Now I understand why he didn’t hit me last night. He knew Ms. Darling was coming and saved all this rage for after she left. His violence is not uncontrolled. It’s a thing of cold calculation, which in some ways makes it even more dangerous.
“Caleb, please,” I manage to say, though I can barely get the words past my swelling lips.
“Don’t you ever defy me in front of other people again,” he grits out, his expression made of stone, his eyes nearly black with rage.
His fist flies at me like a missile, but I duck and roll off the bed, landing in an undignified heap. I scramble to my feet, but he shoves me from behind, and I crash into the bedside table. It tips over, the lamp shattering against the wall. From the floor, I see him loosening his belt.
Oh God, no.
I raise my hands to protect my face from the leather strap hurtling through the air. It snaps against my wrist and fingers, cutting into the skin. Before I can process the first lash, several rain down on my arm, a deluge of terror that reddens my flesh with livid welts. In quick succession, the belt falls time and again, a wave that never ebbs, but just keeps coming, keeps crashing over me. The leather slashes into my back and my legs. The buckle nicks my knee, and I howl like a wounded animal, but there’s no one to rescue me. I am the dumb lamb that wandered from the fold, and I’ve stumbled into the razor teeth of a hunter’s trap.
“Oh, God. Caleb, please.” Pain steals my breath, and my words barely make it out before another punch slams my head into the wall. The room spins and tilts, and the edges darken.
I slump against the wall, too disoriented to respond. The belt keeps falling, seeking any tender flesh it has overlooked, and I stop fighting the darkness because it’s the only place I’ll find mercy.
Iris
“Sarai!”
Her name cannons from my mouth, and I jerk up on the bed. Pain slices under my breasts. I grab at my midsection, disoriented for a moment. I know I’ve been unconscious, and the last thing I saw was that monster’s face. My daughter’s been alone with him for as long as I’ve been out.
I fling my legs over the side of the bed, wincing when my muscles scream in protest. I’m naked, and I have no idea how I got this way. My stomach whirs at the thought of what Caleb may have done to me. Welts, cuts, and bruises crisscross my bare legs and arms. Shame builds in my chest and burns my eyes. How did I let this happen? How did I become this battered woman? A sob shakes my chest, and pain ricochets through my rib cage.
“Careful,” a deep voice says from the corner of the room. “Your ribs are probably bruised. There are painkillers by the bed.”
The face is familiar, but my head is still fuzzy. I do my best to assemble the features into someone I recognize.
“Andrew?” I ask, my voice hoarse from my screams.
“Yeah.” Caleb’s cousin stands from a chair, and averts his eyes from my bruised, naked body. “You might want to cover up.”
I snatch the bedsheet over my breasts. All my responses feel delayed as I drag pieces of this grisly puzzle in place.
“Sarai?” I ask. “Where is she?”
I hold my breath held while I wait.
“She’s in the nursery. I checked on her a little bit ago. She was fine. I fed her one of the bottles from the fridge.”
Relief is quickly followed by anger, fear, and trepidation.
“And Caleb? Where is he?” I ask.
Andrew’s cheeks redden, and he clears his throat.
“He, uh, had a game.” He grabs the bottle and a glass of water from the bedside table. “You’ll need these for your ribs maybe the next few weeks.”
I stare at the pills, afraid to take anything anyone in this house offers me.
“It’s just naproxen,” he says. “An anti-inflammatory painkiller.”
“You’re a doctor,” I say dumbly, as if he doesn’t know, but pieces of information are lining up in my head to make sense of why he’s here and why he’s so calm when it’s obvious Caleb’s beat the shit out of me.
“I’m still in med school.” Andrew shakes two pills out of the bottle into his palm and offers them to me. “Remember?”
“Is this part of the Hippocratic Oath?” I pop the pills and gulp water, tearing up when the jerky movements hurt my jaw. “’Do no harm’ actually means ‘only aid and abet?’”
“I’m sorry, Iris.” He shakes his head. “I’ve told him before—”
