Through Pain We Survive

Chapter 55

***TRIGGER WARNING- violence mentions***

Later that day, Nate was released from the hospital. Becca drove him home and made sure he was situated. Luckily he was still able to walk around, albeit slowly and sore.

"Welcome home!" AJ exclaimed as Nate came through the door.

"Y'all act like I was gone for months," Nate quipped.

"To The P'Nelope, you were!" Gwen answered.

Laughing, they all headed to the kitchen. Gwen and AJ had made some food, knowing Nate would most likely be hungry after the hospital food.

After eating their fill, they sat around the table and played a couple board games.

They all felt like a weight had been lifted off their shoulders with Damien being arrested for what he did to Cat.

Sara, however had not been having that great of a time. After Cat had gotten upset with Damien when he took Sara to the restaurant, Sara had avoided him.

She knew she technically was cheating on Damien when she was with Nate, but because it was a plot to hurt Random Encounters, she didn't count it as actually cheating. She hadn't known Damien had cheated on her though, or rather, cheated on Cat with her. She felt horrible. He had already asked Cat to marry him.

She knew he could be violent. She knew it was her fault when he got mad. That is why he hit her when he did. She did something to make him mad and she would deserve to be hit.

He would not hit her anywhere that could be seen. He kept it discreet. Until two days ago.

He came over madder than she'd ever seen him. She asked what was wrong, and he slapped her. He then knocked her down and started kicking her. He pulled her up by her hair, threw her onto the couch then slapped her face again.

Sara knew better than to fight back. But normally she did something to deserve a beating like this, like someone looking at her because of her clothes. She looked at him with tears in her eyes and asked "What did I do?"

He only said, "They know." She didn't even know what that meant. But she knew better than to question anything right now.

He shook his head, seething at her, slapped her again, and stormed out of the house. Sara broke down in tears. She didn't know what she did, and she was hurt bad. She couldn't go to the doctor, they would report him. He then would be even more upset with her, and she would get even more of a beating. All she could do was hope she didn't have anything broken.

After two days, the pain had subsided enough. She had bruises on her torso, but they were easily covered by clothes. She covered up the handprints on her face with makeup. She looked up some makeup videos to figure out how to hide them best. Between the makeup and some dramatic lighting, no one could tell she had anything wrong with her.

Sara looked at her phone. She wanted to warn Nate that Damien was on the warpath, but didn't think he would take her calls or read her messages. She didn't dare call or text Gwen, she knew Gwen wouldn't understand either.

Gwen had a man who was caring and understanding, one who didn't hit her or yell at her if his food was wrong. He didn't raise his voice to her if she wore the wrong outfit. Sara wanted a guy like AJ. She wanted to be able to feel safe in a man's arms, not fear them.

Making up her mind, she decided to visit them and show what could happen if Damien was mad. She washed the makeup off her face so they could see the marks.

"She did not!" Becca exclaimed.

"Yeah! Two screen doors within a week!" AJ laughed.

"Hey, we fixed them though!" Gwen was laughing along with the group. "All we needed was an old credit card!"