Chapter Forty One
“You blame Miguel for what Ricky did to you, don’t you?” He asked, unconsciously. He couldn’t help but feel the compulsion to defend her father, but he didn’t want Maria to feel like she didn’t have someone to support her. But Miguel was trying, risking his freedom to come back, why, Dave wasn’t sure.
Maria pulled her hand out of Dave’s hair and stuck it in hers, “Yes and no.” she pulled her lips in a quick tight smile, “It hurt me that he didn’t come back to see me and how I was doing. Sometimes I think if he had, he would have been like all dads and just kept me away from Ricky when I thought I was in love with him, or forcefully pulled me out of the relationship when he first hit me.” she chuckled nervously, “I was really hoping he would come back and just shoot Ricky, which I bet, wouldn’t have been much of a problem for him.”
“Why didn’t you leave when he first hit you?”
“Mama tried to make me but.” she shrugged her shoulder unable to repeat the stupid words, ‘I loved him, after a few months I just couldn’t.”
“Battered women syndrome.” Dave said harshly, unable to keep the anger out of his voice.
Maria looked at him and smiled. She could see his tempered volcano was about to blow, but she was prepared for it, it wouldn’t catch her off guard this time, “That and he told me he would take Michael away from me if I dared to leave him.”
Dave bit his tongue and stayed quiet for a moment, he didn’t speak until he was sure his anger wouldn’t make its way out, “How did you get your scar?” he pointed to her forehead.
“If I start giving you the history of every scar on my body we’ll be here all night.”
“I don’t think a man would hurt his own son.” even as the words left his mouth he knew they didn’t apply to Ricky.
Maria blinked back tears as the memory of Michael’s bleeding forehead filled her mind, “Well Ricky would.” her voice was shaky and full of emotion, “He and I have close to identical scars.” she lifted her finger to her forehead and traced out a line, “his is a centimetre shorter and a little higher.”
Dave pulled her hand down, held it in his and kept silent, he didn’t know what to say to comfort her. There were no words to comfort such anguish, “I swear I thought he was dead.” she sobbed and let the tears flow freely down her cheeks, “one second he was standing over me yelling, the next he was laying still on his bed, the gash on his head bleeding like a running tap.”
She wiped her cheeks with the back of her hand as her face creased in anger, “I felt like he squeezed my heart with his bare hands, I just wanted to kill him.”
Dave knew he shouldn’t ask, but he was sure her answer would fit the missing piece of the puzzle, “Did you?”
Maria knew it was his lawyer side asking that, he was probably thinking up a defence for her, if only the ass was dead, “Don’t you already know that answer?” she asked calmly.
“It was ruled as an accident, therefore there is no case against you, but I just want you to tell me what really happened.”
Maria nodded. She wasn’t so scared about telling the story anymore, there was no risk of going to jail because no one died. She was stunned, but grateful the sheriff hadn’t put that in the police report, “Mama got Michael out of the house when he was still unconscious and bleeding, I stayed to give them a little more time to run before Ricky caught up with them. He chased me around the house, but thanks to his heavy drinking he didn’t catch me, but he tripped me. I hit the kitchen table and the candles fell, the whole place caught on fire fast. Ricky was so focused on hurting me, he didn’t even notice the flames. He fell and knocked himself out and I ran.”
Dave remembered that from her police statement, “You kept running and didn’t look back.” repeating what he read.
“Don’t believe everything you read.” she said quietly, making Dave give her a perplexed look, “I stood there and watched for a while. I wanted to make sure he didn’t come out. I only ran when I heard Michael call for me, then…” she paused and looked at him. She wanted to see from his reaction how much of a monster he thought she was, but his face remained unchanged, “Then mama and I watched the house burn down until the sheriffs came. We needed to be certain he was dead and that Michael was safe.” She sobbed, knowing that there was no such luck for her, all she did was put Michael in more danger than he was before.
“That’s one less bastard in the world. It was considerate of him to take himself out.” Dave spoke candidly.
Maria laughed, that was the same line she had used on Edna and Jane, “Say I got arrested, could that be a defence?”
“It’s a good thing you left the last part out, although the abuse would have been cited as a motive. I would have gotten you off easy.”
“I wouldn’t have been able to afford your services.”
“They would be free, because I like you so much.” He pulled her closer to him and tucked her by his side.
“With a lawyer like you on my side, I should be on a crime spree.” Maria joked. She turned to make herself more comfortable against him. She felt light and free after telling him the truth, close to the truth, and knowing he didn’t judge her, made her like him even more.
“I’d have you put on house arrest and be your personal warden,” he rubbed her arm and felt a few bumps on her inner part. He stretched her arm out and looked at it, there were a few small straight scars. He then lifted her arm closer to his face and surveyed the whole of it. There was a long one on her wrist, two in her palm and a few on her fingers.
She would normally pull away and cover up her body if someone took a look at her scars, but instead she leaned her head back and watched his face. His expressions kept changing from anger to pain as he traced each scar with his fingers, “If those disgust you, you won’t like the rest of my body.”
“What do you mean?” he asked harshly. Unable to contain the anger from his voice.
She pulled her arm down and weaved her fingers with his, “I have a few more on my legs, and you’ve seen the ones on my forehead.”
“And your hair line and upper back.” he continued. “How did you… never mind. Anyway, Ricky hit, cut and burned the places people couldn’t see, he had to change his focus points to parts that weren’t visible when our neighbours and friends started to notice.”
“He burned you?” Dave hissed out.
“Yes. His main aim was to disfigure me so that guys would stop looking at me lustfully.” she spoke comfortably, unlike she ever did with anyone else, not even her mother, “My cursed beauty is one of the reasons I don’t like Miguel much.”
Dave wrapped both his arms around her, “Is that why you don’t like to be looked at?”
She stiffened a little before she relaxed. Dave was getting used to that and he understood her. That particular reflex had become a part of her, but he always hoped for the day she would trust him enough not to hurt her.
“You don’t miss anything do you? With everything that’s happened in my life, I grew to hate men, except for Michael and you of course.”
He kissed the top of her head, “Thanks, that means a lot to me.”
“You’re welcome. Now could you please tell your journalist to come home, he’s attracted enough attention.”
“Tomorrow.” Dave wasn’t sure she told him everything, he still felt something was still missing, “Maria have you told me everything?”
Maria kept her voice steady, “Yes,” she was glad she wasn’t looking at him, because he would pick up the lie immediately.
“How long do you need before we become an item?”
“If the relationship stays on a PG thirteen status I don’t need any more time to wait.”
“Okay, we’ll take it slow, but I want to sleep holding you tonight, so will it be your room or mine.”
Maria smiled, he wasn’t asking, he was telling, “Yours is just fine.”
“Good, let’s go to sleep. I have an early morning and you have to be up to take Michael to school.” Dave stood up and led her up the stairs.
“Michael Greer, you still haven’t explained that to me.” Maria followed him, feeling comfortable, with no anxiety attacks or the need to run and hide, not even his touch, knowing his intentions and feelings for her, made her skin crawl. She had come a long way from being a frightened little girl scared of her own shadow and she was proud of herself.
“I will, tomorrow at lunch.” He opened the door to his room and led her in.