Page 60 of The Agent
“Sweetie, those were ugly bruises,” Natalie said. “He’d already hurt you.”
“I understand that now,” Regina said, her eyes bleak. “Back then I was still making excuses for him. I feel so stupid.”
Natalie understood. She’d believed it when Matt told her that their problems were her fault, that she needed to work harder to be a better wife. He didn’t like it when she went out with her friends, so she’d curtailed her social life. He resented it when she was sick, so she went to bed only when she almost couldn’t stand up any longer. He complained about the time she put in at the hair salon, but he liked the money she brought in. She took advantage of his ambivalence about her job to continue working.
The salon had saved her. There, she could feel good about herself because her clients felt good about themselves when she did their hair. She listened to their problems, sharing their burdens for just long enough to make their mood lighter when they left. Instead of Matt’s voice droning in her ear that she was a failure, her boss and her customers told her what a great job she was doing.
But it almost hadn’t been enough.
“Do you have any photographs of the bruises?” Alastair asked.
Regina surprised Natalie by nodding. “Not the first ones because I thought they were an accident. But after that, I took pictures just so I’d know I wasn’t crazy.” She looked down at the table. “He kept telling me that I was exaggerating and that he hadn’t really hurt me. I knew he had put bruises on me, but he was so definite about not having done it that I started to think he was right.”
“That was a very clever thing to do.” Alastair’s encouragement reminded Natalie of Tully offering the same support to Regina. “Now tell me as much as you can remember about each incident. Date, time of day, what happened, what your husband said to you, if you can remember.”
Regina pulled her cell phone and a folded piece of legal paper from her purse. She passed the paper to Alastair. “That’s a list of my best guess on the dates. I marked the ones I’m sure of because I have photos on my phone.” She turned on her cell and handed it to Alastair. “This is my old phone. I saved it for the photos. You can keep it here.”
He looked at the paper and then at the phone. Natalie saw anger flare in his blue eyes and she stopped worrying about how tough he would be in divorce court. “In your own words, tell me what happened.”
Regina nodded and took a deep breath. “When Dobs told me he wanted to have a child right away, I was thrilled. That meant he really loved me, right? And I always wanted to have a big family. But when I didn’t get pregnant right away, he said ...” Regina stared into the coffee mug she had clutched in her hand before she continued in a barely audible voice. “He said that he’d only married me because I looked like a good breeder and now I was failing.”
Natalie’s hands balled into fists that she wanted to slam into Dobs Van Houten’s snooty face.
Regina seemed to curl into herself. “He made me have sex whether I wanted to or not. When I tried to refuse, he grabbed my wrists or slapped me, so finally I just let him do what he wanted. I felt like a prostitute.” Tears ran down Regina’s cheeks. “But then he would give me jewelry and flowers and clothes. I thought that meant he loved me again.”
“He was manipulating you,” Natalie said. “Trying to make you believe that his behavior was loving and normal when it was abusive. It’s called love bombing.”
When she and Matt were dating, he had brought her gifts and told her how amazing she was, making her feel adored. It wasn’t until after they were married that he began to undermine her with little jabs of criticism. By then, she was convinced he loved her, so she believed his harsh words, especially when he claimed his comments were meant to help her be even better than she already was.
“I never knew which Dobs he would be when he walked in the house,” Regina said.
“He wanted you off-balance,” Alastair said, nodding.
“The day I left him, I had been to the doctor because my period was late. I was pretty sure I was pregnant.” She laid her hand over her belly. “But I didn’t want to tell Dobs without being absolutely certain. He’d be furious if it turned out I wasn’t.”
She took a deep breath. “I hadn’t told him I was going out because I didn’t want him to know where I was. And I’d left my cell phone at home because he tracks me on it. It turned out he’d come looking for me to have sex and couldn’t find me. So when I got home, he was in a rage. He was waiting for me at the top of the stairs. Before I could tell him the good news, he grabbed me and said he was going to throw me down the stairs because I was useless to him.”
She had both hands on her abdomen as she choked on a sob. “I was pregnant and he was going to hurt my baby.”
Natalie put her arm around Regina’s shoulders. “So you protected your baby by leaving. That took great courage.”
Regina shook her head. “I almost told Dobs then because I knew it would make him love me again. But then I thought about raising a child with him. What if the baby disappointed him? Would he throw our child down the stairs?”
“How did you get away from him?” Alastair asked.
She flushed. “I told him I wanted to have sex with him.” She shuddered. “It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. As soon as we were finished, he went back to his office while I threw some clothes in my gym bag and told him I had a session with my personal trainer. I went to the gym and left my phone in my locker there before I drove to Natalie’s house.”
“I’m impressed by how you kept your wits about you in a highly stressful situation,” Alastair said, pushing a box of tissues closer to her.
Regina took one and wiped her face. “It was like Dobs had cast some kind of evil spell over me. Once I broke it, my brain started to work again.”
Natalie knew how hard it was to cut through those chains made of lies and humiliation. “You are amazing, sweetie,” she said to the younger woman.
“I didn’t want to get you in trouble by bringing the phone to your house,” Regina said to her. “I was afraid Dobs could track it even if I turned it off.”
Alastair typed a bit longer before closing the laptop. “I’ve sent all the information off to be set up in a formal complaint. I know a judge in New Jersey who will expedite it.” He folded his hands on the computer again. “Now we need to talk about divorce.”
“All I care about is getting custody of my baby,” Regina said. “Dobs can keep his money.”
