out of time and he’d come home. But it was just the neighbor across the street backing into his driveway. Nobody was there yet.
Vibrations from the phone in her hand scared her half to death, her nervous yelp echoing off the wall until the little townhouse descended back into silence again. Lilly glanced at her phone.
Dee: Sit tight. Help is on the way. You have thirty minutes to get your ass ready and out that door. Otherwise you’re leaving involuntarily. Now get moving!!
She stared at the phone, stunned. Who was she sending? It didn’t sound like Dee herself was coming. Lilly had so many questions she wanted to ask and things to tell Dee, but she didn’t have time. Thirty minutes to get ready to go? She needed to pack!
Her heart rate had to be borderline in the red zone as she raced around the house, trying to grab what she would need and things that were valuable to her. Combining everything into one pack proved impossible almost immediately, so she grabbed a second duffel bag and started separating things based on priority. The smaller bag got high priority with things like underwear, bras, clothing, and her mother’s heirloom necklace. Everything else, such as more clothes, the few baby things she’d been able to keep, and some photos she valued tremendously went into the duffel bag.
Eyeing her clothing, she wondered if it were the right choice. Damien would know if she had started to pack away the clothes he allowed her to wear. Which meant that everything going into the bags was of the rather more, um, revealing nature. He’d decided one day that she was only allowed to wear clothing that covered her from neck to elbow and stomach. No cleavage, no exposed back, nothing like that. Now all that sort of clothing was all she could pack without him noticing, in case he came home.
This was a bad idea.
The door bounced in its frame as a heavy hand knocked three times in quick succession on it. Lilly gasped, covering her mouth. Someone was there! Had Damien sent someone to look in on her while he was gone? She wouldn’t put it past him. Horrified at what might happen, she started dragging the oversized duffel bag to the nearest closet. If she could just stuff it in there, he might never know. It wasn’t like he ever did any of the housework.
Again the stranger knocked at the door. The lack of yelling to let him in allowed some doubts to grow in her mind, that maybe it wasn’t one of Damien’s motorcycle club pals. Yet it had to be. Who else would be knocking on her door at eleven thirty at night?
She decided that it would be best if she ignored it. That’s what Damien would want her to do. Stay inside. If he’d sent one of his buddies to “check up” on her, they would have a key and could let themselves inside. It wouldn’t be the first time.
Finishing hiding her big bag, she grabbed the other one and stuffed it into the dryer. Again, Damien would never find it there.
Then she retreated to her bedroom and waited for the person to enter. They would find her watching television, and that was it. Hopefully. Taking a deep breath, she lay back into the comforter and tried to appear relaxed and natural, not scared out of her mind.
That was when whoever it was started to break down the front door.