Love’s Suicide(88)
Author: Jennifer Foor

I’d had enough already. “I hate you. Anything I ever felt for you is gone.”

He grabbed my shoulder and the truck started swerving around the road. “What did you say?”

I shoved him off of me and watched as he steadied the vehicle. “I said I hate you. You’re never going to see my daughter, Bobby. There’s no way Brooks will let you near her. Everything that’s happening to you is because of your actions. You did this to yourself.”

“You can’t keep her from me. I’ll take your ass to court. I’ll prove you to be unfit. I have the whole damn town on my side. How do you plan on winning when I grew up with the damn judge’s kids? It’s my word against yours. All they’re goin’ to see is my cheating wife trying to move her lover in. Mark my word, I’ll be in her life. You think that you can just replace me? I’ve done everything for you, you ungrateful little bitch.”

His punch hit my arm instead of my face. I covered the spot with my hand as the pain throbbed. My sobs were loud, but nobody could hear them. I kept closing my eyes and feeling comfort in knowing that my baby was safe from this monster. “What happened to you? I don’t even know you. What happened to the man that cared about people?”

“What happened? Are you kiddin’ me? You happened. I gave you my heart and you ripped it apart; you and that soldier. You’re my wife, Katy. You said those vows to me.”

“You married me as my friend. I didn’t love you and you knew it. I tried, but I can’t help it that you’re not Brooks. You’ll never be him, Bobby, and you know it.”

He slapped me again, but this time I held up my hands, blocking him from making contact with my face. The sting from the first blow was still lingering, but I wasn’t concerned about it. What I was concerned about was his determination to hurt me. The more he tried, the more angry I became.

This man was trying to take away my happiness. After everything I’d gone through; all of the pain that I’d suffered in my life, he was trying to hurt me more.

Something inside of me snapped. No longer was I going to sit there and take it. It was up to me to save myself and my future. I was going to have to make a desperate move, fueled by my fear of losing everything.

While he took one glance back at the road, I took the bottle of bourbon on the seat between us and slammed it into the side of his face. His head hit the window as the bottle shattered, knocking him unconscious. I tried to reach for the steering wheel and get my foot up to the brake, but we were already heading straight into oncoming traffic. I closed my eyes and turned the wheel hard to avoid hitting the cars. That’s when the truck lost control.

Maybe I should have considered that he wouldn’t just stop the car, or that hitting him would cause him to lose control of the moving vehicle. At that moment all I cared about was hurting him.

I wanted him to feel what it was like to have someone take out their anger on his face. I wanted him to hurt, like he’d repeatedly hurt me.

I suppose if I was buckled into my seat belt it would have been easier to withstand injuries. I remember the vehicle flipping three times before landing upside down. Traffic stopped on both sides of the road and I could hear the people calling in asking if we were alright. My body was tangled up against the ceiling, while Bobby hung unconscious in his seat belt. I tried to scoot myself away from him, but I couldn’t move.

I remember screaming when the intense pain hit me. That was when I realized that I wasn’t just tangled up against the ceiling of a rolled truck. The pain in my back was the worst that I could ever describe. “Help me! Please, someone,” I cried out.

“Bobby.” I reached for him and got no response. “Bobby, wake up.” I kept trying to reach him, to shake him awake. Blood ran down from his face where I’d hit him, but moving my arms was impossible.

He was dangling above me and I couldn’t do anything to help either of us. I didn’t know what to do, so I kept screaming his name. “Bobby, wake up. Please wake up. Just hold on. Help is coming.”

I wanted out of this situation. More than anything I wanted to see my baby. I needed to be home and safe in Brooks’ arm.

Bobby stirred, getting my attention. He grumbled something under his breath and passed out again. “No, no, no. Bobby wake up. Please, hang on. Help is coming.”

As much as I hated him, I felt horrible for making this happen to us. Sure, I wanted him to suffer, but not like this.

He wouldn’t wake up, and I could hear people outside of the vehicle telling us both to hold on. Sirens were in the distance, and I knew they were coming for us.

I closed my eyes and thought about my family; not just Brooks or B. I thought about all of them and the possibility of earlier being the last time I ever saw any of them.

I was immediately overwhelmed with emotions. I didn’t want to die. After so much pain and suffering, after feeling like I’d never be happy, I had a beautiful daughter and a chance to be with Brooks. Though poetic, I couldn’t die yet. I had to fight for myself and that future that I could almost taste.

While I waited for help to reach in and pull me out, my ears began to ring. Then I lost the feeling in the tips of my fingers, followed by my vision becoming blurred. I felt my hearing fading. Then everything turned to black.

Chapter 51

My eyes were heavy and I felt like I was ready to open them, though the voice talking had my attention.

“Katy, please wake up.” I heard sniffles and recognized the voice. “I feel like this is all my fault. If I’d just been honest with you, you wouldn’t be here like this.” More sniffles. “They need you. He needs you. I’ve never seen him like this. They had to sedate him, Katy. He’s losing it, blaming himself for not following you. It’s like he’s dying without you.” Then I heard sobs. I opened my eyes, but saw that Branch’s hands were covering his face. “Just come back to us. I get it now. I see what I was never able to let myself see before. You were never meant to be my wife, because you were supposed to be my sister. You’ve always been his, even when you weren’t together. I’ll take whatever I can get as long as you wake up and come back to us. Brooks needs you. We all do.”

I reached my hand over and touched his elbow. He looked over and seemed shocked to see me looking at him. “Still here.”

He stood up and ran out of the room without saying anything to me. I couldn’t move to see if anyone else was around, and it scared me.