Page 15 of Vanishing Point
“He really pursued me, and it made me feel…special. Which I hadn’t felt in years. I look back and I think…he knew just who to target. Someone who needed an ego boost. Someone who’d be grateful for any positives.”
“That is generally how it goes,” Thomas said quietly. Not passing judgment. Just agreeing with her. And still, with her curled up against him, his arm tight around her, like none of this changed anything.
God, she hoped it wouldn’t.
“He was like this up-and-coming SWAT team guy, and he didn’t need a successful girlfriend. He needed a wife who would support him. So, when he asked me to marry him, I figured I’d throw myself into that. His schedule was crazy. His work demanding and stressful. He used that excuse a lot. Once we were married. Once he started hitting me. I knew it was wrong, but I felt like if I gave up, it was another failure.”
Thomas’s palm rubbed up and down her arm, and for the first time while going over this she didn’t feel shoved back into that place. Of helplessness. Of failure. She could actually look back on it as a past version of herself. A victim, yes.
But now she was a survivor.
“So what changed?” he asked gently.
“Magnolia. The day I found out I was pregnant, I had a black eye and a bruised rib. Eric didn’t want kids, but I didn’t know what I was more scared of. His reaction if I told him, or his reaction if I decided what to do about it on my own.”
She could still feel echoes of that old fear. That complete powerlessness. Knowing she wanted her child and knowing she didn’t have any real say. It had been a breaking point.
“Even if he’d let me keep a baby, I just… I remembered how awful it was to be a kid whose parents screamed at each other. I couldn’t imagine how much worse it would have been if my dad had ever physically hurt my mom. I didn’t want that for any child of mine, and I wanted her. So badly I wanted…to be a mother. To love someone.”
He held her tighter against him. “You said, back when Rosalie first had me come out, you said he tried to have you committed.”
“I called in a report that day. At first, the officers who responded took me very seriously. But as the days went on, I heard more about how I’d waited. How the prosecutor wouldn’t take on a case like mine. I knew Eric was making sure everyone thought I was lying.”
Thomas’s expression was mostly blank, but she saw in the way he held his jaw, tight and hard, he wasn’t justabsorbingthis information. It bothered him. She supposed she couldn’t be hurt by that.
“The next time he hit me, I called the police right away. He didn’t even stop me. I thought… I don’t know, I really thought that would be it. But he just laughed and told me he’d always win. I didn’t know how at the time, but then the cops showed up. They knew him, of course. And when he said I’d hurt myself, that I was a danger to him and myself, that I should be involuntarily committed and he’d besureI got the help I needed, I realized there was no real end. He had all the power.”
“He doesn’t,” Thomas said firmly. Then he relaxed a little, as if he was trying to make himself. “But you figured that out. You left.”
“It was my word against theirs, and there was no proof, so they couldn’t involuntarily commit me. But I knew if he gotanother chance, he’d make it happen. They made us separate for the night. And I just took that as my opportunity to run. I went to my dad. I was afraid… Well, I thought maybe he wouldn’t help, but it was my only chance.”
“I know your dad wasn’t perfect, but he did love you.”
Vi nodded, trying to blink back tears. “Yeah. Him and Suze saved me. They got me a divorce lawyer. At first, I thought it would be enough.” She shook her head, swallowing at the lump in her throat. “Stuff started happening at Dad’s house. Tires slashed. Mailboxes knocked over. Little petty things, and no way of proving it was Eric.”
“But of course it was Eric.”
“Yeah. Luckily, they served him the divorce papers at work. Apparently it was embarrassing enough for him that he got his own lawyer. They somehow made it look like he’d wanted the divorce first. Tried to make it out like I was unstable and a danger tohim. I didn’t even care at that point. Whatever got me out, especially if he never knew I was pregnant. But it left me flat broke, and too close. I couldn’t stand the idea of Dad and Suze getting hurt just for helping me, so I was going to leave.”
She inhaled, just as her therapist told her. Breathe in and let it all out. Feel your body. Know you’re safe.
“Dad insisted on helping me, and I didn’t have a choice. I had no money. No…anything. So first, they got me on a flight to Suze’s sister in Chicago. Then my aunt and uncle in Phoenix. My aunt and uncle drove me up to Denver, and Audra and Rosalie picked me up there. We thought he wouldn’t find me.”
“How long did it take?”
“It was almost six months before he called my new number. Every time I’d change it, he’d find it sooner. But it was just…messages about how I was nothing. How much better his life was without me. How he’d won. It’s all kind of a blur. Magnolia wasborn two months early, and I was more focused on that than what messages he left.”
“Has he ever threatened Magnolia?”
“I never told him I was pregnant. I didn’t go to the doctor until I got out. He doesn’t know she exists.”
Thomas was clearly confused by this. “If he’s gone through the trouble of phone numbers and email addresses, don’t you think he knows you had a kid?”
She hesitated for the first time since she’d started. Because the next bit was…well, illegal. “Let’s just say…it wasn’t exactly… I didn’t perhaps give the hospital the full truth.”
He frowned at her. “You can tell me, Vi. I’m not going to arrest you.”
He seemed irritated enough by the idea, so she figured he deserved the full truth. “Audra… She had me use all her information. Name. Social. Insurance. If anyone looks at Magnolia’s birth certificate, they’d think Audra was her mother.”
