Over the next two weeks, I found myself wondering if Jaret was ever going to come back.
I mean, he had to. Didn’t he?
He wasn’t returning my calls. He wasn’t answering texts. He was definitely ignoring me.
But he’d promised he’d be there.
Maybe when the baby was born, he’d forgive me.
For telling him I loved him, and then telling him it was a joke.
I wasn’t sure which one made it worse.
No, that’s not true. Of course I was sure. It was saying it in the first place. Jaret Black had never loved anybody his whole life. Well, apart from his family. But he wasn’t the fall-in-love-and-settle-down type of guy. In fact, he was the total and complete opposite.
All these thoughts and more ran through my head as I made my way back home from my day of work.
It turned out the company I was working for was more than happy to accommodate the new addition to my family. And while I was sure that Jaret could pay for everything I needed, I wanted a little bit of an independence of my own, and decided to continue working for them.
I was now doing errands and busy work – essentially working as an intern – while at night I was studying to become a CPA, with all the courses paid for by the company.
It was while coming back from one of those days, spent mainly filing forms and photocopying, that everything changed.
The elevator doors opened and I walked down the hall to my apartment – getting more thankful than ever as my tummy first started showing that thanks to Jaret’s money I could afford a place with an elevator – when I felt someone behind me.
It was weird, this was a quiet building, and I almost never saw anyone else.
I turned around and dropped my purse and the small bag containing the sandwich and salad from a local deli that I was going to have for dinner.
Tom was standing there.
“Get the fuck out of my building,” I ordered. I had no idea why he was here. But I knew Tom was bad news. He was always bad news.
“How did you get in, anyway?” I asked.
“Easy. Just the old standard wait for someone to come out then grab the door as they go.”
“Well go back out the same way you came.”
“Absolutely not. I told you, Mikki, you’re mine. You’re mine, and you had no right to leave. And now you’re pregnant with another man’s baby?”
My heart pounded in my chest as Tom came closer and closer to me. I reached down to grab my keys. I had to get into my apartment, but I couldn’t find them. Damn it, I was never going to keep my purse this messy again.
Instead, my fingers wrapped around my phone.
“I’m calling the police,” I warned Tom. “Don’t come any closer.”
Tom just laughed. “I’m sure. Just like how when Lisa called them they came and arrested me.
Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck.
This wasn’t good. I had to keep him taking while I tried to get help.
“I’m not yours. I’ve told you that. I have an order of protection against you. We broke up because you were an abusive piece of shit. I DON’T LOVE YOU,” I cried out, hoping that my shouts might attract attention from the neighbours.
I was desperate. I opened up my text messages, tapped on Lisa’s name and quickly fingered “HELP” before pressing send.
Before I even heard the little “whoop” telling me the message had send, Tom had knocked the phone out of my hand.
“Oh, Mikki. It’s ok. I understand that you don’t remember how good our lives together were. And yeah, I wasn’t perfect. I know I made mistakes, baby. But I always loved you. But you. You dirty whore. You immediately go and get knocked up. Why wasn’t I good enough to have your baby? I was good to you.”
“Regardless,” I replied, changing tactics. Hoping that I could calm him down. “I know you loved me, but regardless, we’re broken up. I’ve moved on. I’m sorry I hurt you, Tom. I didn’t do this to hurt you.”
My plea did nothing to quell his rage.
“Don’t lie to me! You haven’t moved on. You haven’t!” he exclaimed, coming closer.
“Fine. Fine, I haven’t. I haven’t moved on.” As he stood only a few feet away from me, my hand instinctively went to protect my stomach.
“YOU LYING BITCH,” he hollered, and I pressed back against the wall, wincing. God, I hated it when he yelled. “You fucking liar. You got pregnant with another man’s baby. How could you be such a whore after I took such good care of you, you ungrateful fucking slut.”
“Please, Tom,” I begged. “I’m having a baby. Please don’t do this. Please let my baby be.”
“That bastard’s just more proof that you’re nothing but a dirty whore,” he snarled back, and I knew this was it. He wasn’t over me. He was going to make me pay for getting pregnant with someone else’s baby.
How the fuck had he found me?
As the first blow hit me in the nose, I clutched at my stomach. I cried out and curled up into a ball. Anything to protect my baby.
Anything at all.
“HELP!” I cried out, desperate for someone to hear me. Please, someone.
Hadn’t Jaret said he would do anything to protect us?
Why wasn’t he protecting us against this?
When the second blow knocked my head against the wall, everything went black.