Intertwined

Part 14: Intrusive

She finds him sitting in the living room with his head between his knees and his fingers knotted in his hair.

He looks like he's in pain and she understands that feeling completely.

Slowly walking around the couch, she sits down beside him and rubs his back slowly. She can feel his spine through his shirt and can feel how much tension he's holding in it.

"Akash Penthaki knocked me up at 19." She says casually as she rubs him. He doesn't move or sit up, but she knows he's listening. "We met at a concert when he was visiting his cousin in London and he was dreamy and Mr. Charismatic."

He swallows hard in her throat.

"It was just a fling. Despite me wishing it was more. He'd call me up every once in a while when he was in town from the US. I was like an attraction he had to visit when he came. Which...I suppose doesn't sound the best when I say it." She inwardly laughs and feels his body relaxing a bit more against her hand. "When I found out I was pregnant with Lukas, I didn't even know if I was going to tell Akash. I mean...what was the point- he didn't want a relationship, I was just a fuck body for his vacations. I could have easily just hid it from him and raised Lukas by myself...but he was handsome and after him charming me the five times we hooked up- the little presentations of romance he would display to me...it made me want to live like that. In his romance. So I told him and he disappeared for a bit. But...but his mother in Indian found out I was pregnant she more or less threatened him to marry me so he did. We had a quick shotgun wedding and we moved to LA. When Lukas arrived, he wasn't attentive at all. Barely held or communicated with him. Wasn't helpful at all. He constantly had these meetings out of town and I just kept telling myself that he's just providing for us. He's just being a responsible husband and father because I wasn't working at the time. I was doing school online and raising Lukas without any help. My mother would constantly call and beg me to just come home and we could figure something out- but I was...I was trying to just be a good wife like I always thought I would be. But he would come home smelling of cheap perfume and booze. He'd complain to me that I wasn't doing all my wifely duties- despite me literally doing all I could to keep the house spotless, keep the baby quiet and content, have dinner on the stove, breakfast and coffee ready for him every morning. Clothes always done and just...running myself ragged- but I was a wife and a mother and I needed to be perfect. I wanted to be perfect for him but I was losing him. I got pregnant with Logan and I thought it would help him feel more grounded and need to be home with us. He always said he wanted a big family made up of boys- so when I found out we were having a second son- I knew he would excited, but he wasn't. He stayed out later, too more 'out of town' meetings. Became more sneaky and drunk—and there had been times I literally caught him with women in our bed. I was pissed off and hurting and despite everyone telling me to get out- I was determined to make him happy and be the best fucking wife I could be." Max sits up now and watches her closely as she pokes her heart out. "It wasn't until Logan was about a year old that Akash let it be known what he truly was. He came home one night- legless and angry because his meeting bombed with the Japanese- and so I set the dinner plate down in front of him and that was that. He hated it. He threw the plate at the wall, stood up and just laid into me. I never felt such pain in my body- and I had given birth unmedicated- but his abuse hurt worse. He smashed my face I got he table, he kneed me in my stomach and threw me about the room like a rag doll and you know what—I bloody let him. I let him hurt me because I was his wife and I must've done something to deserve it. Never mind the fact that I hadn't said two things to him to truly cause this response. But it happened. All the bloody time. At one point he had gotten ahold of the boys and spanked them mercilessly for just being babies. Logan was only two and rambunctious and Lukas was five and just playing in the living room. But he was drunk and annoyed and he whipped them with his belt. I was in the shower and I heard them screaming as if they were set on fire. I ran as fast as I could downstairs still covered in soap and naked with just a towel around men's I had to punch him hard in the side of the face to get him to release them. It worked- he let go of them- but turned on me. After that happened, I never left the boys alone with him- which only angered him more. When I found out I was pregnant with Zurah...I was so hesitant to tell him. But he seemed happy and fine and the boys were excited and so I thought that the abuse would stop because when I told him I was pregnant with Logan- it stopped. And so why wouldn't it stop with Zurah...and well...Lukas told you the rest of what happened there."