“No shit, baby. Nobody could love your fat, disgusting, stupid self but me. Do you hear me?!” he shouts into my face. “Do you need a fucking reminder of who the fuck you belong to?”
“Luis, please? Please don’t.”
“You worthless bitch! You were whoring around behind my back?” I can’t tell what he’s on now, but when we were together, he took every drug he could get his hands on. He smacks me across the face, and the copper taste fills my mouth. Nothing has changed. Not even me.
Luis came with so many red flags, so many signs that I should leave him, but I never did. I wish I could say I left him once I found out about the gang and the drugs. I didn’t though. I didn’t leave when he hit me. I didn’t even leave when he threatened to shoot me. That wasn’t enough for me, I guess.
“W-we’re divorced, Luis. We’re not together anymore. I don’t belong to you.” I fight back tears. He wants me to cry, to break down. It turns him on. Sick fuck.
“You belong to that fucking white boy now? Don’t talk like that! You’re my girl, baby. Till death do us part, remember?” He tries laying on the charm like he always did. He slides his nose along mine and presses against me as he squeezes my breast. I want to throw up. “You know what? Your papi knows what you need. I’ll give you another baby right now. Maybe this time, you won’t be a stupid bitch and I won’t have to hit you so hard.”
“No—” I whimper.
He grabs me and spins me around, groping my breasts and pushing my face against the fridge door as he grinds against me. His hand drops as he tries to undo my pants. “Fuck, I missed that fat ass bouncing on my fucking cock while you cry. I’m gonna fuck the memory of that stupid white boy right outta your head. And if that don’t work, I’ll beat him outta you and go fucking put a bullet between his damn eyes. Bye-bye, movie star.”
I try to push his hands away, but he’s strong and presses his body harder against me, making it hard to breathe.
“Stop fighting me, bitch. Just admit you want this. You need me to remind you of your place, huh, baby?” His hand wraps around my throat and squeezes hard. “Don’t you remember the last time you tried to run away from me? You’re fucking mine, whore.”
I remember.
I had shut myself in the bedroom and called the police. He didn’t even care that had the dispatcher on the phone. He broke the door down and dragged me out of the room by my hair. Throwing me to the ground, he kicked me in the stomach over and over. He grabbed me off the ground by the hair again, threatening to kill my family if I tried to tell the cops what happened.
Bloodied and bruised, with chunks of my hair pulled out, I lied for him. They believed my lies without question and threw me in the back of an ambulance. They never even looked at him, at my blood on his knuckles and the toes of his boots.
I tried to tell them the truth at the hospital, but they didn’t believe me. They listed my miscarriage as caused by an accident. A fall down the stairs. My house only has three steps, and they lead up to the front porch. They didn’t care. l finally tried to tell the truth, and no one listened to me.
There’s a noise outside, the crunch of tires on the gravel that pulls me out of my memories and back to Luis and the pain.
Please, don’t be Chase. Not yet. Luis will kill him without a second thought.
“You want me to have my boys over? Give your fat, useless ass to them for a few hours? You’ll learn real quick how nice I am to my baby girl—Who the fuck?” I hold my breath and wait as Luis releases me and darts into the living room. There’s a loud knock, followed by a voice I don’t recognize.
“Yo, Dani? It’s Martin. Are you home?” I don’t make a sound while Luis panics, mumbling about the cops. He’s so high, he can’t tell reality from hallucinations. “Come on, we’re gonna be late for the gig.”
Another voice calls out, further away and higher in pitch. Dani.
“Marty the Party! Shit! Sorry, I swung over to see Ms. Ruiz because she makes these amazing empa—never mind. You’ve had some. Come on, I’ll show you the equipment so we can load up and get on the road.”
I yell out as she opens the door. There’s the sound of a scuffle and Dani swearing. I crawl to the kitchen door and see Luis push past Martin and run out of the house.
“And stay out, motherfucker!” Dani yells, throwing a flower vase after him.
Blood slides down my neck from where he smashed me against the fridge, and I can’t hold my head up any longer. A dense fog coats the world and I feel Dani’s hand in mine. Black creeps into the edges of my vision as I try hard to not pass out.
“Ren?” The voice makes my heart skip a beat.
“Chase!” my sister yells. “She’s hurt, bad.”
“Fuck! What happened?”
“Her ex. I don’t know how he got in.”
“Ren, can you hear me, baby?”
Baby. It should sound sweet from Chase, but I only hear Luis calling me that as he hit me. Pain and blood are the only things I can concentrate on now.
“Okay, come on.” Chase scoops me up like I weigh nothing. I want to wrap my arms around him and cry into his shoulder, but my body isn’t listening to me anymore. “I’m taking her to the hospital.”
