Lover ; George Weasley

Eighteen

I finally got WiFi after a month of living in my new apartment.

-

I was shaking.

I was sitting on the floor, up against the wall in the foyer, my body shaking from what just happened.

My entire face was hurting. My lip was swollen and so was my cheekbone. I was bleeding from both my nose and my lip and the rest of my face was just extremely sore.

Malcom had walked away so I was alone in the foyer, crying and wishing I hadn't slapped him.

"Baby..."

I jumped at the voice and looked to see Malcolm walk back into the foyer with a wash cloth.

"...why do you always do this?"

"Why do I always do this?" I sobbed. "All I've ever done, I did because I wanted you to love me and you always took advantage of that."

He crouched down in front of me and grabbed my jaw harshly, making me wince.

"I do love you for Christ sake." He said, pressing the cloth to my lip to clean up the blood.

I hissed at the pain, trying to move away, but he grabbed my jaw even harsher and pulled me back.

"You never did." I said. "Maybe at first, but something changed that. I don't know if it was because I had a child and my body changed, but you started coming home drunk, you cheated on me and you beat the crap out of me multiple times."

He moved the cloth up my face, cleaning all the blood from my skin. He was being careful.

It was always like this.

He'd hurt me, then help me clean myself up afterwards and then he'd be careful. It was his way of showing me that what happened to me was my own fault and that he took his time to help me afterwards. Apparently I should be grateful.

"Please don't take them."

His eyes flicked up to meet mine and he sighed as he moved the cloth back down to clean my nose.

"Please, Malcolm." I sobbed. "I'm so sorry about everything. Just please don't take them."

He sighed again and threw the cloth on the floor before placing his hands on either side of my head, pressing them against the wall.

"On one condition."

Oh no...

"You come back home." He placed a hand against my jaw, stroking his thumb against my skin. "We can be a family again. You, me... Elsie and Leah. We can even try for a third. We always talked about a third baby."

I closed my eyes and hung my head low as I started crying again.

I feel stuck.

"I can't— no."

I looked at him again as he spoke and he stood up, staring down at me with his jaw clenched.

"Fine." He shrugged. "Why don't you go home, Dahlia? Get some rest and I'll pick up the girls from school."

"It's my week."

"Yeah, well... in about six months you won't have any kids." He shrugged. "I'm taking them until the trial."

"No!" I cried. "Malcolm, please don't. I c-cant... please don't do that! I'm still their mother!"

He laughed, pushing his hands into the pockets of his sweatpants.