DANGEROUS ARRANGEMENTS

"HOW'S THIS FOR PROOF?"

By now tempers have somewhat died down, and a deep and daunting sadness takes its place.

Sherin decides that her work here is done, and she causally walks off to her room and slams the door behind her while my mother, brother, and father remain in the common spaces of the living room and dining room.

They just stood around and watched while my husband and I threw all of ours and our kids belongings into suitcases and black garbage bags.

It dawned on me in those moments that Sherin had successfully accomplished her goals of keeping both me and Matt out of the house and away from my parents.

It had been months since that night my father told Matt to get out of the house, and now the very same was being told to me.

There wasn't any time left to consider anything further, we were now at the point of no return.

Although we packed up as quickly as possible, all of it felt like it was happening in slow motion.

And as we loaded up the car with the last of our belongings, we then reached for our kids which immediately brought both my parents and brother to tears.

My husband wouldn't even allow my parents to hug or kiss my son and daughter and instead told them that they would never see them again.

It was evident that my parents were heartbroken in hearing him threaten that.

But they knew as well as I did that this was the only weapon my husband had in his arsenal of venom to hurt my parents with. And he used it both tirelessly and shamelessly upon his final exit from their house.

I, on the other hand, didn't care to hurt them that way but I did bypass them to walk over to Peter was and proceeded to throw my arms around him, weeping bitterly as we embraced.

We stood there for more than a minute with our heads laying on each others shoulders hugging and then crying until I forcefully pulled myself away from him, kissing him on the cheek as I whispered my goodbyes.

And without saying anything more to my parents, I too left.

I slammed the front door behind me as I vacated the house now joining my husband and two younger children in the car.

Before I took off, I took one last glance at my parents both stoically fixed by the window, tearfully watching as I sped off down the block and away from the house.

I headed towards Charisma's school which was just a few short blocks up ahead and once I retrieved her from the main office and got her into the car next to her brother and sister, I then fearfully asked my husband where were we headed next.

He calmly replied that we were going to his aunt Stacie's house and that he had called her when he was in the room packing and briefly explained to her what was going on.