Till Death Do We Part

Chapter Four

I could feel myself stumbling in after Joseph as he hurls me inside our sprawling manor, the sweet spring air quickly cut off as I collapse to my hands and knees on the ground in front of him. His hands wrap around my long, golden blonde hair and I scream as he drags me back up, slamming me against the eggshell-white walls. 

"You stupid, fucking bitch!" Joseph shouts. He shakes me roughly by the shoulders before releasing me, taking a step back before he could hit me like I knew he wanted to.

"You stupid bitch," he repeats, softer now. His breaths came out rapidly and he runs his hands through his mess of hair. "Why the fuck would you get pregnant?!"

"Because you refuse to wear condoms or take me to a doctor to get more birth control!" I counter back, and I immediately regret speaking out. 

I could see the anger shadow across his face and before he or I realize what's happening the back of his hand cracks against my cheekbone, his wedding ring slicing open my flesh in the process. I let out a cry of shock and pain and stumble away from him, my hand immediately rising to my injured cheek. 

"Don't you dare talk to me that way!" He shouts, spit flying out from his mouth. I cower away from him but his hand still grasps my throat, the fingers splayed against my neck. He yanks me towards him and shakes me hard, tightening his grip as he does so.

"I don't give a flying fuck whether or not I wear condoms or whether or not you get your fucking birth control. What you should've done is tell me the moment you suspected you were pregnant, and we would've handled it the right way."

"That's the way you want," I gasp out. "It wasn't what I wanted. I wanted that baby. I wanted to try and save what pathetic marriage we still had. But you were the one who killed her when you flung me down those stairs."

Joseph is quiet for a moment, and then he begins to laugh, his face splitting into a wide, horrific grin. "No," he muses. "I never killed her. You were the one who wanted to raise a baby in this when you knew damn well that wasn't going to happen. You can't blame anyone else but your damn self, Sienna. I am the man, and what I say goes. If I don't want you to go out, you don't go out. If I want to fuck you, then I will fuck you. If I don't want a child..."

He pauses for effect as he leans in close, his hot breath fanning my face and his crazed eyes glistening cruelly. "Then I will make sure that baby growing in your stomach never sees the light of day. You do what I say, Sienna, and if you don't, there will always be hell to pay. Do you understand me?"

When I don't answer right away, Joseph's familiar sneer returns and his fingers tighten around my neck, cutting off any oxygen I was once receiving.

"Do. You. Understand?" He punctuates, and I nod my head.

"I can't hear you when you nod your head, you dumb bitch."

"Y--yes," I stammer hoarsely, and after a moment Joseph releases me. My shaky legs are unable to support me and I crumble to his feet, gasping for air and holding back the tears that threatened to come. The back of my throat felt like it was on fire, my face stung, and my entire body ached from the brutal miscarriage. And Joseph just stood above me, smiling his sadistic grin as he watched me fight to get my breathing under control. When I was no longer choking on air he crouched down in front of me and used two of his fingers to lift my chin up and face him, his blue eyes watching me carefully.

"I own you now," he says softly. "As soon as you said the words 'I do,' you were mine to do with as I saw fit. We still have some fine tuning to do on you, of course, but I'm sure after this year you'll finally understand that what I say goes, dear. Now," he adds, standing up and turning on his heel, "get yourself presentable and start cooking. We have guests coming over, sweetheart, and we wouldn't want anything to go wrong, now would we?"

"No, of course not," I reply, too numb to say anything else. But as Joseph began listing off what his demands were for the meal he expected me to prep, my mind was elsewhere. I wasn't thinking about the specific ingredients Joseph required, or the dessert he wanted served after dinner. My mind was planning on a way to escape, on how to get away from a man who would most certainly kill me some day in the future if he decided he no longer wanted to hold me as his captive. I knew I had to be careful, just like I knew there was no one I could turn to for help. I was completely alone in this, and if I messed up, there would be no second chance.

Which was why I could never let him know I had taken his key.