“She’s eighteen, she doesn’t need your permission. We were married this morning. Salem is my wife now. She’s not going anywhere with you, now, get off of our property before I call the cops.”
Her father glares at me and looks back towards his daughter.
“This is what you want? To stay here with this-this stranger?” He sputters.
“Campbell isn’t a stranger. He’s my husband.” Salem says with a proud lift to her chin.
“You stupid, naïve, brat. He’s going to use you and throw you away. Your mother would have-”
I cut him off as he tries to continue to berate my girl.
“Get. Off. Our. Property.”
I take a step towards him and he backs down quickly. Turning and heading back to his truck. He glares over his shoulder once more before climbing behind the wheel and peeling out of our driveway. I sigh as I watch him leave before I turn back to Salem.
Chapter Seven
Salem
I stand next to Campbell as we silently watch my father speed away. When I had first heard the knock on the front door, I had just assumed that Campbell or one of his men needed something. Then I opened the door to see my father standing there, breathing hard and looking furious. My heart had started beating so hard that I could hear it in my ears and I was so afraid that he was going to make me go home with him.
He had called me a stupid girl, a whore, and worse and tried to drag me out of the house. I don’t know what I would have done if Campbell hadn’t come around the corner and saved me. He really is my guardian angel.
My mind flashes back to what my father said about Campbell. He’s wrong. Campbell isn’t a stranger. I know him better than I know anyone and I know he feels the same way about me. I know it seems like we’re too young or we moved too fast but that’s not how it feels. I’ve loved Campbell since we were kids and I know he feels the same way. Just because we haven’t seen each other in the last year doesn’t mean that our feelings for each other have changed.
Campbell has been nothing but nice to me. He’s tried to take care of me and protect me since we met. He loves me and I love him. We’re married now and I know that we each took our vows seriously.
We watch my father leave in silence before Campbell turns and escorts me into the house. I’m silent while we make our way back inside and Campbell steers me over to the kitchen table. He leaves me there while he goes over to the stove and I watch as he makes some tea and sandwiches. I’m not really hungry but I don’t have the heart to tell him that. He carries everything over to the table and I take a drink of the tea before I pick at the sandwich.
This isn’t how I pictured spending my wedding night but my father’s arrival seems to have pushed us off track and destroyed any mood that was there.
“Are you ok, princess?” Campbell asks, snapping me out of my thoughts.
“Yeah, seeing him just threw me.”
“I’ll never let him take you back there. You’re mine now. I love you, Salem.”
“I love you, too. I know that you would never let anyone hurt me. I don’t even think that he would hurt me, I just don’t want to go back there and be trapped again.”
“You won’t. You won’t ever be trapped again.” He says as he picks up one of my hands.
I smile at him as I take another sip of my tea. We’re silent for a minute before Campbell speaks again.
“Will you tell me about the last year? Why doesn’t he want you to leave?”
I can feel my shoulders tense but I know I need to let him in. He’s my husband now after all and he loves me.
“I think that he was afraid of something happening to me too. It was just the two of us, after my mom died in labor and I think that he just lost it when she died. Or maybe he was always like this? I don’t know. It’s hard to picture him being any other way. He could be so cruel. Sometimes my dad used to get drunk and tell me that I killed her, I killed my mom.”
“Salem, you have to know that that’s not true.” Campbell says squeezing my hand tight.
“I do, I do.” I assure him. “He would homeschool me and that took up most of the day and then he would kind of just let me be by myself. It wasn’t all bad though. I love to read, you know, and he would let me go outside every day, it’s just… I was so alone. I missed seeing you every day. I missed you so much, Campbell.” I say and I can feel the tears starting to fall.
“I missed you too, Princess.”
He picks me out of my chair then and cradles me in his lap. I cry into his shirt as I remember how alone and sad, I was the last year. How alone I really was even before then.
“I can give you the friends, take you into town and introduce you to everyone I know.” He offers, already trying to find a solution, to make me happy.