Chapter One
Maggie
The drive home was a quiet one. They listened to the radio mostly, but occasionally spoke to each other as Nick drove the three-and-a-half-hour trip back to Atlanta. They both spent their time contemplating life when they returned from vacation, but more importantly, what the future would look like now that the two of them had come so close in body and mind. Nick, being a 19-year-old boy, was sure to see life as limitless and full of possibilities, as a teenage boy often did. But Maggie saw something entirely different. Her view was different, not just from her age and experience, but because she knew she was returning to pain. Physical pain. It would seek her out shortly, and there was nothing that could stop it.
Nick still didn’t know that his father knew about their affair, and Maggie was intent on keeping it that way, no matter the cost. It was up to Maggie to think of a plan, a strategy to quell her husband’s fiery temper. She had very little planned to do so. She only prepared herself for gritting her teeth and dealing with what came her way.
Maggie never actually entertained the idea of separating from Jack. The concept felt so alien to her that it was never a real possibility. She saw that divorce was a greater failure than anything else she had done in life. This relationship, this marriage, was her’s, and it was her’s to fix.
But the question remained: What am I going to do about Jack when I get home?
Startling Maggie from her stress-ridden stare at her sandaled feet on the car floorboards, Nick asked her, “So what are you going to do?”
Chapter Two
Nick
“What are you going to do?” Nick asked as he coasted in the right lane with the cruise control on. He wasn’t specific on purpose, but despite the brief, confused look Maggie gave him, he knew she understood.
“I don’t know…” Maggie admitted.
“Look,” Nick said, staring at the road. He chose his words carefully as he drove. “I know it’s your body and your life and everything, but you shouldn’t get beaten or hurt by anyone-no one should have to deal with that. If there’s a chance he’s going to keep doing this, you should go to the police, or at the very least, leave him. And I’m not saying that for me or, you know, whatever. But you can’t- it’s not safe.”
Maggie took his free hand and clasped it between her palms in her lap. The look she gave him was one of caring appreciation. Nick hated it. Not only was she still pandering to him like he was a child, as if she was about to say, “Oh, sweetie…” but the look also told him she was going to do nothing.
Maggie stayed quiet for several minutes as she rolled Nick’s palm in her hand. Nick used the time to wonder what his role in all of this was. He had spent the weekend in a combination of trying to forget the taboo weirdness he was enabling between his stepmother and himself, and occasionally thinking he was getting back at his abusive father by hooking up with his stepmother. It was strange. He had no clue his father was abusive to women, but yet, when he found out and saw the bruises on Maggie’s neck, it did not surprise him.
It made Nick question other things, as well. Like, were drugs the real reason for his biological mother’s disappearance? His father had always told him since he was young that his mother was an addict and abandoned them both when he was only 9 years old. It was a hard truth he swallowed for many years until he couldn’t chew anymore.
Denise Towne was a young, vibrant woman. His mother had unblemished skin, a smile that refused to disappear, and an infectious laugh that made everyone feel at home.
The more Nick tried to remember the “dark times” with his mother when he grew older, the more he realized there were none. Sure, he could recall times of tears and crying. One memory stood out of his parents’ screaming in the kitchen. Nick would tuck himself under the covers and plug his ears when the fighting got bad. And this time, there was breaking glass and other loud booms throughout the house. But, like every other time, eventually Nick slipped away into a restless sleep, and when he woke, Mom was as smiley as ever.
“Dad, I don’t remember Mom using drugs,” Nick had stated one night when he was a teenager. It was months before his father started dating Maggie. “And there was none of it around the house or-”
“Your goddamn right there wasn’t, I never let her bring that around you and me. Don’t you remember all those fights we used to have before she ran away? She was using more and more back then.” Jack sniped. He left the room abruptly. “Best not to think about her. You and I got each other.”
But now, as he drove with the rising sun on the side of his face, he started to imagine his life now. Not regarding the mess he created with his stepmom, but what family he had left now. Nick tried to imagine going to dinners, summer visits, and Christmas vacations with his dad. It was all tainted. Just imagining his face enraged him.
How can I ever look at my father again, knowing what he is? If I don’t spend time with him, then who? I’m alone. I’m utterly alone.
“I don’t think I should drive back to school today,” Nick decided. “Maybe we can get a hotel in Atlanta and figure things out.”
“Here’s what’s going to happen,” Maggie said with a deep sigh and a decided voice. “You’re going to drop me off at the house, get in your car, and drive back to school, where you’re going to worry about normal college guy things.” Nick rolled his eyes and shook his head.
