Playing with fire

Confessions part two

He handed her a cup of tea and sat beside her, watching how she attempted to tuck her feet up beneath her, before signing as she had to rest her foot up on the bench. Without her heels and dressed in casual clothing she looked softer and far more vulnerable than he'd ever seen someone he cared about look.

"I don't know where to start,"

She lay with her head on this thighs, her legs up on the bench, their left hands entwined across her stomach.

He ran his free hand across her forehead and rested his head back against the bench, "take your time,"

She told him about how they met, how good there relationship had been when they first got married. "The first time I ever saw him lose his temper was two years ago..." She sighed and closed

Her eyes, "we had a little girl... She was called Ava..."

Connie found she couldn't stop the tears that fell silently down her cheeks,

"She died two years ago now... She was only six... She got run over and I couldn't save her..." She sighed, "this car came off the road and hit us both.. I couldn't save her Jacob... My own daughter... I think he blamed me... He was so so angry..."

She stopped for a moment and caught her breath,

"The first time he hit me was about 18 months ago... We had an argument about something stupid and he hit me... Just the once... Across the face..."

She sighed, "I left him, but he was so apologetic and said it wouldn't happen again and for months it didn't..."

She sat up and placed her hands on her knees, "The night I met you, we'd argued in the morning before I left for work... He looked so angry and I was so pleased to get out of the the door."

She shrugged, "since then... Well you know what's happened... he's been rough with me, then he dislocated my shoulder and now this..."

"He showed up out of the blue last week, I asked him for a divorce... He lost his temper and he hit me and I fell... I ran upstairs and closed the door and called you and the police but he broke down the door and as I ran past him and down the stairs I slipped and fell again" She sighed, "he punched me a few times and then he..." She looked up at him and saw how his eyes shone with tears, he held her hands firmly and she placed a hand on his cheek,

"If you hadn't have arrived when you did he would have..." she uttered and he held onto her tightly as she finally broke down in tears for the first time since the incident.

He held her as she cried against his chest, her loud, harrowing sobs made him feel a sadness he didn't think he had felt before. She ended up crying herself to sleep and he carried her inside and placed a blanket over her whilst he sorted out his house and put some food on to cook.

He went outside and punched a wall hard, swearing as he did so, before allowing tears to run down his cheeks as he leaned back against the cold bricks.

Connie appeared beside him, her arms firmly in her crutches and she nodded at him, "go and sit down on the sofa."

She sat beside him and cleansed and dressed his wound gently. "Don't cry over me darling," she spoke quietly as she allowed him to cuddle her gently,

"I'm sorry that all of that has happened to you," he told her, "that's the thing I'm most sorry about."