Page 87 of Make Me Whole

Mind made up to go with option one, I silently went over my speech for the millionth time while I finished preparing Ella’s sandwich.

"Are you sure there's nothing you can do, Mama?" Ella whined.

I turned the heat off and looked at her as I scooped the sandwich with my spatula and set it on her plate. Her pretty face seemed so forlorn and sad, it broke my heart. I so wanted to tell her that I would at least try to talk her father into allowing her to return to her previous school so she could see Aiden, but I had vowed never to lie to her... which led me to another truth I had to share with her.

“Oh, Peanut,” I told her as I set her sandwich and the bottle of ketchup in front of her and reached for her little hand. “You know your father better than that. Besides, things may get a little worse soon.”

The way her lips pouted and her eyes filled with tears broke the little heart I had left in my chest. “How? There’s nothing worse than this.”

I licked my lips and squared my shoulders in preparation to share my big news, but the rattling of the front door opening silenced me. Eli’s angry voice followed. “Skylar, you fucking bitch! Where are you?”

My breath hitched. Ella’s eyes widened, causing barely contained tears to roll down her cheeks. I moved her hand to the plate and whispered, “Take the sandwich to your room, lock the door, and stay there. Don’t come out or open the door unless I call you, okay? No matter what you hear.”

“Mom . . .” she pleaded, nostrils flaring in fear.

“I’ll be okay, Ella. Now go!”

Though her tears fell heavier, she picked up her plate and hurried out of the kitchen. With my heart in my mouth, I watched as she left and held my breath until I heard the door close. A second later, Eli came into the kitchen.

“Hello, Eli. You’re home early. How was your day?” I asked with a smile, smoothing the sides of my dress.

Sweet, submissive, and well put together were Eli’s three must-have qualities in a woman. I hoped that by employing them I would diffuse whatever had made him so angry, and also win some favor for the tough subject I had to bring up.

It took me two seconds and one look to realize my tactic had failed. His face was red and his eyes dim with the unfocused haze of rage as he approached me.

He raised the newspaper he had in his hand. “Can you explain this shit, you little bitch?”

My brows scrunched in genuine confusion. I tried to force a smile, but my lips refused to obey. I shrugged. “The newspaper? I don’t understand . . .”

Eli’s thin lips twisted in a display of disgust. “Are you mocking me, stupid?”

I shook my head and looked down, showing as much submission as humanly possible. “No, I genuinely don’t understand what you want me to explain.”

From underneath my lashes, I watched him lick his lips and unfold the paper as he strutted toward me. It was like watching a lion stalk his prey. A shiver went down my spine as he read.

“Handsome, young, and . . . dangerous? Straight from a reliable source, the truth about how Windy River’s young mayor, Eli Walsh, uses physical and mental abuse, coercion, bribery, abuse of power, and many other nefarious tactics to control his wife into helping with his high political aspirations despite his serial cheating. Read the full exposé on page four.”

I’m pretty sure that my heart stopped beating the moment Eli stopped talking. His blue eyes burned like a blowtorch fire on me, making me feel cold and warm all at once.

“It wasn’t me,” I muttered, too scared to find my normal tone of voice. “You took my phone three weeks ago and hired Jason to drive me whenever I left the house. I’m pretty sure you have the house set with cameras or wires or whatever people use to listen on people. You know I haven’t even talked to my dad since I came back. You know it wasn’t me.”

He clicked his tongue and continued walking toward me. “Do I? As far as I knew, you were a cold fish in the sack, then I saw those pictures of you being fucked like a whore. Makes me wonder if I’ve ever known you at all, especially when I read shit like this.”

Eli opened the newspaper on the article, cleared his throat, and in an overly dramatic voice, read, “He would arrive home smelling like other women, with lipstick stains on his collar, and force his wife, Skylar, to talk to him as if nothing was amiss. When the abuse became too dangerous for her and her young daughter, she tried to leave him, but he hit her. When she finally escaped him five months ago, he threatened her, got the police to watch her as if she were a criminal, broke custody agreements, and finally, got Skylar’s current boyfriend, Max Preston, arrested on a bogus charge of kidnapping when the couple and their children went out of town to celebrate Thanksgiving.”

He closed the paper and looked at me, his face eerily calm but his eyes still glowing with rage. “The fucking article goes on to speculate how my behavior in our marriage translates to my work as mayor, then offers some more bullshit claims from other dumb fucks like you who think they can mess with me and get away with it. But the only thing that matters right now is your explanation of how this article came to be, and it would be in your best interest not to keep me waiting.”

Max,I answered in my head. He was the only other person who knew about the abuse I had suffered, and therefore, the only option for the article’s reliable source. However, that didn’t mean I had an answer to give Eli. For the life of me, I couldn’t see what in the hell Max thought I would gain from this article.

Raising my hands, I shook my head. “I have no explanation, Eli. I don’t know how—”

He didn’t let me finish the sentence. In the blink of an eye, he rolled the newspaper into a thin, very dense, baton and hit me across the cheek with it. I clamped my jaw together to keep myself from yelping and brought a hand to my pulsating cheek.

“Don’t be a fucking liar,” he yelled, spraying my face with spit. “The one responsible for this shit piece is the same fucker to whom you told your sappy victim story. The question is who the dumb fuck is. Daddy? Senior lover? The hot middle-aged neighbor? Or a lawyer?”

My blood ran cold as my mind conjured what he would do to whoever I named as the culprit. My heart iced over as I thought what he would do to me if I didn’t.

Tears ran from my eyes, and I shook my head. “I don’t know who it was, Eli. But I’ll talk to the newspaper. I’ll say that whoever talked to them lied. I’ll convince them I love you, that we’re happy.”

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