Murders Of The Past

SEVEN

THE DOOR SWINGS open and I stumble into the house, my shoes making loud noises on the hard floor. I turn around and push the door shut, which ends up being louder than I intended.

  "Look who finally decided to come home." I freeze, my eyes growing. That sounded like Carlos. "Care to explain where you were?" I hear footsteps coming towards me. Slowly, I turn around. The moment I turn around Carlos jumps back as if I'm a snake that just hissed at him. "Sadie!" He walks over to me, grabbing my face and holding it.

  "Let go of me," I grumble, pulling my face away and taking a step back. When I look up at him again his mouth is hanging open and his eyebrows are furrowed in an appalled expression.

  "OK you have a lot of explaining to do." He points at me.

  "I need no explain." I cross my arms, sticking my nose into the air stubbornly.

  "Where did you go? And why are there bruises on your face?" I narrow my eyes. Did he not hear me? Is he deaf?

  "None of your business." I walk past him and to the fridge, opening it and pulling out the egg carton, setting it on the counter before turning the stove on and placing a pan on it.

  "That's none of my business?"

  "Oh look at that, he can hear," I mumble to myself, cracking an egg into the pan. Yummy.

  "What?"

  "Or maybe not." I shake my head.

  "Sadie, look at me." Carlos grabs my shoulder and spins me around to look at him. "Tell me what happened last night," he demands. Narrowing my eyes, I shake my head and take a step forward, pointing at him.

  "No, no, no. I am not the one who takes orders." He shakes his head at me.

  "I'm not playing the 'who's the boss' game, Sadie. I'm trying to have a serious conversation with you about what is going on."

  "I'm not a serious person."

  "Well you need to be a serious person for a second." I nod my head and wait.

  "It's been a second." Carlos rolls his eyes.

  "Where did you go? I woke up and you were gone."

  "I woke up and I was on the ground," I mumble.

  "What?" I sigh, looking up at him, then gasp.

  "Where are the kids?"

  "At school." I relax. House to myself. Wait no, because Carlos is still here. Why is he still here? Shouldn't he be at work?

  "Shouldn't you be at work?"

  "Shouldn't you be telling me the truth?" I look down. "Sadie." His hand slips into mine. "Where did you go last night?" I look over my shoulder and gasp.

  "My egg!" I run over to the stove and grab a spatula, flipping it over, finding the bottom almost coated in burn marks. "Look what you did! You made me burn my egg!"

  "You can make a new one." I snap my head to Carlos. "But right now you need to talk to me." I stare at him, then look at the egg, and without hesitating I grab the hot food with my fingers and shove it into my mouth, preventing me from talking. "Unbelievable." Carlos turns around and walks around the corner. Where's he going? I follow him and watch him open the basement door. What is he doing?

  "Carlos," I try to say but it comes out muffled from the entire egg in my mouth. I follow him down the basement stairs and watch as he walks over to the punching bag and starts beating it. I can't help but wonder if he would've done that to me if we didn't have the bag.

  As I watch him huff and puff, hitting the bag with all his force, I realize I've really pissed him off. This doesn't happen often. Normally he just gets mad at the kids for being too loud. I've never seen him beat the bag because of me before.

  I finally finish chewing the egg and swallow it, clearing my throat. What do I do? I could always leave. I did get him to stop bothering me about what I did. But he's mad at me. Do I want him being mad at me? Of course not.

  "Carlos," I eventually say. Carlos stops, his fist in the air, and turns around to face me. There's a look in his eyes that I don't recall ever seeing before: hatred.

  "You're my wife, Sadie. As my wife, I expect you to tell me everything." He glowers at me. "I expect you to tell me when and where you're going. I expect you to treat me the way I treat you. I expect you to talk to me. I expect you to tell me the truth." I roll my eyes.

  "What am I, your dog? Why don't you put me on a leash already?" I snap. Carlos raises a brow before taking a step forward, then another one, and another one until I realize what he's doing and I race up the stairs. I run through the house, all the way to the back, then upstairs, then back downstairs trying to get Carlos off my tail. I thought I got him off, but then a heavy weight fell onto my back and sent me to the floor in front of the door, crushing me.

  "I wasn't serious!" I wince. "I'm never serious."

  "So you aren't serious when you say you love me?" I frown.

  "Is that all you think about? Love?" I ask. "Love, love, love, love- " Carlos flips me so I'm on my back. "Love, love, love- "

  "Yes." I shut my mouth as I look into his blue eyes, then roll my eyes.

  "Can you get off of me? I don't want to be a pancake today."

  "I will get off when you tell me what you did last night." I huff, rolling my eyes.

  "Alright, alright, fine!" I try crossing my arms over my chest but his body is in my way, so I put my hands behind my head instead. "I went to a club last night." Carlos nods slowly, propping himself up with his elbows.

  "And how did you get those bruises?" He asks calmly.

  "I was fighting." Carlos's eyes darken.

  "You were fighting." I frown.

  "Don't you start telling me I'm too old to fight too."

  "Too? Who else were you talking to?"

  "Adam."

  "When did you talk to him?"

  "Last night. He was there." Carlos looks off to the side, taking mental notes.

  "Why were you fighting?"

  "I don't know. Because..." I shrug. "I'm Sadie Bane." Carlos sighs, rubbing his face.

  "You're Sadie Bane Colby. Not just Sadie Bane." My eyebrows rise.

  "Oh so because your name is in mine I'm a completely different person?" I scoff, shaking my head and looking away. "I was right, marriage is a curse."

  "What did you just say?" I tense, realizing my mistake. I slowly look back to him, sinking down as I see the pain in his eyes.

  "I mean- " Before I can explain he stands up and disappears upstairs. Good job Sadie Bane Colby.