Chapter 04

Sarah’s POV

“What did you say?” I asked staring at the man sitting across from me. Too many things had happened today and I was still trying to make sense of them. This, whatever this was, I couldn’t take it and I had taken so much already. I glared at a drunk Richard, hugging another woman’s waist in our living room, and crossed my hands over my chest.  

“We are going to bed and you are going to get out of the way.” He made a move to push me out of the way and staggered, falling sideways. I stretched my hand out to help him but he pushed my hand away. “Don’t touch me,” he glared at me and I took a step back feeling like I had been slapped.

I stepped to the side and watched as he led the woman whom he had brought home, whose name I still didn’t know up the stairs. I blinked back tears and stood there for a few minutes trying to get rid of the huge lump in my throat. Never in my life had I felt so hurt and insulted. I had never loved anyone else in my entire life and Joshua Jones in the fifth grade didn’t count. Richard was my first love and ever since I set my eyes on him on my first day as a new student at Crosland Middle School, I couldn’t look at anyone else the same way. 

Was it so hard to love me back? Every day he seemed to find new ways to make fun of my love for him and drag my feelings tor him through the mud. I deserved better than such a life of constant humiliation from the one person that should treat me with absolute respect. 

The sound of their laughter pulled me out of my thoughts and I decided to follow them. Perhaps if I talked him out of it, he’d ask the woman to leave. I paused at the door of the room and gaped at the picture the two of them made, sprawled in our bed, moaning as their mouths moved together. Tears rolled them eyes and I didn’t stop them because this time I don’t think I would have been able to even if I tried. I stood for a few more minutes and bolted when one by one their clothes began to hit the floor. I don’t know why I didn’t leave that environment entirely or why I felt it was good idea to hang around but I just couldn’t move. I sat on the floor instead and rested my back against the wall. The sounds of their moans reached me and I whimpered feeling like knives were being driven through my heart. 

Even if he didn’t feel the same way I felt, he had no right to play with my emotions like this. Was she the reason he didn’t see me the way a husband saw his wife? Was she the reason he never came home and instead worked till dawn? Who was she and why was she so different from me? 

I don’t remember how it happened or when but I must have fallen asleep because I was suddenly rudely awoken when I felt chilly. Why was it so chilly? I blinked and forced my eyes to make sense of my environment. 

“Oh good, you’re awake. How can you be sleeping in so late? Don’t you get paid to do a job?” 

I frowned and managed to get up, my body aching from spending the night on the cold hard tiles. “Who are you?” I asked rubbing my eyes. 

“Who am I?” she repeated as if one of us had a hearing problem and chuckled as if she had cracked a joke. “That’s none of your concern. You should just focus on getting your job done. Now, go fix me some soup, I have a nasty hangover. Don’t forget Richard too.” She called and then before I had a chance to react, skipped off into the room and slammed the door behind her. 

 “Am I still dreaming?” I asked myself, trying to make sense of what just happened. 

*** 

Turns out everything had been real and she hadn’t been kidding about me making her and Richard soup to cure their hangovers. She had suddenly barged into my room a few minutes ago, approximately an hour after she had ordered me to make her soup as if I was a maid she had hired on a payroll. 

“You must really not understand the specifications of your job in this house,” 

I ignored her and chose to scroll through my mails instead. After the marriage, I had been made to leave my job and be a stay-home wife because that was the kind of wife Richard needed. Of course, at the time, I had no choice but to go along with it. Now, here I was two years later suffering the consequences of foolishness and stupidity. “Why are you in my room?” 

She closed the distance between us and pointed her – in my opinion, way too long – press on nails in my face. “Do not try to be disrespectful to me, the consequences will be too much for you to handle.” 

“It’s funny but if I remember clearly, this is my house. You should watch it,” I told her and she took a step back obviously shocked I had talked back to her. 

“Susan, where are you?” We both turned at the sound of Richard’s voice and my heart rate picked at the sight of his bare chest. I had never seen him like this, not even in high school. 

I looked away before he caught me staring and crossed my hands over my chest. “Take your whore and get out of my room, Richard.” 

Susan turned at the insult, her eyes burning with anger. “How dare you?” she shrieked and stretched out her hand to hit me but I caught it just in time. “How dare you?!” 

“You should leave my room before I do something I might regret. “ I gritted my teeth, shooting daggers at the two of them with my eyes.