Kenny poured himself some Old Crow whiskey over ice in a coffee mug.
“Glasses are all dirty,” he said when Kate tilted her head at him.
Finding this statement unacceptable, Kate got up, ready to help him by doing the dishes when he stopped her in her tracks.
“No, don’t worry about it,” he said, tapping the cushion where Kate had been sitting a second ago.
She faced him before replying. “You know I can’t let your lack of clean dishes go on. And it’ll just take a few minutes. Why don’t you come with me? We’ll talk there.”
Kenny appeared hesitant. He looked at the cup, then the kitchen entrance, and then his cup again.
“It’ll just take a few minutes.”
“Okay, okay,” said Kenny before getting up from the worn-out brown velvety sofa, leaving the decade-old butt print visible for the wallflowers to see.
Once in the kitchen, Kate started emptying the sink that was overflowing with dirty dishes. At least it had yet to reach the point where cockroaches moved in.
I have to come by more often. Not just for company, but to help him clean up.
“So, tell me, what’s going on?” Kenny asked as Kate plugged the now empty sink.
She turned on the hot water and squirted in some dish soap. “It’s just that I don’t know what to do anymore. When I got married, I expected certain things. I had a vision of what married life would be like. Maybe I romanticized the concept.”
“Not everything you thought it would be, eh?”
“To say the least.” Although she felt tears building behind her eyes, she forced them back by inhaling then exhaling deeply.
“Let me tell you. Marriage is a long-term commitment that comes with its fair share of debates, arguments, fights, and compromises. With the wrong person, it can be a life sentence. But with the right person, it’s all worth it in the end.”
“How did you know Lucy was the right person for you?”
“From the moment I first saw her. I just knew.”
Kate almost dropped the plate she was washing. “What?”
“But it doesn’t mean it would be the same for everyone. Not everyone feels this instant attraction, or dare I say love, at first sight.” He paused. “Lucy and I were lucky. And times were different back then. Simpler. Much simpler. But we still fought now and then.”
Another dish in hand, Kate kept her eyes on the soapy water. “Can I ask for your honest opinion?”
“Of course. You know that.”
Kate turned to Kenny. “And can you swear to absolute secrecy? I don’t want other people to know what I’m about to tell you.”
“Katie, of course. That’s a given.” He placed a firm hand on her shoulder.
Kate rested her head against the back of his hand for a few seconds. Already, she felt better for coming to see her uncle. She continued dishwashing on autopilot while words poured out. She revealed what Matt had done with the pills and even her suspicions about Sam.
A few minutes later, with the last piece of clean cutlery added to the drying rack next to the sink, Kate asked, “What do you think I should do?”
First, he kept quiet, but then he went in for a full-body hug.
“Katie, my dear. I’m so sorry you have to live with this major-league asshole.”
Her uncle’s words surprised her, snapping her out of her funk. “What?” She almost wanted to smile. Major-league asshole?
“Let’s go back to the living room. I’ll tell you what I think of Matt. My honest opinion.”
With the dishes done and nothing left for her to do in the kitchen, Kate followed her uncle back to the living room.
Once they were both seated, Kenny resumed talking.
“I never told you because I respected your choices. I could see you falling in love with him, and I wouldn’t have gotten in the way of love. But this… All of what you just revealed to me… Those actions are not coming from love. So here goes. I never liked the guy. Not at all. Sure, he’s charismatic as hell, but he’s two-faced. And now we know he’s also controlling and manipulative.”
“You think I should get an abortion now?”
Kenny shook his head. “No! His being the world’s greatest ass doesn’t change my mind on that. But maybe you should consider raising your baby on your own or giving him or her up for adoption.”
Kate furrowed her brow, considering it.
“It’s a whole lot better to be alone than in sleazy company,” Kenny said. “While I believe in the sanctity of marriage, I think your situation warrants an exception. I never thought I’d say these words, but maybe you should consider getting a divorce. Especially if your suspicion about this Sam woman turns out to be true. Marriage requires trust and respect. The way I see it, both are missing on his part.”
When Kate arrived home, intent on having a well-needed heart-to-heart with Matt, she once again found him in the shower and was forced to wait.
This time, she decided to fight a proper battle, which meant getting all the information she could get her hands on.
The thought of going through Matt’s private messages no longer seemed wrong. If he’d had the balls to mess with her contraception, then peeking at his private text conversations with Sam seemed fair.
It was the surest way to know if he’d been cheating.
And as she thought about the large-breasted devil, she heard Matt’s phone beep, making it easier for Kate to locate it. It was on top of the dresser.
Sam had just texted him.
Miss you already.
Fucker.
Kate entered Matt’s password and unlocked his phone, navigating to his text message history with Sam.
