HER: Novel by Nicole Maria Navarro

Before 1

"Cole, I think that's enough alcohol for tonight." I rubbed my over swollen belly and winced at the same time when I felt her kick. The slamming of glass is heard as it makes contact with the floor and I hear a plate fall off the the table. I jump a little in fear and know that the comment towards Cole set him off.

"You don't get to tell me when to stop Isabella." His seething expression was vicious. I flinched at the tone of voice he's used on me before I was pregnant, and all the beatings came night after night. I hear a screech of the chair moving back and no later then a second the chair dropped and I listen closely to the footsteps walking in my direction at the other end of the table.

My chair is jerked back with so much force that I almost fell off. Cole has his hands on both sides of where I'm sitting and his face is now at the same level as mine. I can smell his alcoholic breath reaching my nose.

"You're lucky you're pregnant." Cole flares his nostrils, "If not I would've had you on the ground. Bleeding so hard you wouldn't be able to walk, as soon as that heir comes out I'm taking her with me." He spats.

A loud smack sliced through our quiet home. His head is turned, his cheek the color of blood red after I slapped him. I didn't have time to process what I had just did. My brown eyes are opened wide and in less than a second, his hand slaps me across the face and yanks me by my hair dropping me off my chair. My first instinct goes towards my stomach, I curl up in a fetal position as much as I can to protect the baby, from the raging wolf who is her father.

Cole releases my hair when he notices me protecting the child we made eight months back but not out of love. Cole kneels down and wipes away the stray hair that was dangling in front of my face. I was stiff as panic- stricken tears trailed down my cheeks, salty wet tears that don't save me from this monster of a man who made me suffer for two-years with constant beatings and betrayal.

"Please stop crying. No more crying pl- please, I..I." he says rocking me back and fourth on his lap. His emotions ran haywire and they were in all kinds of different places as he drank his nights away and drowned himself in pools of alcohol.

Minutes pass and the rocking stops. Cole is passed out from the alcohol he consumed and we were laid on the floor with his face above my cleavage and I slip away as quietly as I possibly can.

I head towards the bedroom and snatch the baby bag prepared for when the baby was born any day now. I take as much necessities and money as I can and head back towards the living room as quietly as possible to get the keys to Coles truck. I look again at this awful place. There was once love in the air and good food on the table. Looking at Cole lying on the ground made me realize that my time was short. I had to leave. Run. Get away from a place like this that I knew would only bring pain to my unborn child.