Henry.
“Williams, get out,” ordered the officer who had been harassing me the entire damn night. He wouldn’t let me sleep just because he was bored enough and decided he would be the new one to bother. He loved insulting me; I could almost see how he got a damn erection when he called me a “useless piece of shit.”
I didn’t understand what was happening, but if he dared to take the insults to a lower level and now wanted to hit me, I would charge him for each and every one of his disgusting words, and I would delight in seeing him writhing on the floor. I just had to throw the first punch, and it would be all over for him.
“They’ve confirmed your innocence; you can go.”
“What?”
“Are you going to keep sitting there like an idiot? I’m telling you to get lost, you useless piece of-”
Before he finished, I was already very close to his face. “Finish the damn sentence, and I’ll break every one of your teeth.”
He didn’t say anything. Are you afraid of me now that I’m out of the cell, idiot?
I got all my belongings, and as I left the police station, Anna was there waiting for me, as beautiful as ever. She was wearing a white dress that reached just above her knees and a blouse with a scarf covering her arms and neck-she looked like an angel. Seeing her, I ran towards her and hugged her. “I was going crazy not seeing you. I was worried.”
“Everything is fine now, honey. Let’s go home,” she whispered, putting a hand on my cheek and planting a sweet kiss on my mouth. So perfect.
I tucked a blonde strand behind her ear and kissed her forehead. “Where’s Jeremy?”
“Inside the car,” she let me know, looking a bit nervous.
“How did you manage this?” I asked, remembering that she got me out of jail. It had to be her; otherwise, I don’t think I would have gotten out for months.
Her eyes started to well up, and a knot formed in my stomach-a bad feeling.
“I had to talk to Dave,” she said without a hint of delicacy. “Calm down! He won’t bother us again.”
She only convinced him by talking? Why is she so distressed about it?
It was only at that moment that I noticed; it was around twenty-eight degrees, and she had a scarf around her neck. My heart slowly sank to my feet.
“Why are you wearing a scarf?” I knew my expression had completely changed, and I knew she understood what I was thinking.
She shook her head several times and took my hand to lead me to where the car was. “My throat is a bit sore; let’s go home.”
I didn’t move from our spots; I couldn’t. For the first time in a long time, I was scared. “Please, tell me that if I take it off, I won’t…”
Without letting her react, I yanked the scarf off.
She… She had hickies. Everywhere. She had damn hickies all over! She avoided my gaze, was on the verge of tears, and I was about to bash my head against the damn pavement.
“Did you…?” I didn’t dare to finish; I couldn’t. She simply wouldn’t do this to me.
She wanted to reassure me. “No! It’s not what you think!”
She tried to approach, but I moved away.
“What the hell is this, Anna?! Tell me!” I screamed totally hysterical, pointing at her hickies, marks that weren’t mine. Marks that weren’t damn mine!
“Listen, we didn’t have sex; I would never have been capable of that.” Her voice was breaking, but I didn’t care.
“He touched you. He touched you.” I grabbed handfuls of my hair and pulled; I was in a totally frenzied state. I wanted to kill the bastard. I wanted to kill him.
“Henry.” Alison’s voice startled me; I didn’t want to think about anything else. My head was hot and ready to go after Dave.
“What are you doing here?” I spat.
“Let’s go to your place, and we’ll tell you everything. It wasn’t easy getting you out of there,” Alison begins, delivering the monthly or annual briefing from Dave.
“Did you tell him to go to that son of a bitch’s house?!” Everyone was an enemy at this moment.
“Calm down with me!” Alison orders, and I laughed, but it wasn’t funny. I was about to throw punches in the air. Damn it, I did it.
“You’re telling me to calm down?! How do you expect me to calm down when I know he touched her?! I allowed it, damn it! I’ll kill him. I swear, I’ll go now and just beat the hell out of his damn face, that son of a…”
A scream made me stop with my threats.
I looked at Anna. She was staring at the water running down her inner thighs and ending on the sidewalk. Was that…? Did her water break? No, it couldn’t be possible; there was still a month left.
“Henry…” she says after a painful groan. She was about to fall to the ground, but I caught her. “Take me to the hospital.”