Love's Suicide: Love's Suicide (38 page)

“What’s wrong, Katy?”

“Nothing. Can you watch breakfast for a second? I’m just going to go ask Brooks if he listened to my messages. I’ll be right back.”

I hated waking him, but a message from Melissa talking about them coming to see us would tell Bobby where we were. He’d know I wasn’t home and I was petrified that he’d do something to my beautiful new house, knowing that nobody would be there to call the cops.

Brooks was in my old room with B. She was trying to put on her bathing suit. “Hey, you going swimming already?”

Brooks laughed. “She woke me up asking to jump in the pool.
You know me, I give her anything she wants.”

“I need to talk to you about something. I’m kind of freaking out, right now.”

He touched my arm. “What is it?”

I explained the situation, that didn’t see
m to bother him in the least. Still, I felt like he needed to know for when we went home. Bobby wasn’t just going to be pissed off when he got those protective order papers. He was going to lash out and since my phone was out of commission, he was going to find whatever means possible to cause me physical and emotional duress.

“What are we going to do if we go home
and he’s trashed the inside of the house? I won’t be able to prove it’s him. His fingerprints are all over the place.” I started to cry and Brooks put both arms around my back, holding me and offering comfort.

“Kat, he can’t hurt us. He’s there and we’re here. When we leave tomorrow night, we’ll worry about it. If he’s done something, we can figure out what to do when we’re there. Please don’t let him ruin
our last day together. Mom and Dad want to see us smiling today, like we don’t have a care in the world. Focus on Branch and Melissa. Talk about their wedding like you’re excited for them. Do whatever it takes to keep your mind off of that asshole, okay?”

“Asshole.” B giggled, like she knew it was a bad word.

“Daddy’s sorry. Don’t say that. It’s bad!”

“Asshole.”

I covered my face with my hands. “Oh my God. What else?”

“Asshole.”
She giggled.

Brooks looked to me for guidance on the situation. Seeing him smiling was making it hard to be serious. “Don’t laugh at her. If we make a big deal about it, she’ll keep saying it. Let’s just go downstairs and ignore her.”

He picked her up. “Let’s go eat breakfast. Are you hungry, bug?”

“Asshole, D
addy.”

Brooks pushed me along, trying his best to ignore our potty mouth daughter. “For what it’s worth, she learned it from you.”

He then laughed as we walked down the stairs. “Yeah. Live and learn.”

Thank God, by the time we made it to the kitchen, she’d lost interest. Melissa snapped a look of worry at me and I smiled at her, as if everything was right with the world. I couldn’t let anyone see that inside I was scared out of my mind.

Our trip to be
with the family again was a great reprieve, but as we neared the end I knew it was just a pause on what was to come. Assuming everything would be unicorns and sunshine wouldn’t have been realistic. I had a very angry husband out there that knew wherever I was, I was with Brooks. It didn’t matter to Bobby if I was in love, he was the father of my child, or even that I was happy. All that mattered to Bobby was that I wasn’t with him.

I’d seen and read so many stories regarding abused women. In my
opinion, things hadn’t gotten so bad that I feared for my life. I’d been slapped around and threatened, but never beaten to the fear of losing my life, like other women. Still, knowing that he was willing to hurt me was enough to scare me for what might come.

Given the right circumstance, and if he’d been drinking, seeing me with Brooks could put Bobby over the edge. There was a chance that when I got home he was going to stalk and wait for Brooks to leave so he could hurt me and hurt him. I feared that in Bobby’s eye
s, if he couldn’t have me, neither could Brooks.

I kept a smile on my face while in the kitchen with my family and pretended to be overjoyed with being home. I was overjoyed, but at the same time, I was scared; scared of them not knowing the truth and how dangerous it could be, and scared of what would happen if they ever did find out.

Needless to say, I had a lump in my throat for the whole time we ate breakfast and even as we cleaned it up. It was a blessing that Brooks was too infatuated by B to notice that I was falling apart inside. He was usually the first person to be able to read what went on in my head.

After breakfast was cleaned up, I retreated to our room to change into my bathing suit. Since I knew everyone in the
house was downstairs, I took a few minutes to calm down before I was face to face with Brooks. After giving myself a pep-talk in my head, I walked downstairs determined to make our last day full of happy memories. After all, we were all reunited, even if there was still things to be worked out, we were on the right track.

Climbing in the pool and being greeted by my beautiful dau
ghter and her equally handsome father was like instant comfort. My fake smile was replaced with real ones and I felt like life couldn’t get any better. I’d never felt so in love and happy to be where I was at.

Brooks pulled me into his arms with our daughter and floated us around together. B kept laughing when we kissed and telling us to do it
again. She didn’t say the curse word again either, which was always a great thing.

Melissa and Branch were poolside, discussing some wedding plans with Walt about the hall they wanted to hold the reception in. One thing I noticed was that they were holding hands and neither of them were paying any attention to me, Brooks or even B.

They’d moved on together and I was at peace with that, as long as they were happy. I didn’t even care if they were secretly in love with each other when I’d been engaged to Branch. All I cared about was moving forward. Finally, my life had meaning and I’d do whatever I had to do to protect it.

We swam for a long time, only getting out when
our skin looked like prunes. B sat in her red bikini, with her daddy’s sunglasses on, sipping a large glass of iced tea. She looked like a little grown-up, while being the cutest thing I’d ever seen. It didn’t help that Brooks told her she was beautiful every two seconds.

After burgers and my most favorite broccoli salad with bacon, we all got back in the pool. Branch and Melissa joined us, especially giving their attention to B.
She laughed and giggled, somehow realizing the difference between her daddy and her uncle.

