Page 110 of Stone Vows

I make it out to the hallway, just as he’s rounding the corner.

“What are you doing, Alexa?” he asks, looking at me suspiciously.

“I was just coming from our bedroom,” I answer, hoping my lie is convincing. “I was reading in bed and had fallen asleep. Time got away from me, I guess. I’m going to go out back and clean up the yard before dinner.”

Neither of us bother to mention the condition of said yard. He knows I know he did it. I know he knows there is nothing I can do about it. Same dance, different day. He takes something I love and destroys it. He doesn’t want me to have anything that I love more than him.

But what he doesn’t know is that I loveeverythingmore than him. Sometimes I think I’d even love death more than I love him. But every time I consider it, I think of my little brother. I swore to myself that one day I’d make my way back to him. I can’t make him bury his sister—his only living relative whom he cares about.

Grant watches me as I pass by him and walk through the kitchen to the garage where I get a rake and some trash bags. He’s still standing in the hallway when I come back through. I look at him and paste on a smile as I pass. “Would you mind ordering pizza for us tonight? This might take me while.”

He reaches a hand up to cradle my chin, leaning down to place a kiss on my lips. Lips that want to spit at him; spew words of hate at him. Lips that want to tell him I’m walking out that door and never coming back. But I hold down the bile rising in my throat and let him kiss me. Just like I always do. And later, I’ll lie underneath him and let him have his way with me. Just like I always do. Because I know what happens if I don’t follow the rules.

“Sure, I can do that. I’ll even get it with pepperoni,” he says. “I know it’s your favorite.”

I smile at him before I walk out the back door.

I despise pepperoni and he knows it.

Thirty minutes later, I’m being flung across the yard onto my back with a thud that I know will have my body aching for a week.

He’s hovering over me holding his prized trophy. “What the fuck did you do?” he yells at me.

“I just—”

“Shut up!” he yells, grabbing me by one of my arms and dragging me back into the house.

He’s dragging me into the house so the neighbors won’t hear. That means he’s about to yell at me some more. He’s about to hurt me. And he’s not about to let the neighbors think he’s anything less than an upstanding police officer. One who they can always count on. One whose wife is the perfect little housewife.

He slams the door behind us and he shoves me into the corner of the kitchen. “What the fuck were you doing in my office? Did you really think I wouldn’t know? I’m a fucking cop, Alexa. A damn good one. I know you moved my trophy.”

“I w-was upset about the g-garden,” I stutter through my tears. “My f-first instinct was to go after something you love, too. I’m sorry.” I try to shrink into the corner.

“And you thought that gave you the right to go in my office?” he yells, pacing the floor. “A place you are forbidden from going? Because of your stupid flower garden?”

“It’s not stupid to me, Grant. It means something to me.”

“It’s a fucking flower garden!” he shouts, waving his trophy around.

Then, I watch in horror as a piece of the trophy comes apart right where I had glued it. His eyes bulge and the vein in his temple pulsates in anger as he runs his finger across the break, obviously feeling or seeing the glue. He examines it further and pulls on it, causing it to separate in all the places I’d fixed it.

He throws it across the room, shattering what remained of it against the wall next to my head. “You broke my goddamn trophy? You selfish little bitch!”

He walks over to the broken pieces, picking one up before he attacks me with it. I cover my face with my hands, shielding it from him, hoping against all hope that he will hit me once and then leave me alone.

I feel the sharp blow to my upper chest and immediately feel the sting. The burn of tearing flesh. The warmth of blood trickling down onto my shirt.

Strong arms come around me as I lash out, trying to save myself. “Lexi, wake up! Wake up!”

Chapter Fifty-two

“It’s okay,” he says, holding me down so I don’t hurt him. “It’s, okay, Lexi. It’s Kyle. I’m not him. You’re safe. You and Ellie are safe here.”

He wraps his arms around me, holding me tightly until I calm down. “Shhhhh,” he whispers into my ear, his hot breath rolling across my neck.

“Kyle?” I ask, trying to shake the dream away.

“Yes. I’m here. It’s okay.”

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