“Is my dad still in Michigan, or did he come back home to Atlanta?” Nick asked.
Maggie shook her head. “I don’t know. I haven’t heard from him.” But something in Maggie’s voice made him question if that was the truth. “Look, can you just do this for me? I know you don’t want to, but I’m asking as a favor to me and don’t argue with me, okay?” Maggie spoke in a tone of a mother scolding her son, which only made the car ride feel more uncomfortable. Nick remembered last night and the swirl of body and limbs they had made together as he had sex with his stepmom.
After a long minute of Maggie staring at him with a perturbed look on her face, Nick finally nodded. “Okay, but on my drive back, I’m going to stop and get a new phone. And I just want texts to make sure you’re alright, okay?”
Maggie smiled and nodded. “Of course.”
The rest of the drive was a blur of zoning out and quiet contemplation. When they neared the city, Nick saw a nervous energy about Maggie. He again lightly pressed the issue of if she would like him to go inside with her. With a more annoyed response, Maggie told him no and went silent.
Pulling the SUV into their house driveway, Nick grabbed his bag and went around to say goodbye to his stepmom, but saw that she had already gone inside the house with her bag and closed the door.
Was she mad at me? Did I do something wrong?
Loading his bags in his own car, he started it up and began his long drive back to school..
Chapter Three
Maggie
Maggie walked inside the house, feeling the bite of her conscience as she left the sweet young man behind with no explanation. She closed the door before Nick could speak or Maggie could have a second thought. It didn’t matter if Nick was mad at her for such a cold goodbye after such an odd trip. Maggie was doing what she did best. Taking the pain so others wouldn’t experience it. The longer Nick lingered there, the more of a chance there was that he would learn that his father knew of their sexual relationship. He had to get him to go.
Maggie remained at the front door for what seemed like an eternity as she peered out the side window, carefully not to be spotted. When Nick finally did drive away in his personal car, Maggie released a sigh and turned to go to her bedroom upstairs. The jolt of a scream that she released when she turned around and saw Jack standing in the shaded hallway filled the house.
The look in his eyes was different somehow, even from how he had looked before when he beat her. There was a wildness behind his eyes. He loomed in the dark hallway, watching her. His hulking chest and arms flexed with a maddening fury in his eyes.
Chapter Four
Nick
Nick sped through a yellow light, switched lanes, slowed at a red light, and decided he could make it and went through it.
I was an idiot for not going inside with her, he thought.
He had made it back to the outskirts of Atlanta, but he was still several minutes away from their house. Nick wondered if he should call 911.
If I called from here, would it even reach Atlanta, or would it ring some podunk town north of Atlanta? What would I even tell them? What do I even know? Would they even listen to me?
Nick switched lanes again, nearly clipping the front bumper ahead of him, then, with one eye bouncing to the cluttered mess of a seat beside him, Nick knocked the plastic packaging for his new phone down on the floorboard and grabbed the new black phone. Nervously, he typed in 911 and saw the words ‘Emergency Mode’ appear on the screen. He swallowed and hit send, still not sure what he was going to say.
There was no ringing or delay. Immediately when he put the phone to his ear, Nick heard an almost bored woman’s voice say, “911, what’s the location of your emergency?”
“Um- Hi, uh, it’s at um, Robertson Ave. 7223 Robertson Ave.” There was a long pause, and Nick wondered if he should keep talking or wait for another question. It was the first time he had called 911.
“…and what’s your emergency?” The woman asked with an attitude.
“Um, my dad is- I think my dad is hurting my mom-stepmom.”
“Okay, does your mom need an ambulance?”
“I don’t know, maybe.”
“What’s her injury?”
“I don’t know, I’m not there.”
“Excuse me?”
“Look, I’m driving to my parents’ house right now. I called my stepmom, and she answered, screaming, and it sounded like there was fighting and arguing. And I heard my mom-stepmom yell for help before the phone hung up. So, I was just hoping police could like go there or something?”
There was a long pause, and Nick made several fast turns down different subdivisions, and he realized he was going to get there before the police would.
“Okay, we have police en route to the location. I’m going to need some more information from you.”
Nick gave the dispatcher information on himself and his parents as he neared their house, but finally told the dispatcher he had to hang up because he was at their house.
Nick closed the door to his car, which he parked on the street. The sun was going down, and street lights were popping on. Now that he was here, he wasn’t sure what he would do. The thought of confronting his father seemed bigger than life. Though he was slightly taller than his dad, Jack had always been a looming figure. Nick knew he could fight his father, and if he did fight him, he wouldn’t win. What if Jack knew about Maggie and me?