When we were childr
en, the other kids would ask me how I could tell them apart. I could never explain it, but somehow knew it. B didn’t have to search her heart to know it though. Aside from the dog tags, Brooks’ skin was tanned, from being outside, while Branch was paler from working in an office. Besides, even though Branch clearly had fallen in love with his niece, his eyes didn’t sparkle when she walked into the room, like her daddy’s did.

Danica got up from her lounge and asked everyone if we wanted more tea. She hurried into the
house to get another pitcher, while we all kept playing around and enjoying the perfect day.

She came back outside a few minutes later without the pitcher. I didn’t notice her face until she addressed me. “Katy,
can you come inside for a second?”

I walked inside after putting a towel around my wet body. “What is it?”

“There’s someone in the other room that’s asking for you. He said he has something for you. I had my hands full when I answered the door, so I didn’t ask his name.”

“Is it a delivery? Maybe Brooks ordered me something.” I heard her going back outside as I made my way into the family room.

I didn’t understand who could be visiting, but figured I needed to see. I hadn’t told anyone I was home, nor did I have many friends other than Brooks and Branch growing up.

For a moment I thought Danica was playing a joke on me, like she used to do to cheer me up. She’d been so happy having us back that I wouldn’t have put it past her.

I didn’t make it out of the kitchen before he started walking in the room toward me.

Staring at me, in the only home I’d ever felt safe in, was Bobby. I could tell from one glance that he
hadn’t showered in days. His hair was a mess and his facial hair was looking more like a beard. I immediately began to tremble, looking behind me to make sure that nobody was coming. “Bobby, what are you doing here? How did you find me?”

He laughed and right away I could tell he’d been drinking. I didn’t know how much or for how long, but it was obvious in the way he held himself up. “Does it matter? I’m here and I ain’t leavin’ until you’re with me.”

I shook my head and crossed my arms over my chest. “No. I’m not going anywhere. I’m here with my family.”

“Yeah, I seen you and
lover boy through the window. Do you really think I’m just goin’ to let you be happy after you ruined my life?” He leaned up against the counter and I walked to the other side to put distance between us. Every few seconds I looked out the door hoping Brooks was coming after me.

My eyes focused on Bobby. “
Leave!”

“You’re comin’ with me, Katy. I drove all damn night to get here. Get your shit and come on.”

I started crying. “Bobby, please don’t do this. They are my family. You know they’re all I had growing up. Please, I’m begging you to go. They don’t know about you. They can’t. I promise, I’ll sit down and talk to you when we get home tomorrow night. Please, don’t do this here.”

He began laughing loudly. “You didn’t tell them about me?” More laughs
were followed by the most horrifying eyes. “I’m your fuckin’ husband, you two-timing bitch. If you’re here, I have every right to be.” He started coming toward me and I ran around the island to get away from him. He laughed at me again, picked up an apple out a bowl and threw it at me. I ducked and it smashed against a cabinet above my head. “You’ve got two seconds to get your ass in my truck, or I’m goin’ out there and fillin’ in your little family about us.”

I was sobbing, trying desperately to get up the courage to scream for help. I took a glance outside and saw my daughter being thrown up in the air and coming back down in her daddy’s arms. I knew she was safe and if something bad happened to me, she’d be loved and taken care of.

Then I turned back to Bobby, knowing I had to get him out of the house. “I’ll go get my things.”

He grabbed my arm as I walked by and I cringed at the idea of him hurting me in front of them. I kept my eyes closed as the tears poured out of
them. “You really think I’d let you go get your things without me? Darlin’ you’re not goin’ anywhere, unless I’m with you.”

I jerk my arm away from him. “Fine, come on. I don’t want them seeing me, so let’s hurry.”

I ran up the stairs and heard him following me. When we walked into Brooks’ room, I realized what Bobby must have been thinking. I started putting my things in my bag, refusing to look at him.

I h
eard the mattress moving and knew he was sitting down on the bed. Out of the corner of my eye I watched him feeling the sheets with the palm of his hand. “So this is where you’ve been fuckin’ him?”

I turned to say something, anything to get him to shut up, and saw the knife being opened up. He traced the blade with his fingers.

At that very moment I feared for what was coming. I honestly thought he was going to stab me to death while my whole family was outside having fun. Flashes of Brooks finding me bleeding out ran through my head.

“Please don’t hurt me, Bobby. Please don’t take me away from B.”

“Like you took her from me?” he snapped.

“Please, it’s not the same.”
I felt terrible that he was hurting, but also knew that this could have been avoided. He’d been the one that made me leave. I was willing to try to be friends with him. I would have done the right thing.

“You took everything from me.” He stabbed the bed, going through the sheets and mattress. My body jumped when it made contact and he continuing cutting long marks in it. When he pulled the knife away, a half-assed K was carved into the bed. I covered my face with my hands and
trembled as he pointed it right at my face. “Get your shit and let’s go.” He’d obviously seen Brooks’ tattoo. I wondered how long he’d been watching us in the backyard before he’d decided to knock on the door.

I stood up with my bag and started walking, as he followed behind me. I didn’t know if the knife was close, and I wasn’t going to look back to see. All I knew was that I had to get out of the house and get Bobby as far away from Brooks and B as I could.

No matter what this crazy man did to me, I wanted them safe. If it was my last dying wish, I knew I’d get it, because Brooks would kill Bobby before he let him anywhere near our beautiful daughter.

Chapter 50

I wanted to make a scene on the front lawn, so that Brooks or anyone would come to my rescue. He was going to be so mad when he realized what was happening. More than I was afraid of Bobby, I was scared of what Brooks was going to do to him. He’d spent his entire life protecting and loving me. I could hardly imagine him taking Bobby’s new destructed plan to hurt me, lightly. Brooks was going to hurt Bobby and I feared that it would cost him his position in the military.