Warren pulls away and looks up at me. His eyes are glassy, and I’m guessing from the amount of whiskey missing from the bottle, he drank beyond what he needed to.
“You look like you’re going to be sick again,” his voice is soft and wraps around me like a wool blanket. I just need to tell him, come out with it.
He’ll still love me and want me. We’ve been through too much for him not to, and plus, it’s just a possibility. It might not even be true yet. My eyes dart from Warren and then to the wall behind him as I contemplate what I should do next.
I have to tell him…
“Warren… I think I might be… pregnant.” The words fall from my lips slowly, and I watch with fear as my entire world falls apart.
“What did you just say?” He pulls away from me like I’m fire, his voice deep, his eyes dark. In a second flat, he’s become the cruel bastard he was before.
“It wasn’t on purpose. I didn’t mean for this to happen.” And I didn’t, though the way Warren is looking at me right now makes me think he does.
“Pregnant?” he scoffs, his features turning even darker if that’s possible. I start to shiver, the darkness in the room blocking out any light. All I can feel is his rage, his anger, it suffocates me, circles my throat like an imaginary hand and squeezes. Shoving off the couch, he towers over me, and I take a terrified step back. The man before me isn’t the one I’ve come to know.
“It’s funny, my father told me you would do this. Told me you would get pregnant and find a way to make certain I could never get rid of you.” He lets out a bitter huff, and I feel the tears pooling in my eyes.
“I would never do that, Warren, and if you believe that, then you don’t really know me.”
He nods his head, a sinister smile pulling at his lips, “I guess I never really did know you. I thought so much of you once before, and you showed your true colors then. Now here we are again, your hand wrapped around my heart, squeezing the life out of me all over again,” he reaches for the whiskey bottle, his fingers flex around the neck before he brings it to his lips.
The last thing he needs to be doing right now is drinking more.
“Warren, don’t be stupid. I didn’t do this to us. I wouldn’t have.”
His eyes turn to slits, and instantly I know I’ve made a mistake. In a flash, he’s throwing the bottle. It crashes somewhere behind me, but that’s the least of my worries. Before I can even turn to run, he has me in his grasp, his hand wrapped around my throat. He lifts me off my feet and pulls me into his chest.
Like a bug caught in a spider’s web, I struggle to break free, but there is no point.
“You wouldn’t have, huh?” he taunts, his face masked with burning rage. He squeezes my throat, not hard enough to hurt me but enough to grab my attention. Like a cat, I claw at his hands and chest, but my nails are nothing to him; my fight only bringing him more joy. With a snarl, he sends the next words like a knife into my heart. “Why don’t you get an abortion and get the fuck out of my life.”
A door opens somewhere in the house, but I can’t comprehend what is going on. All I can see and feel are his words. I go slack in his arms, and he releases me, watching as I slide down his body and onto the floor. Tears stain my cheeks, and I shiver, a coldness sweeping over me. I can feel his eyes on me, feel them burning into my skin.
“When I get back you better be fucking gone, because if you aren’t, I’ll make you regret ever being born.”
Something in my chest tightens, the pressure mounting, and I know without a doubt, it’s my heart breaking, crumbling into a thousand pieces.
“What the fuck is going on?” A voice pierces the fog around my head, and I look up from where I sit on the floor, a pile of nothingness.
“Don’t worry about her…. She’ll be gone by the time we get back.”
“Get back? What the hell happened?”
“Nothing,” Warren roars, and I flinch at the sound. “We’re leaving, and if you won’t take me, I’ll drive myself.”
“Where are you going, and what about her?” I realize then that it’s Cameron who is talking. My vision is blurry with tears, and though I try and shove up off the floor, I’m weak. So damn weak and broken.
“Strip club. I’m going to fuck her memory right out of me. Fuck every chick in sight and remind myself why she never mattered. Remind myself why I never should’ve given a fuck about her.” He spits the words at me, and I feel each one clinging to my skin as if he really had spit on me.