The evidence was clear. They’d exchanged naked photos. Matt’s engorged dick, then her naked breasts. Scrolling past a long string of sexting messages, she even found a photo of Sam with her legs spread open, her fully-shaven, most intimate parts on display.
Anger overtook the sadness in Kate’s confused heart.
How could he?
Why did he?
Is there something wrong with me that forced him to look for someone else?
How dare he cheat on me like that!
With a shaky finger, tears streaming down her face, Kate scrolled all the way to the beginning of their chat, letting the device load up older messages as needed.
She stepped into the kitchen to sit down, as though increasing the physical space between her and her husband could help her manage the situation better. But it didn’t. She scrolled through more hurtful messages until, a minute later, she finally reached the top of the conversation. The timestamp on his first message to her was nearly a year ago.
“Fucking Matt!” she yelled. “How could you?”
The shower stopped running. From a distance, Matt spoke up. “Kate? Is that you?”
Kate yelled, “Who else would it be? Does Sam come to our place a lot?”
Something crashed, like a shampoo bottle dropping to the floor.
“What? What did you say?” he yelled.
Ten seconds later, Matt entered the kitchen, a towel wrapped around his hips. His hair was dripping wet, and his eyes shot missiles at Kate.
“What did you just say?” he repeated.
Kate waved his phone up in the air with one hand while she wiped her tears with the other. “You tell me, Matt.”
“That’s my phone. You’ve got no right to go through it.” His nostrils flared as shades of crimson rose in his cheeks. “It was locked. How did you unlock it?”
“Your weak-ass password? That’s what you’re worried about? Really? How do you think I set that baby picture before? Fuck you!”
Kate couldn’t stand the sight of her own husband, so she tossed his phone onto the tabletop and stared at her feet and the cracked linoleum floor instead.
He grabbed her elbow. “Woman, you have no right.”
“Yeah. No. That’s where you’re wrong. What’s going on?” Kate asked while meeting his eyes again.
Matt stared back. “Is this a trick question?”
Kate inhaled deeply before answering. As though anger had blocked her tear ducts, she stopped crying as her hurt morphed into complete hatred for the man who stood in front of her. The father of her unborn baby. The man she’d married.
“I never took you for a stupid person. I thought you were a good guy. A loving, generous partner who would be here for me, no matter what. Isn’t it what we said in our vows?” Kate shook her head. “You of all people understand what it’s like to be abandoned, to be left without anyone to trust. To lose everyone who matters to you. How could you go and betray my trust in you? How could you disrespect me like that?”
He snarled then frowned at her. “Don’t you get why?”
“Enlighten me, wise one. I can’t read your freaking mind!”
“Don’t you see how you emasculate me every day with your job? I need to compensate for that.”
“That’s what you call ‘fucking around with another woman’? It’s compensation? My job entitles you to that?”
“Hell yeah. You won’t let me be the protector. You won’t let me express myself and perform my core duty as the man that I am. If I can’t be the one you rely on for your security, then I need to be that man for someone else. It’s your fault.”
“Fuck you. I was a cop before you married me. I even insisted on keeping my last name, and you were fine with it. That protector excuse is bullshit. You say it’s my fault that you’ve been cheating on me? Like I somehow forced you to thrust your dick in between another woman’s legs? For nearly a year!” Kate shook her head. “And Sam is probably not the only one. Am I right?”
His eyebrows scrunched up. “None of your business, woman.”
“What?! Your extramarital activities are most definitely my business. You need to put an end to this if you care the least about me… or if you want me to keep this baby—”
“You’re keeping my baby. I’ve waited a long time for this to happen. You finally did your job as my wife. You can’t take it away now.”
“You’re kidding, right? All you wanted was for me to make you babies? You’re ridiculous. When we met, didn’t I make it clear to you that I wasn’t a stay-at-home kind of gal?”
“A woman’s place is at home. You’re no exception. It didn’t matter what you said. It was just a matter of time before you finally saw the light. And I knew I could push destiny in the right direction if I had to.”
“By messing with my birth-control pills? That’s what you mean? What else did you do to ‘force it to happen’? Anything else I should know?”
He winced, probably surprised that Kate had figured that one out. “I don’t owe you anything.”
Every detail Kate had ever known about her husband had been proven wrong, or at the very least become questionable. Their entire love story had just crumbled to dust.
If that’s how he felt, why had he pursued her in the first place? Had he ever felt any genuine love toward her at any point?
He couldn’t have faked all of it, right?
Was it all a big pile of lies? Had everything just been a pile of manipulative lies?
