meant to be yours // heathers au // EDITING

fifteen

Veronica's POV

As I held Violet that night, I knew that enough was enough. I looked at my daughter and knew that I could not love her father any longer.

I knew that I had to try and leave this house as soon as possible. Because if he could kill Lydia, he could kill Violet or I. He could kill all of us and live the rest of his life. No one would notice us dead. I was already dead and they were children born in secret. He'd be the only person to know any differently.

Once I got Violet back to sleep, I went back to JD and I's room. Lydia was still on the floor, purple from the bruises on her cold skin. JD left the room and returned with a garbage bag, starting to put Lydia inside of it.

"I take it you said your goodbyes." He said to me and when I didn't respond, he shoved Lydia into the bag and tied it up. He left the room again and didn't come back until an hour later, covered in dirt.

I didn't speak to him again that night, opting to fall asleep as he showered. I expected to wake and find that he had gone to work, giving me the chance to escape. But he was there the next morning. The following three days, he stayed home and made sure I couldn't leave.

I refused to speak to him, even opting to sleep in Lydia's empty bed and he eventually imploded. He drank more than I had ever seen anyone drink. When he tried to speak to me and I gave him the cold shoulder, then he exploded, forcing me into our room and locking the door. He left our room for a while, coming back with a gun.

"Fucking talk to me." He demanded of me, pointing the gun at my head.

"Or what, you'll kill me?" I asked him, still sure that he wouldn't.

"Yeah!" He screamed. "I'll kill you and take care of Violet. She'll never know you or the other one existed!"

"Lydia." I corrected him.

"I'm not saying her name!" He shouted at me. I looked down the barrel of the gun he had in my face, wondering if it was loaded. Wondering if telling him to kill me would make him do it.

"You're a monster." I told JD, continuing to study the gun. The safety was on, his threat was a bluff.

"I know." He replied to me.

"The safety's on." I informed JD, who in turn shoved the end of the gun onto the bridge of my nose. I screamed, knowing that he had just broken my goddamn nose.

"Seems like it can still fucking hurt you!" He yelled at me, throwing the gun to the floor. It left a dent in the wood.

"I hate you." I told JD as he turned to leave our room.

"Everyone fucking hates me." He reminded me, another call of self-pity that he sang.

"Maybe that's because you're an abusive psychopath." I mumbled. He turned back to me, bending as he picked up the gun.

"Shut up and maybe I won't kill you." He said.

"You wouldn't do it." I told him and he flicked the safety off.

"Try me." He teased.

"You'd be doing me a fucking favor." I said. "Just know that if you kill me, Violet won't be the same. My sweet baby will end up just like you." I added, egging him on to kill me. I knew it was still a bluff. If he killed me, he'd never be able to get me back.

"No, she wouldn't." JD argued. I looked straight into his empty blue eyes.

"You're right." I said. "She'll be worse because you're worse than your father." I told JD, who smashed the butt of the gun against my temple.

"Shut up!" He screamed. I struck a nerve in him and I knew it would.

"Hey, maybe it's fitting for you to kill me. Your father killed your mother, too." I mocked him, knowing I was pushing him to the edge. But I didn't care at that point, I just wanted him to be out of my life. Even if it meant that I had no life. His eyes were teary as he threw the gun against the wall and left the room.

He didn't come back that night. When I woke the next morning, my head still splitting and my nose bleeding, he wasn't here. His car was still gone. I knew that my one chance to escape was here.

Without any time to lose, I dumped my purse onto the bed, deeming all of its contents unnecessary to bring with me. I put in three outfits for Violet and one for myself, carefully folding everything to take up as little room as possible. Aside from that, I managed to fit the one photo album we owned. If I couldn't take Lydia, I was going to bring her memory with me.

Once I had everything in my purse, I went to wake up Violet. I dressed her in layers and fed her breakfast before sitting her down in the hallway with her security blanket. I tried to break open the door at the end of the hallway. I couldn't manage to break it with my body, as I had also grown weak from my years inside.

I went into the room I wasn't supposed to, terrified that JD would be home at any moment to catch me. I managed to find an axe and used that to smash the other door open. Once the wood split by the doorknob, I reached my hand through the door and unlocked it from the other side.

The feeling of terror I had shifted to elation as I pushed that door open. I quickly grabbed my purse and lifted Violet up into my arms.

I held her close to me as I got outside, blinded by the sunshine I had not seen in so long. Violet began to cry at the bright outdoors, it was entirely new to her. I held her head close to me, shielding her eyes from the sun as I began to run away from the house.

I didn't know what direction to go in, so I just went away from it as quickly as I could. After what felt like forever, I stumbled across a small convenience store and ran inside.

"Miss, are you okay?" The cashier asked me, as I was obviously frail and disheveled. I didn't look at myself in the mirror that morning, only passing a glance as I ran inside the store. I couldn't stand to look at what JD had done to me.

"I need a phone." I said. The cashier obliged, offering some change for the pay phone outside. "No. I need a phone inside so he doesn't see me." I explained as little as possible and the cashier let me use the phone in the back.

I dialed my parents phone number, praying that it had not changed in the past nine years. It didn't. My mother answered the phone.

"Hello?" She asked.

"Mom!" I cried. "It's Veronica, please listen to me." I begged her as she screamed at the sound of my voice.

"How are you alive?" She asked, her voice wobbling from tears.

"It's a long story." I told her as Violet began to cry, scared of where she was. "I need you to come get me." I added, shushing Violet.

"Where are you?" My mother asked and it was then that I realized I didn't know. I hadn't known where I was for so long that it didn't cross my mind that it was important information.

"I need you to stay by the phone. I think someone called the cops." I told my mother, hanging up on her as I could hear sirens approaching. Violet cried at the sound, it had never been so loud in her little world before.

As a cop walked into the room, I felt my heart sink. I didn't want to deal with cops right now. I wanted my mother.

"Ma'am, are you alright?" The cop asked me, to which I shook my head no. "What's your name?" She questioned.

"Veronica Sawyer." I answered.

"The girl who wrote the note for that bombing in Ohio?" The cop asked me, clearly unconvinced. I was supposedly dead so I don't blame the cop for being skeptical.

"I didn't write any note." I told her. "It might have been my handwriting but I didn't write it." I added, explaining that my boyfriend had a knack for forgery and was a known pyromaniac.

"Jesus Christ." The cop mumbled. "Listen, Veronica, I'm going to call an ambulance so we can get you checked out." She explained to me before doing so.

As I stepped onto the ambulance, still holding Violet, I felt free. I was being taken far away from JD, I thought. Until I glanced out the window and saw him following us with that pissed look on his face. When I blinked though, it was clear that I had imagined it.