Erika didn't know much about Elliott's fiancée, but one thing was immediately apparent: Mara was smart.
When Erika had offered to help her leave Elliott's subdivision, Mara accepted the ride only after reviewing Erika's driver's license.
"Now you know where I live, my height, weight, and age," Erika commented as she pulled away from the curb. "Where do you want me to take you? Home? To the hospital?"
Mara pointed to her eyes, both of which were bruised and rimmed with black. "How about the police station? Elliott has lost his mind."
Erika paused at the stop sign and stared at her passenger. "You're pressing charges?"
Mara returned the stare. "Wouldn't you?"
"I should have."
Mara sat back and fell silent. Erika turned onto Beach Road so she could head toward Route 10 and the county police department headquarters.
"He beat you," Mara said softly. "That's why you left him."
Erika glanced at her. "You didn't know?"
"How would I? I moved here from California eighteen months ago. I'm a legal secretary and met Elliott at a conference a little over a year ago," she said. "The story I got was that you were having an early midlife crisis and that soon after your son's birth, you decided you wanted to be free."
Erika laughed bitterly. "He told you that? And to think I almost took him back."
Mara shook her head. "I knew that was what he was up to. That's how I got these black eyes. I was cleaning out his car and stumbled across a card addressed to you. I opened it and read his note about loving you still and asking you to let him know your decision. How could he be writing that and telling me he wanted to elope soon?"
Mara ran her fingers through her hair with one hand and massaged her bruised cheek with the other. "At first he tried to play it off and say it was an old card, something he had purchased before we started dating. But I've been in that Mercedes a gazillion times; if that card had been there all that time, believe me, I would have seen it before today."
Erika wanted to laugh out loud and do a jig. In Mara, Elliott had met his match. She listened and tried to keep a straight face.
"Then, when he realized I wasn't going to fall for the okey-doke, he changed his story and said sending you the card was part of his plan," she said.
"He said he was stringing you along to keep you happy until you agreed to give him joint custody of his son. After we got married, then he would petition the court to give him full custody."
Erika almost broke her neck. "What?!"
Mara waved her off. "Don't even worry yourself, Erika. If he had sought custody, who do you think would have cared for the child? Not him. Do I look like I want some baby mama drama?
"I told him he had lost his mind. That's when he lost his temper and went off on me."
Mara turned and faced Erika. "I'm thankful for your help, but how did you just happen to be in the neighborhood?"
Erika started to give her a simplistic answer but thought better of it. "Mara, I've been wrestling for a long time with whether to end my marriage to Elliott, even though we haven't lived together since the night Aaron was conceived."
Mara frowned.
"I left Elliott on the night of our fifth wedding anniversary and lived in a shelter for battered women for over a year. That's where I was living, in hiding, when Aaron was born.
"I returned to Richmond only when I felt reasonably sure that Elliott wouldn't try to kill me," Erika said. "I was just that afraid of him. I wasn't wise enough to do what you're doing now, and put an end to the abuse when it started. Don't go back to him, Mara. I'm not going to, either."