You're Supposed to Look Forward to Your Wedding

Wedding planning

You're supposed to look forward to your wedding. That's what everyone tells you. It's the 'biggest and best day of your life's.
It was Siobhan's worst nightmare.
For some reason, Roger was stressed about some part of the wedding planning. She hadn't really taken in what. She was too busy making sure that his fist missed colliding with her head.
He always got violent when he was angry. Even more so when he'd had too much to drink. Like tonight.
Roger had left her for the afternoon so she could go and get her wedding dress fitted. That was the one thing he had no say in because of course, he was a traditionalist. She knew he'd want her to wear white. She picked out a beautiful black dress, silver sparkles adorning the neckline. Siobhan knew he'd hate it, and it gave her a small sense of victory. If she was going to get married, she might as well have a dress that she actually liked. Even if she had fallen out of love with the man she was marrying.
*****
Siobhan didn't think she'd ever properly loved Roger. She'd started showing interest in him to gain power in the nursery, and once he had her under his spell it was too late for her to back out. But the way he treated her was far from loving.
Siobhan replayed the events of the evening over and over in her head as she drifted in and out of a fitful sleep. Roger got home late, blaming her for his lateness, because everything was always her fault.
She ran a hand over the fresh bruises that were forming across her stomach where Roger had thrown her against the coffee table. Then he'd dragged her to bed. She'd used up all her excuses long ago. Headaches. Stomach aches. Periods. Roger didn't care. He never listened to her.
'A woman's job is to please her husband' he had said.
Siobhan looked over at Roger's sleeping figure next to her, a ripple of disgust running through her. She didn't know how much longer she could live like this. But she had nobody she could turn to, Roger made sure of that. The one person who she could have-
No. She mustn't think about Viv. She might cry. She had been the one person she had trusted. But even she didn't know what was going on behind closed doors with Roger. Siobhan hadn't been brave enough to tell her. And now it looked like she was never going to be able to.