Their Escape

~15~

~15~

After the fight, the kids and I decided to spend the night at Jason’s house. We ordered a couple of pizza’s and asked Sam and Audrey to stay for a little while. Two hours later, I was dropping them off and going back to Jason’s house. He already had Savannah put to bed and as soon as we walked through the door, Matty and Dani went upstairs. I had no doubt in my mind that they would be spending the majority of their night texting their dates.

I walked into the kitchen and saw Jason sitting at the table with an ice pack against his head and drinking a cold beer. He didn’t even look up when I walked past him. After I pulled a cold bottle of water out of the fridge, I took a seat across from him. He finally raised his face and we locked eyes.

    “So you said we would talk about it if I won?” he started. “I won,” he finished taking a swig of his beer.

    “Like I said, it was on Savvy’s first birthday. Seth didn’t come home for the party and when he did come home, I was trying to clean up from the party. He told me that I had to have the place cleaned up before I went to bed. I smarted off at him and told him that I was aware and he gripped my hair, pulled me to him and told me that I had to do as he said. Once again, I smarted off and said don’t I always. That got me a slap across the face and then I just kind of went off about him missing his daughter’s party. He said that there would be others and I asked him who it was that time. I knew that he had cheated on me back then and I knew it was with co-workers so I named off a few that I remember meeting.

    “He threw me against the wall and as soon as I crumpled down, he started kicking me in my stomach,” I stopped to take a breath. “I didn’t even know I was pregnant. I can’t tell you how many time he kicked me but when there was a break in it, I took a chance and looked up, only to be punched in the face. The next day when I saw that I was bleeding and it wasn’t that time of the month, I went straight to the doctor. When they told me what was going on, I broke down and cried for about an hour. I made the decision right then and there to have my tubes tied because I couldn’t risk something like that happening again.”

He didn’t take his eyes off of me while he took another drink from his beer. After placing the bottle back down on the table, he ran his hand through his hair. As I looked in his eyes, I could see the pain that crossed through them. I couldn’t help the feeling of hopelessness and the fact that I deserved the hand I was dealt because instead of facing my problems, I ran away.

    “I’m sorry,” I whispered, standing up from the table and walking outside.

Just as I leaned against the railing, I felt arms wrap around my waist. Jason pulled me against his chest and in that moment, I felt alright.

    “I don’t blame you for anything.”

    “I should have stayed and faced the music. instead, I ran away from you.”

    “Mel,” he said, turning me around to face him. “I blame all of this on Tobias. He took advantage if the love you held for me. You were young and vulnerable and just finding out you were pregnant. I don’t blame you.”

    “You should,” I said. “Can I ask you a question?”

    “Sure,” he smiled.

    “Why didn’t you move away from here? I figured that once you started making all that money, you’d move to California or somewhere of the sort.”

    “I thought about it just before mom and dad told me about their divorce but after that, I wanted to stay closer to Columbus. When the house came up for sale, I hopped on it and closed the deal in three months. The real estate agent didn’t want to sale it to me at first because he said that I wasn’t reliable enough at twenty. that all changed when I offered ten more than what the original asking price was.”