Page 10 of Traps and Gretchen

“Deep breaths for me. Deeeeeeep breaths.”

She sucked several into her lungs, and released them out, her entire body trembling. “He’s coming back,” she whispered the second she could.

“From where?”

“He went to meet Fetch and Rowan.”

“Fetch and Rowan… what the swamp’s ass for?”

She shook her head many times before the words came. “I don’t know. They were coming to eat dinner, now they’re not and he’s on his way back to fight with me!” The last words gained hysterical momentum, forcing her palm over her mouth to keep from screaming.

“Honey, honey, breaths. Deep breaths. Okay not that deep, mercy, you’ll pass out! What do you mean he’s coming to fight?”

“He’s using rope,” she remembered, ready to vomit. “He’s so angry.”

“He won’t hurt you,” she assured. “I know that much, so calm down.”

Juliette had no idea how terrifying he was to her. “I did everything you said, I-I-I made sure he knew I was sorry and showed him I was available as a wife and…” She smacked her palm over her mouth, fighting back another sob.

“And what? Breathe. Evenly.”

She steadied her breaths, trying to remember how that worked. Deep in through the nose, slow out of the mouth?

“That’s it, nice and slow out, all the way out. So, you did what I said and how did he take it.”

“Like I’m… on to another move against him,” she whispered. “He thinks I’m plotting his ruin.”

“I know this is going to sound crazy but that’s a good sign, this is all a good sign.”

“It is?” she couldn’t keep the screech from her voice.

“Yes, it is. This means you affect him alot.”

“How do you know that, did you talk to him? Did he say this?”

“No, I didn’t talk to him, but that he’s fighting is good.”

“How?” she begged.

“Because he’s notleaving.Men like him only fight for one reason, and that’s because there’s something worth fightingfor.”

She sucked in more breaths and released them, the air vibrating out of her trembling body. “I’m not even the woman he thinks I am,” she strained, hurrying to the door and opening the curtain on the window.

“You’re an amazing woman.”

“It’s all a game, a pretense,” she strained out. “He thinks he has something worth fighting for but really, he’s fighting for an illusion, the one I showed him when we first met. I’m not that woman! She’s just somebody I pretend to be when I need to be strong, I-I-I pick up personalities in the books I read, I don’t mean to, it just happens, and I use them when I need to, I borrow them, I don’t become them, the real me is… is…” The words that should never be spoken aloud quietly slipped past her tormented soul. “Nobody. A nobody that lives in a place called nowhere. I’m only as smart and witty and fun as the character I’m borrowing from a pretend story.”

“Oh honey.”

The whispered words brought forth a huge sob then more panic as she checked the window again. “I need to call and see where he is, I can’t have him come back and find me like this.”

“Okay listen up, sister,” Juliette said, her voice back to a lifeline. “You’re going to continue doing what you’re doing. Stick to the plan. Tell me what the plan is.”

“Submissive wife. Just be submissive. Whatever he wants, give him.”

“That’s it,” she said, simply. “He’ll figure it out, he’ll know, and if he doesn’t, well, shame on him and he’ll deserve it when I beat it into his dumb skullmyself.”

“I think he needs another wife.”

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