The one that got away

Chapter 1

I don't know how, but I never saw this coming. I couldn't stop crying as I left that town behind me. I should've known this would happen, he had done everything he could do to isolate me from my old life. He made me choose between him and my best friend. He had made me choose between him and my family. I hadn't talked to my parents in two years. I hadn't talked to my best friend for longer. The last time I saw all of them together was when she was born. My heart pulled as I looked in the rearview mirror.

My heart was fast asleep in the backseat. She had no idea we were running. It was dark when I pulled her into my arms, she didn't see the bruises that lined my face when he heard me walking through the house. I was grateful she was so little. She didn't have to understand how horrible her father was. She didn't have to face the loss I was facing now.

Bubbah, our bulldog, whined from the passenger seat beside me. I rubbed his head and smiled at him, "you'll like this place," I told him quietly as I ran my fingers through his soft girl. I was hoping he was still there. I was hoping the offer he made me, before I gave him radio silence, was still valid. I needed my best friend now more than ever.

My hands were tight on the wheel. I felt relief once I sped over the town line and I knew he was behind me. He hadn't followed when I put our daughter in the car. He just stood watching me from the doorway, like he could scare me into staying. The bruises were more than enough to scare me. But I was done being his punching bag. I was done having a life that revolved around him.

The only good thing that came from our marriage was the little girl behind me. She was the spitting image of me, big blue eyes, long blonde girls. She didn't have a trace of her father in her features and for that I was happy. She was my world, I was doing this for her. She needed the protection I never had. She couldn't lose me before her life even started. I wanted to be there for all her big moments.

I ran my hand through my hair, speeding down the dark highway. I let out a breath wondering if I should've called him. My heart was racing and every once and a while I would glance in the mirror behind me, wondering if he was out there just waiting for me to think I'm safe. Our life together hadn't always been this way. We got married young, we had our daughter young. Maybe that was too much stress on him, maybe I had changed into someone he didn't want me to be.

I had changed, into someone I didn't want to be. I didn't want to be this scared little girl who obeyed her husband because he hit her. I didn't want to only be his wife, which is what he wanted. I had no life, no friends. I wasn't even allowed to draw anymore. I wanted to give my daughter the life I didn't have growing up. I couldn't do that under his controlling thumb.

The rain started to fall when we were close to his house. I didn't even know if he had moved, my hands holding the wheel tightly. I prayed that nothing had changed, I wish I would've picked up the phone when he called. I wish I hadn't been so scared of one man to lose my best friend.

I wiped away a tear, the diamond I had been wearing for the last three years catching light off the windshield. I looked down at it and I realized this was the last thing I had to do to get rid of him. I slipped the ring off and held it in the palm of my hand. Once upon a time this ring had held so much hope for me. I thought this was my fairytale, I thought I would get the life I always wanted with him. I loved him, more than I thought was possible.

Now I wasn't sure if I had ever really loved him at all. I knew he never loved me. He loved the control he had over me because I loved him.

I closed my fist around the diamond and my heart beat quickly in my chest. I rolled down my window and I said one last final goodbye to the life I had before this all started. I lifted my closed fist out the car and let the ring fall down on the pavement as my tires sped away from the last piece of him.