Page 48 of Anders and the Girl Worth Fighting For
The swell of her belly came into view again. If I kicked now, I would get free, but I could hurt the baby.
A memory came to me of all the nights I had cried, my arms aching with emptiness, my heart broken for children that would never come. I couldn’t do it. Kicking her would free me, but at the expense of an innocent child.
My hesitation was the opening she needed to grab my hair and yank me up. She tore clumps of it free of my scalp, but her grip wouldn’t let up.
“You’re enjoying watching this,” a new voice said. Kaye’s control of me prevented me from seeing the speaker, but I knew that voice. George. Was my mother part of this too? Had everyone betrayed me?
“A little,” Bill responded leisurely. “But I suppose you are right. Stop fighting, Grace. This is pathetic,” Bill said as he walked up to me and tied my hands behind my back again. This time, the zip ties cut into my already bleeding and torn skin. I tried to bite back a whimper, but it came out anyway. I could see George now and snickered at the show of pain I couldn’t swallow down.
Kaye let up on my hair when Bill had tied my arms together. She shoved me to the ground and gave me a good kick in the stomach once I was there. I was still dizzy and disoriented from the chloroform and now the fight. The world spun, and I heaved again. My empty stomach protested as my body tried to force itto give up its contents.
“Now, now Kaye, we need her able to function enough to give us the money,” George said as Bill reached down and hauled me up by my bound arms. My shoulders were still sore and protested at the rough handling. He dragged me back to my pole and secured me again. This time with a rope that went around my chest and torso tight enough that I could hardly breathe. I kneed him in the balls as he crouched in front of me to tie me up. It wasn’t hard enough, though. Enraged, he reached out and slapped me. Coward.
I stared at him. The world swam from my exertion. I hadn’t made it to the phone. They had me tied up, better than before, and there were three of them to my one weak self. Desperation set in. I prayed, for the first time in a long time, that Anders would find me soon. I didn’t think I had anything left to get out of this one on my own.
“There’s a good little pet,” Bill said as he patted my head after he finished tying me up. The venom injected in the wordpetwas enough to take down an elephant. It was a nickname he had used in the past when he was angry with me. I think he truly thought of me as a pet in those moments. Actually, I’m not sure he ever thought of me as a person at all.
“Now,” said George from a short distance away. While the rest of us showed signs of a fight, he was in an immaculate suit, not a hair out of place. “We need you to call your lawyer and have them release the funds in your trust.” He pulled a cell phone out of the inside pocket of his suit. “Say anything to alert them of the situation and we will just be rid of you. I’m sure your mother would be more than happy to resolve this issue.”
My blood ran cold. Was that a threat against her, or was she part of this? I hated that I didn’t know. I hated that my mother had been so awful that I couldn’t trust that she was innocent.
“I have no idea what you are talking about,” I said warily. Icould taste the blood from my split lip, and that kept me going.
“The trust your grandmother gave you,” said Bill in a tone that conveyed he thought I was an idiot or a child. He spoke to them the same way. “Why do you think I even married you? She set it up when you were still a child to be available upon her death or your thirtieth birthday. Don’t play dumb with me. That’s why you left me. So I couldn’t touch it.”
I genuinely had no idea what he was talking about. “I left you because you were a bad husband. I live in a run-down studio apartment and work more hours than is healthy just to eat.”
“Which is what you would do to hide the money until the divorce is finalized,” George said almost reasonably, like he had everything figured out and this whole situation bored him. “It’s why we had Bill ‘disappear,’ to delay things and give you time to slip up.”
I sagged, defeated and exhausted. I didn’t know what they were talking about, and I wasn’t sure how I was going to get out of here. The phone in George’s hand was my only hope and somehow I didn’t think he would just hand it over, even if I agreed to call my lawyer. I had one chance and only one chance to get this right.
“Can you come closer?” I asked George. I made sure to sound as tired and weak as I could. He wasn’t going to come anywhere near me if he thought I could still fight him. “I can’t speak that loud.” I let my voice trail off for emphasis. “I’ll tell you how to get the money.”
It worked. George moved closer to me, his phone still in hand. Bill stayed close to me and I hoped he hadn’t changed his habit of keeping his phone in his back pocket.
I waited until they were both near and then shouted, “Siri! Call 911.” I prayed it worked. I prayed that I was loud enough and that at least one of the phones picked up my plea.
“What the fuck?” Bill exclaimed when his phoneacknowledged the request and began the call. One thing Anders had gone over when we were doing self-defense training was that even just dialing 911 would prompt a response from them. They were required to contact a phone that called them, even if the caller hung up before they could answer.
Just as I expected, Bill hung up the phone right away, but I hoped it connected and ring while he fumbled to get it out of his pocket. I only needed it to be long enough for the system to pick up his number and location.
Bill slapped me again. I used to tell myself that he wasn’t abusive. Sure, he demeaned me occasionally. Yes, he worked long hours and was never home. Yes, when he was home, things had to be exactly how he wanted them. He had negative opinions on almost everything. But I could tell myself it wasn’t abuse. After all, he never hit me.
The illusion had been shattered before now. I had left him and figured out that most women don’t have to go through what I went through in a relationship. The slaps were just the final nail in the coffin of his abuse.
I laughed then. Maybe my brain was more rattled than I thought. It was all just so ridiculous.
“What’s so funny?” He demanded. He paced in front of me, fists clenched like he would lash out at me any moment. George had moved further away again, so I couldn’t try the same stunt with the phones. Kaye stood in the background and had backed up when he started pacing like that. Maybe he never hit me, but based on that reaction, I’m betting she hadn’t spared.
“You,” I said between breaths. “All of you.” Bill clenched his fists, and I expected he would aim one of those fists at me soon.
“I’m the one who has you tied up, and I’m the one that’s funny?” He asked. He’d stopped pacing and faced me, his fist still clenched tightly. Yes, that blow would come soon. Still, I couldn’t stop laughing.
“How many years did you lecture me on being a good Christian wife so you could be a good Christian deacon? And now here you are, the preacher’s wife and a church deacon in tow, pathetic, desperate, and father to both the preacher’s kids!” I couldn’t stop laughing, even if the bruises on my side hurt. “Worse, we aren’t even officially divorced because you won’t sign the damn papers!”
“I’d hoped you would come around and we could be happy again,” he said.
“Wait a minute,” Kaye screeched from her place by the wall, her hands fisted tightly at her sides, a snarl on her red face. “How the hell we were supposed to run off together if you still wanted to be married to that whore?” She threw her hands towards me, if case anyone was confused about who she called a whore.I laughed again.