It was too broad of a question to be addressed right this minute. Kate rolled her eyes, clenching her jaw. “I so want to hit you right now…”
He laughed and stepped closer to Kate. Then he lowered his voice. “Do that, and see where that leads you, woman. I’ve been good to you. I haven’t laid a hand on you… yet.” With the back of two fingers, he stroked her cheek. “But that can change. You decide.”
“Fuck you,” she said, before punching him in the jaw with her dominant hand.
His head bounced from the sucker punch, then he rubbed his jaw. The sound of his sudden inhale and the sight of his flaring nostrils sent a chill down her spine.
A second later, he slapped her.
The sharp sting of his palm burned Kate’s cheek, but it was nothing compared to the pain in her heart.
These are his true colors.
She’d married that guy.
“Shit, woman. Count yourself lucky to be pregnant. You’re so disrespectful,” he hissed. “I wish I could give you the beating you deserve.”
“Yeah? Is that so?” Kate inhaled slowly, trying to calm her boiling temper. She so wanted to punch him again, but she knew it was a slippery slope. She’d never tested the limits of angry Matt, and she didn’t want to find them right now. She needed to step away from the situation. Get the upper hand once again. But how?
She stomped out of the kitchen and into the bedroom where she changed out of her jeans and work shirt and into her running gear, including her phone and earbuds.
Matt intercepted her just before she left the apartment. His shoulder rested on the wall by the front door; his extended arm blocked the door, preventing her from swinging open the only exit.
“You’re not going for a run now. It’s late, and it’s dark,” he stated in an authoritative voice.
Reaching around his arm and ignoring his remarks, she unlocked the deadbolt.
“Didn’t you hear me?” Matt yelled.
She looked at him. His jaw was clenched, his eyes icy. The handsome man she’d married had turned into that.
“I heard you loud and clear,” Kate said, her eyes shooting darts at him.
She followed the instincts that her police and self-defense training had instilled in her. She twisted his hand at an uncomfortable angle, which forced him to bend his arm and let go of the wall. After elbowing him in the stomach, she kneed him in the groin.
He bent forward, gasping for air and that’s when Kate swung open the door and ran out.
She sprinted down the hallway and pushed open the staircase door. Kate descended the stairs faster than she ever had then rushed outside, sucking the air into her lungs. The night was dark and chilly, not unlike her marriage.
With long strides, she ran eastward on the sidewalk, every step helping her clear her mind and lessen her anger.
When she reached the end of the second block, she heard a voice call her name. Kate turned around.
Was that Matt? She couldn’t see him, but who else would it be?
What difference would it make to stop and return to him?
No, better keep running away from him. Let him cool off in his own way while she did it her way.
Maybe the discussion could continue between two real adults by the time she got back.
No. Impossible.
Who was she kidding? Matt wasn’t going to suddenly change his behavior. Not after what had just happened. She simply couldn’t go back home right now. Maybe she could spend the night at Kenny’s.
But first she had to work her anger off.
She increased her pace and continued running straight ahead. Block after block she ran, only changing directions when red traffic lights would have let her heartbeat slow down. The rhythm of her pulse gave her the strength to deal with the situation. Letting it slow down would take her out of the quasi-meditative state that running created.
Next thing she knew, Kate passed the entrance of a city park. Without thinking, she headed down the unlit pathway, away from the street. The beats of her current song came to an end, and in the silent lull before the next song started, Kate heard her husband’s voice again, far in the distance.
What? Is he still running after me?
Kate stopped and turned around, looking for him, but couldn’t see him in the darkness around her. She pulled her earbuds out, to see if she could hear him call out her name again.
Silence.
Until a voice spoke up two feet to her right. “Your phone and your money. Now!” a skinny Caucasian man ordered, his shaking hand pointing a knife at Kate.
She raised her hands in the air, still holding her phone and trying to assess the situation. He was much taller than her. She didn’t know if he had friends nearby. His skin was pale, his eyes bloodshot and blinking rapidly.
“Now!” he repeated, exposing missing teeth in his grunt. He staggered forward, his knife now within stabbing range.
He’s just a junkie. I can take him.
Kate lowered her phone slowly, leaving her other hand in the air. Just as she saw the man grin in anticipation of getting his goods, her free hand karate chopped the knife out of the man’s hand, knocking it to the ground.
The man jumped on her in a rush of rage that surprised her. He pushed her onto the ground and landed on top of her hips then started punching her. She blocked the first punch with her elbow, but the second from his other hand landed right on her neck, causing Kate to choke. Air could no longer come in. She coughed, unable to defend herself. She had to get air. She brought her hands to her neck to protect herself while the man kept punching her, now in the chest and stomach.
Pain shot through her body, but nothing could be done now.
Darkness had swallowed her.