Love Punished

Life Changing News

Two months earlier.

Maiden's POV

Dear Mom, 

Hey it's me Maiden I am writing to you to inform you about what has happened. Yesterday was the day that Joseph was to be returning home. I was happily awaiting his arrival. Awaiting the way his footsteps sounded in our old house, awaiting the sound of his voice as he called out to me telling me he was home, awaiting the smell of him when he pulled me into a hug for longer than needed. Awaiting the plain comfort and safety he brought home with him. It was almost immediate the sense of complete feeling of nothing will ever hurt me that I felt.  As I was setting up the dining room table for our diner I heard a faint knock at the door. I didn't bother to set the platter of cookies I carried in my hand down as I headed for the door. I saw the sheriff standing at the door and something told me not to answer the door, but I did anyway. "Won't you come in sheriff, have a cookie they are straight out of the oven still warm." I said with a smile closing the door behind him as he entered my home. "No thank you ma'am this should only take a minute." He said and looked down at me pity in his eyes. He sighed and began to speak, I barely heard what he was saying. "Ma'am I am sorry to inform you that your husband has been shot in a lethal fight this afternoon." I stood there taken aback by what he said the room spinning as the glass platter fell from my hands to the floor and shattered into pieces, sending shards of glass and bits of cookies everywhere. The officer looked at me once more, set his hand on my shoulder then turned and left. As soon as I heard the door shut I fell to the floor in tears not caring if I landed on glass, because I couldn't feel it. 

I looked up from the letter I was writing my mother tears streaming down my face again. I placed the pencil on the page and as I started to stand up one small, salty tear fell onto the paper. Standing up and walking to my lock box, I opened it and placed the small tablet  inside. As I shut it I wiped the tears from my eyes. I have to be strong Joseph wouldn't want me to feel this way. I thought straightening up my back and walking out of our bedroom. Walking into the bathroom, I turned around and the person I saw in the mirror was anything but me. Who was this zombie-like creature looking at me? I sighed and opened the cupboard, getting out my make-up I shut the cupboard, applied some mascara and eyeliner, blush and cover up. Finally looking semi decent I turned and walked back into my room. Only taking one step into my room the doorbell rang and I looked at the staircase and turned. I walked downstairs and opened it to find a large man standing at my door. "Hello may I help you?" I asked the man and he answered by saying. "You're husband owes me a shit ton of money and I expect to get it." I gasped and took a step back from the door and said. "I'm sorry, but my husband wasn't a man to owe anyone money he never borrowed from people he found it disrespectful to the person. I think you have the wrong house, please leave me be." I said and tried to close the door. As I was trying to close it the only thing running through my head was, who is this man and why does he think my husband owes him money?  I was scared, I didn't know what this man was capable of. I had to look up at him because he was so much larger than me.  

The large man entered as I tried to close the door with a large grimace of anger written across it . "Now little miss you either pay up or I will need some other type of payment." He said and pushed my hair behind my ear. I gasped and quickly said. "I will get you your money!" I almost screamed backing away from him again. He smiled, then grabbed my butt and left my home but not without sending me a sinister smile. Seeing what had happened scared me enough to want to move. I looked for a while until I finally found a little apartment on the other side of town. I moved in as soon as I bought it hoping to avoid the man that had shown up at my door. Getting all of my things out of the house and into my new one was harder than I was expecting, but I got everything done. The only bad thing was every time I bent over to pick up a box I got sick to my stomach and had to rush to the bathroom.

The day after I moved in I drove down to the drug store and picked up a pregnancy test and took it home. After taking it I made lunch and waited for it to be fertilized. It didn't take long and I went back and checked to see the thing I most wanted and most feared. The test read positive, I was having a baby, this was the last thing I had of my husband and I was happy, though I was terrified because I was alone and had no help taking care of the baby, I didn't even have a job.... As I sat on my bed boxes that hadn't been unpacked stacked around me I thought about the child I was carrying How could I take care of this child? I didn't even have a job, this child could never have the life I thought for my children. As I sat there thinking about everything that had happened in the last two months it hit me, my husband was shot in a fight, he owes somebody money, and he always came home with empty bags. MY HUSBAND WAS A DRUG DEALER. I thought and jumped from my bed, I ran to my car and drove my back to my old house to search for the drugs he sold, and after searching for two hours I had seventeen bags of weed, twenty backs of cocaine , thirteen bags of LSD and a list of people he sold to with numbers. I sighed and began to think that this could be the way I could take care of our child. I grabbed the bag and ran to my car calling the first number on the list, making an appointment to meet at a club on the other side of town. Once I was there I was nervous and I couldn't lose the feeling that someone was watching me. I saw the shadow of a man appear near me and new he was here, once he was in the light I smiled at him and handed him the bag, he paid me a large wad of cash and left, afterwards I bolted from the club losing my necklace on the way out, but I had the feeling that  someone was following me so I ran to my car, leaving as fast as possible.