Page 35 of Wrecked
“Enough! I wouldn’t cross any more lines you can’t uncross.”
“She’s taking after you, you know,” he continues, as if she hadn’t said anything. “Hasn’t spent a single night in her bed for months. Bet you didn’t even know that.” His voice is smug. He’s deliberately pushing her. It takes everything in me not to break down this door and beat the shit out of him. How could heinsinuate something like that about his own daughter? Especially when his daughter is as amazing as Ellie. She’s a bright light in a world of darkness. She sleeps beside me every night, chasing my poisonous thoughts to the very depths of my mind because she loves bigger and deeper than anyone I know. To imply she’s anything but perfect disgusts me.
“The question is…how do you, Chris? I watch her go to bed every night. I see her come from her room every morning. So how do you know she’s not in her bed in the middle of the night?” Her voice quivers, and I am repulsed by the accusation in her tone.
Ellie would tell me. If she were scared to be home, if her dad was hurting her, she would lean on me. She knows I’d never let anyone hurt her, that I would protect her with my last breath. Thiscan’tbe happening in her home. I can’t believe this is the horror movie my girl has been living in. I feel sick with the thought that I may have let her down. That I didn’t see the signs.
“I want you to go to rehab. Youneedto go to rehab. The way you treat the girls? It’snotokay. I’ve let it go on long enough, but I can’t stand it anymore. When you drink, you’re not…well. You’re starting to make Ellie uncomfortable with…with how you look at her.” Her tone shifts, replacing anger with fear. She sounds anxious about his reaction to her request…to her accusations.
“Awe, are you going to send me to rehab so I don’tfuckyour daughter, Diane?” He smirks, letting out a cruel laugh. “She’s only a kid for two more years, then what?” he taunts. “You’re the reason for the thoughts I have now.You’rethe damn reason I started drinking. So sure, send me to rehab,” he mocks, seemingly aware that she won’t see it through. “How do you plan to pay the bills? Pay for that swanky fucking school Katie goes to?”
My hands curl into fists, and my knuckles turn white from the pressure. The desire to break down this door causes my hands to shake. The absolute carnage I feel is almost too strongto ignore. I know I should knock on the door, that I need to break this up before I leave this house in handcuffs, but I need to hear more. I need to know what my girl is dealing with.
I try to calm myself, but my vision is veiled, and all I can see is red. My brain feels fuzzy and my movements become sluggish. I am losing my grip on self-control.
I feel positively murderous.
He has no right to look at her, or no right to even think about her like that. My stomach turns as I think about the danger he poses to her. I want nothing more than to wrap my hands around his neck and squeeze until I watch the life drain out of him. I want to watch as the light in his eyes dim, and he begs me to allow him air. I’d issue the same malicious laugh he just did as I denied his request and watched him fade away.
Even more than all that, I want Ellie toneverhave to hear the vile words coming from his mouth. That’s the only thing that keeps me from running my fist through the glass window and unlocking the door that stands between us. I don’t want to have to explain to herwhyI did it.
“Where’s the money coming from, Chris?” Diane’s soft voice cuts through the furious haze that’s fighting for control of my body.
This catches my attention. I remember Ellie telling me she never thought she’d be able to afford college until things turned around the last couple of years. She had no idea how her family suddenly came into the money, but was grateful she’d be able to get her degree.
“Not from you and your family, Diane. Not like it was supposed to,” he slurs, stumbling as he moves closer to her, putting his face directly in front of hers. I can imagine the smell of his breath as it wafts into her nose. It’s a scent I’ve been able to recognize most of my life. “You gonna let another man come in your pussy while I’m away in rehab? Maybe you should make him pay for it this time.”
“It’s been years!” Diane cries out. “Every time we move forward, you move us right back! I wanted another baby, Chris.Wewanted a baby.”
He lets out a cold laugh and slams the bottle of whatever he is drinking against the entryway table. Despite what I just said, I am seconds from removing the door from its hinges. I won’t watch a man hit a woman. I don’t care if that means I face the other end of that bottle.
“I didn’t cheat on you, Chris. We weren’t getting pregnant. You didn’t get the promotion you wanted. Things weren’t good.Weweren’t good. I just wanted to bring some happiness into our lives!”
“By putting someother man’scome in your pussy!”
“My husband, Chris! Not some other man. He wanted me to be able to create a life with him if he didn’t make it back home, and he left me the means to do it. We didn’t know I was already pregnant when he deployed. He just wanted to give me the things I wanted! He was a good man. I won’t let you take that away from him.”
Jesus Christ.
Ellie’s dad…is not her dad.
It explains why he appears to be takinglibertieswith their relationship. As much as I already hate this bastard, having a biological connection would at least keep her safer. I can’t stomach the idea of something happening to her.
I realize right here and now that I would kill for her. I would kill to protect her.
“I gave up everything for you.” Her voice wobbles. “For this life with you.”
He gives her a scathing laugh. “All because ‘fate intervened’ or some bullshit, right?” he ridicules. “It wasn’t fate, Diane, and this was never the life I wanted with you. I didn’t want a goddamn kid, I wanted your family’s money! Too bad we’re stuck together now,” he mumbles the last part as he walkstoward the staircase that descends toward the front door. “Ellison—get your ass down here!”
“Leave her alone, Chris,” Diane demands, her voice thick with tears. I assume she is going to intervene, but I see her outline walk out of the foyer, leaving Ellie’s fate to her drunk father.
I can feel her before I see her through the crack in the doorway. She cautiously ambles down the stairway, taking note of the bottle of booze that lays haphazardly on the table.
Good girl.
Keep your guard up, baby. I’m right here.
I should knock, but I just need to see. I need to know how badly I’ve neglected Ellie. How blind I’ve been to this hell she’s been living, and how incredibly selfish I’ve been with our time together. A part of me prays that these were gross barbs between a toxic married couple who clearly hate each other. But deep down, I know the truth.
