Taylor

The moisture in the air shifted the second Blake stormed in the door. Taylor, still oblivious to where her husband had disappeared to so quickly, only cared that he was home. It was then she realized her heart no longer belonged to him. In the understanding that she didn’t want her husband near her or her kids with his ever escalating out-of-control behavior, she knew he’d kill her if she ever planned to leave. She needed help in the form of Libby.

Her husband was disconnected from his body, and he was not rational anymore. Not that he was rational by human standards normally, but there was no reaching him. Her last words to him, which were only to ask what he’d done on his quick trip, did him in, and now, unlike the past, she not only feared for her life but that of her children. “Dexter, run upstairs and lock the door and only open it for Mommy. You understand?” she said. In his quick departure from the room, she didn’t see what was in her son’s hand.

It was now or never to maybe say the one thing that could stop him as his eyes grew dark and like those of a stranger she no longer knew. “Mikayla, you hurt her. That is why she left? Right?”

Now, all she needed was to protect MJ, who was barely just a week old, sitting in her carrier on the floor. “What did you just say?” he demanded, not even understanding the fear that drove his son out of the living room.

Though she’d said this the day her water broke with MJ, her words packed a punch with the confidence her lost sister-in-law had given her. “I know what you did to Mikayla. You are the reason she left.” Taylor repeated herself, but it didn’t bring back the man she’d fallen in love with. Her words and accusations only fueled his fire.

“You don’t know shit, and you are just that, a piece of shit.”

Backing up, trying to maneuver MJ’s car carrier out of his line of sight, she said, “Mikayla came to see me a month ago. She had a feeling you had moved on to your wife, and she wasn’t wrong, you know.”

“Mikayla was my world. I loved her; she was my little sister. I only was hard on her to make her thick skinned in this world, like I’ve had to do with you.”

“Is that how you justify it, Blake? Did you knock her around too?”

“No, I don’t knock you around either. Only when you deserve it.”

“No one ever deserves it!” she screamed, and the next thing she remembered was everything around her fading to black.

* * *

Libby

Her mind wandered to Blake. All Taylor mentioned was he’d left for a couple of days. Where was he and could he be capable of hurting someone, actually two someone’s she loved so much? Her mind raced, sorting through files of memories stored in her brain; all that revolved around her kids, her life.

Her phone began to vibrate, pulling her back to the present. She looked at the display and saw it was Taylor. “Hey, sweetie,” Libby said, as she always adored her daughter-in-law and loved her like one of her own children.

Before she could say anymore, she knew right away it was not Taylor whimpering on the other end. “Grammy.”

“Dex, honey. Where is your mommy?”

“Daddy really mad. I scared, Grammy.”

Adam stood immediately at the panic that appeared on his wife’s face. “I’m on my way, Dex. Stay on the line with us.” She covered the speaker and looked at her husband terrified. “It’s Taylor; she’s in trouble.” He grabbed his keys, and they hurried to the car and toward their son’s house, not sure what they’d find.

* * *

Colette

“This is bad, really bad,” Colette said.

“I need you to calm down, Cole.” David pulled her into his embrace, only twenty-four hours after his brother-in-law showed up on her front porch.

“I can’t get a hold of her. It’s like her number was changed.”

“Does that surprise you, Cole, with how controlling he is? He doesn’t want you two to be in contact; that would be too dangerous for him.”

“No, not at all, but part of me wants to call my mom.”

“We can’t do that, not now.”

Colette searched his eyes. “I will never regret the life we chose, but it’s time. It’s time I come clean to my mom, face-to-face.”

As he always did with his touch, she calmed. “Okay, Cole, let’s make a plan.”