Page 35 of Rocky

“So, Rue, how long have you and Rocky been dating?”

“Umm…We’re just friends.”

“You think so? That’s interesting,” she remarked with a smirk.

Just as I opened my mouth to respond, the door opened, and two other women entered.

“Sorry we’re late,” one of them said.

“Yeah, we were finishing up a Zoom call. Who’s this?”

“Thisis Rocky’s girl, Rue, but she says they'rejustfriends,” Chardae said.

“Aww, how cute. I’m Danette, and this is Kamisha.”

“It’s nice to meet you. Umm…Rocky, why did you bring me here?”

“You ladies have something in common, and I wanted them to share their stories with you.”

“Stories about what?” I asked nervously.

“Deacon Lewis.”

I knewDeacon’s history with women before I met Rue. He’d been terrorizing the women he dated for years. I hadn’t gone after him because I didn’t want to start a war. Since a war was already brewing after that other situation, I decided to strike while the iron was hot.

After hearing what he did to Rue yesterday and during their relationship, I saw red. When I left her last night, I had Semiyon track Deacon down. He found him at a hole-in-the-wall bar, and he was drunk. I had one of my female decoys lure him to the back.

Usually, I liked a good fight and allowed the abuser to defend themselves. Last night, I didn’t give a fuck and would’ve killed Deacon if Semiyon and Russell hadn’t been with me. It was brutal, but I left him breathing.

“I broke up with Deacon three years ago. Were you with him back then?” Rue asked.

They all dated him on and off for five to eight years but didn’t have enough courage to leave him until the last several months.

“So basically, the whole time we were together, he was messing around with at least one of y’all?” she asked, seemingly disgusted.

“At one point or another,” Chardae said.

“He always made sure I knew I wasn’t main girl, nor was I the only one he was dealing with,” Danette shared.

“Me too, but he would flip out if he suspected I was talking to another man,” Kamisha added.

“Same here. That’s how the abuse started with me. He saw me having an innocent conversation with a man and swore we’d had or were planning to fuck,” Chardae said.

“How do you all know each other?” Rue inquired.

“This is a safe house for abused women and children,” Kamisha told her. “Everyone that lives here fled from an abusive relationship.”

“Wow! How long have you all been here?”

Danette had been there for two months, Kamisha for four months, and Chardae for five months. Women could stay there for up to six months if they had no children and a year if they had children.

“Were you with him until you came here?” They all nodded. “I knew Deacon was unfaithful, but I had no idea he was abusing other women.”

“It was always bad, but it got progressively worse over the years. When I look back, I don’t know how I dealt with it for so long. All he did was take, take, and take some more, offering me nothing but a bruised body and a broken heart,” Chardae said.

“Same,” Kamisha and Danette responded simultaneously.

“The only good thing I got from our relationship was my son.”

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