The Dutiful Wife [COMPLETED]

6. (Part 1)

A month later...

Saturday | 12:48 p.m.
November 19, 2016

Antoinette "Ann" Mackey

"Girl, why are you just sitting your ass out in the car? I told you the front door was unlocked and when you got here to just come in. Charmaine is already inside." Karla folded her arms. "And what's with the shades? The sun ain't hardly out."

I hated when she grilled me the way she did, but I knew it came out of a place of love and concern. Karla could be loud and belligerent at times, but it was what I loved about her. She wasn't a woman who took anybody's shit, and she cared for Charmaine and me as if we were her blood. I could truly say that she was the motherly friend of the group. She was protective and if she noticed the slightest change in me and Charmaine's behavior, she offered a listening ear when we were ready to talk. She never judged or told us what she thought we should do. She just listened.

When Shiloh had followed me back to her house a month ago to help me get me and Shyanne's things, she didn't bother to ask me why I was going back. She simply told me that when I was ready to tell her what was going on that she was here. I hadn't told her why I needed to stay with her for a little while when I'd packed my things and left the house I shared with Shiloh. I just mentioned to her that I needed space from him, and she welcomed me with open arms. Now here I was too afraid to open my mouth about what I'd been enduring for the last month. Snatching my face had turned into yanking me by my hair. Yanking my hair had turned into shoving me to the ground. Shoving me had turned into slapping me. From there it had gotten much, much worse.

Karla had invited me over for a little girl's time. It was something I hadn't expected since I was going to see her and Charmaine tonight at the small party Shiloh was having. He wasn't too trusting of people, so I didn't expect to see any unfamiliar faces. If we were being honest, I didn't want to see anybody at all. Here I was battered and bruised, and he wanted to have a party that could possibly draw attention to it. Thinking back to last night, I tuned Charmaine out as she continued asking question after question.

"Did you cook tonight?" I heard the sound of his voice behind me as I lay with my back towards our bedroom door. He was asking me this as if I didn't make a meal for him every night. It was something I did even before finding out he wasn't the man I thought I'd married. To avoid setting him off, I made sure I continued doing it. I found myself wanting to poison his food for many reasons, but he wasn't as dumb as I wanted him to be. Since he'd made me come home, for the last month when I'd make him anything to eat he'd make me taste it first to make sure I hadn't put anything in his food. What I couldn't understand was that if he couldn't even trust me not to poison him, then why the hell was he forcing this marriage on me?

"Helloooo..." He said. "You can't hear or something?"

"I left you something in the oven," I told him.