That thought made him shrink where he stood. It made the ground he stood on shaky and feel like quicksand. Like he wasn’t as tough as he thought he was. But then he remembered this was not about him. It was not about his comfortability or his fear. It was about her. It was about Maggie.
As if to answer his quarreling thoughts, Nick heard a crashing sound coming from inside the house from the front of the house. Shattering glass and screams erupted from deep within the house. Whatever doubts had cemented Nick’s feet before were gone now. Nick was running for the front door. When he hit the door, it was locked.
With his hulking fist, he beat on the door, and he heard muffled screams coming from inside. His stepmother’s screams.
Nick didn’t think. He didn’t have a plan. Ramming his shoulder into the door twice, he felt the door bow but not break. Backing away, he kicked the door near the middle. Again, he kicked. And again. The door groaned and waned. Another kick and the bottom of the door broke inward. Another kick, and most of the door flapped open. Shouldering through the rest of the door, Nick stumbled inside the house. His eyes were wide as he looked everywhere.
At the moment he took a breath, he heard gasping and crying coming from the kitchen. He ran around the corner and saw his stepmother alone on the floor. Tears streamed down her face as her whole body shook. She was huddled in the corner of the floor, holding her throat. Her shirt was torn and stretched. Bruises were on the side of her neck and her arm. Nick went to take a step towards her, then he heard the exploding boom from the attached garage. He turned and leaned, looking out the window to see his father’s pickup truck ramming the half-open garage and driving like a maniac down the street.
Chapter Five
Nick
“But you never saw him?”
“Not him, like, his person or whatever, but I saw his truck after it smashed through the garage. I saw it drive off. Can I go see my stepmom now?”
“Just a few more minutes. My partner is finishing up a few more questions,” the pudgy-cheeked officer said. His face made him look young, almost Nick’s age, though he was probably 25 or so. Nick sat on the couch in his living room with his elbows on his knees as he stared at the street, lit up with flashing lights through the windows. There were three police cars with their lights flashing, an ambulance, and a fire truck. Why did they send a fire truck? Did I accidentally say something about a fire when I called 911?
Nick looked at the busted front door that barely hung on to the hinge by one thin piece of wood. “Am I going to get in trouble for breaking the door?” Nick glanced up at the officer. He looked back at the door and thought for a moment. Nick honestly didn’t care if he did. He’d break the door down a second time if he were in the situation again.
The officer turned back and shook his head. “Na, I don’t think so,” he said, resting his hands on his gun belt. “Sounds like you were trying to do the right thing. Protect your Mom.”
Nick almost corrected the officer and added a step, but he stopped himself. Maggie sat in the ambulance with a medic beside her on his tablet, filling in information as they took her vitals and other medical information. Despite Nick saying that she should, Maggie already told the medics that she didn’t want to go to the hospital, but they still wanted to check her out in the ambulance for a bit.
A group of three officers stood outside the open doors of the ambulance, talking. They had popped in and out of the ambulance for the last 20 minutes, talking with Maggie. It had been a very long day, and Nick let out a deep sigh as he felt its effects wear on him. The sun was starting to set as shades of darkness amplified the bright blue and red lights of the police and ambulance.
After his dad had plowed through the garage and fled the house, Nick sat on the kitchen floor beside his mother for what felt like forever, waiting for the police. Maggie clutched Nick’s body so tightly as she cried and gasped for breath. Nick had no idea what had happened, but knew Maggie was terrified, which was something Nick had never seen before. When the police arrived, they charged in through the front door with their guns drawn. They searched the house for Jack even though they both said he was already gone, and there was a tense moment where they ordered Nick to his feet to pat him down for weapons before they separated Maggie and Nick in different rooms.
Nick spoke to several different officers over the last hour or so, retelling what he knew and what Maggie had told him about the abuse. Nick saw Maggie get helped down the stairs of the ambulance. She had a bandage on her knee where she was cut, and held an ice pack to her throat. I should never have left.
He saw one officer outside touch a radio mic on his chest as the medic and fire truck drove away. The officer in front of Nick looked to the ceiling as if he was listening to the earpiece in his ear, then touched his mic on his chest, “10-4.” He released his mic and looked at Nick, “Alright, man, you’re free to go. We’ll be in our cars for the next few minutes if you and your mom want to get some things together and leave.”
“That’s it? What about my dad?” Nick asked.
“The officers outside are explaining everything to your mom. We’ll be looking for him,” the officer said as he walked out the door. Nick stood in the doorway and watched the officers slowly get in their police cars and turn off their blue lights. Two of the police cars drove away immediately, but one remained in front of the house. Maggie made…
