Jenalyn: Disconnected (#5) [Complete]

Chapter 98: Hayden

Wed. 3/18/09 • 2:57 A.M. PST

Dane won't let up. He's been yelling at me for the past 10 minutes demanding I tell him who McKaiden's father is. I can't even breathe anymore, I'm so scared. I still try to push past it.

"It's you!" I wail for the hundredth time, tears streaming my cheeks despite my efforts to hold them back. I know it pisses Dane off when I cry like this, but he won't fucking listen to me! "Dane I promise you! She's yours, go look at her! Just look!" 

Dane, who had made his way back to the center of my bedroom, closes the space between us with two long steps. He once again lifts me by the straps of my dress, his face glowing red with anger.

"Tell me that one more time Jena, one more fucking time, that she's my kid!" He warns, the fire in his eyes hot enough to burn me. 

I don't know what to do anymore. Nothing I say is going to appease him! He's asking questions, sure, but he already has an answer in mind that he's looking for! 

He wants me to tell him it was someone close to operations... like T... or Sloth... or Rob...

"Okay, okay!" I cry out suddenly, my mind doing the only thing it can and agreeing with him. He breathes heavy waiting for my response. "I had sex with- with some random guy, Dane! A few of them! I don't know who the father is!" 

Dane throws me against my bedframe, a sharp pain on my spine immediately knocking the air from my body. McKaiden cries from where she lay in her seat by Evelyn. 

"Shut that fucking thing up, Ev!" Dane roars before ripping me from the floor by my hair. I feel Ev shuffle off the bed behind me just as Dane pulls me to his face. "Do you think I'm I'm fucking stupid, Jen? Really?! You wouldn't have made all of this such a big deal if it were some random dude that knocked you up! You wouldn't do that shit if she was mine! Do you want to lie to me again? Keep testing me?!"

See, there's no winning! Why do I keep fighting this fight when there's clearly no happy ending for me?! Nothing I say is right! 

Dane still uses his grip on my hair to hold me up. My head throbs painfully; I feel like my scalp could rip clean off my skull. 

"Please Dane, please!" I cry, clenching my eyes shut tight as I try to work through the pain. "I didn't know she was yours until after she was born, okay?! And I didn't want to believe it because I was mad at you, but you can test her! DNA can't lie! I know she's yours, Dane, please just- just listen!"

I can feel his grip on my hair grow tighter. He swings his free arm up to squeeze my cheeks between his hand before he speaks again, his tone only growing more and more frustrated with each second that passes. 

"The dates don't line up!" he growls, his eyes wide in anger and impatience. He's really convinced I'm lying, but explaining that I'm not would entail telling him about the phenomenon, heteropaternal superfecundation, and how I'm certain that I'm one of the very few people to experience it. It would entail admitting that, though not McKaiden, one of these babies really was a result of my cheating.

It would lead me right back to the root of all of this; Questioning who else impregnated me! 

I must leave too long of a silence. Dane's solid fist suddenly meets my cheek, sending me flying to the hard floor with a loud crack. My ears ring, but I still hear the yelling and screaming of both Evelyn and Russ as I lay stunned on the ground.

"What the fuck, dude! You fucking pig!" Russ yells, his voice frantic. 

I open my eyes just in time to see Russ hurl himself from the couch and toward Dane with his hand clenched up in a tight fist. Dane, once again, shoves him back across the room. "I'm the fucking pig?" He asks, manical laughs escaping his lips as he glances around at all of us. He holds the gun pointed at Russ until he climbs to his feet and scrambles back onto the couch. "I wouldn't even have to be here doing any of this if you weren't too interested in getting your dick wet to do a simple fucking job, Russell! You've been lying to her! And then climbing into bed to make sweet sweet love, as if you really fucking loved her!"

Russ yells that he does love me, but Dane just chuckles and makes his way back over to where I lay on the floor. "You don't even know her!" He yells, pulling me from the floor by my arm so he can push me back onto the bed. I'm so thankful my emotions are strung too tight to allow the physical pain he inflicts affect me any further; I can see on this face that he's only just now starting to lose himself completely to his rage. 

Russ tries again to argue behind him, but Dane has tuned him out to direct his attention back to me. "-But I know you, Lil Bit, don't I? I fucking know you better than you know yourself! And I know you're keeping something from me. So I'm going to ask you again, and this time? That pretty little face will pay the price for your lies! Who the hell was it, Jen?" 

I try to say it's him again, but another punch cuts me off as soon as he knows what I intend to respond. I feel my cheek split and a droplet of blood trickle down to my chin as he wraps his other hand around my throat. 

He won't listen when I admit that I cheated with someone random, but he refuses to listen when I say that she's his! And the thing is, I really don't think I'm lying about it! 

"Who was it?!" He roars again, his voice booming throughout the high ceilings of my bedroom. Russ, Ev, and McKaiden are all screaming, but I can barely even hear them behind the ringing his blows leaves in my ears. He tightens his grip around my throat as his rage grows hotter. "Who the fuck was it, Jena?!" 

"Test... her..." I strain to say through his heavy grasp around my neck. That's the only way he'll find out! And I'll fucking comply! 

That's how certain I am! 

He hits me again, this time busting my lip. "I will kill you, Jena! Is that what you want?!" He roars, his grip growing so tight my eyes feel as of they could pop right out of my head. "Fucking tell me! Now!"

I couldn't tell him anymore if I tried; I've depleted my supply of oxygen and am unable to speak. 

He doesn't care though. He won't let up.

My vision starts to fade, and the only thing I can think about is my baby girl behind me: Madison... McKaiden... I don't even care who she is anymore! She doesn't deserve this... her sister didn't deserve this... 

I hear both Russell and Evelyn scramble to their feet before Dane jerking backward let's me know they're trying to pull him off of me. 

He still doesn't let go... he just drags me along by my neck...

"You're going to kill her!" Russ yells, followed by rambling I can't quite make out over both Evelyn and Dane's screams behind it.

I'm definitely slipping further and further into nothingness... I'm falling away... I can feel myself losing the essence that makes a life...

"-Okay, okay! Don't kill her, please!" 

It's one of the last things I hear. It's Russell's voice, panicked and frantic, but further away than I know he is.

"-It was Rob! She told me it was some guy named Rob! Leave her... alone... please..."