When I woke up the next morning, I was alone in bed, and the sun was shining through the bedroom curtains. As I rolled from my stomach to my back, I stretched my arms above my head and flexed my toes. I hated mornings, but if I got the chance to sleep in, I reveled in the slow stretch and burn of waking up. It was the best stretch of the day, almost nothing felt as good. I could hear quiet chatter coming from the living room, so I rolled myself to the edge of the bed and stood up to go see what Trix and Dragon were doing. Trix’s voice was definitely not projecting at its normal level, and I loved it that they were being quiet for me.
I walked into the living room, smoothing down my hair and nightgown as I went. It was already a pretty warm morning, so I didn’t grab a sweatshirt or robe to throw on. When I reached the living room, Trix and Dragon were sitting on the floor, building what looked like a tree house out of some pink and white Legos I’d never seen before.
“Hi, Mama!” Trix called to me, and she obviously didn’t think she had to control her voice anymore as it was ear-piercingly loud.
“Hey, baby. You have breakfast already?”
“Yeah, Papa got me some cereal,” she answered with a smile toward Dragon, like he’d accomplished some huge feat.
Dragon didn’t even look at me when he called out, “Got you a new phone yesterday while I was out. It’s on the table with your new number. Need to trash that old one.”
I spun toward the kitchen to see a shiny new smartphone box sitting on the kitchen table with the phone plugged into a charger. I couldn’t believe he’d gotten me a phone—a really nice phone at that. I needed coffee before I could process the new toys for both Trix and me, so I headed toward the pot on the counter.
I was halfway through my first cup and looking out the window when I felt Dragon’s hand fall heavy on my shoulder. Just as I set my cup down, he surprised me and spun me around to face him. His face was set in an angry mask as he took me in from head to toe.
“The fuck, Brenna?” he rasped at me.
I looked down at myself and then back up at him. “What?” I had no idea what in the world he could be so pissed about. My nightgown was pretty modest. I didn’t have coffee down the front of me. I knew there was no smudged makeup on my face from the night before.
“He buy you this?” he questioned me as he plucked at the spaghetti strap of my nightgown.
“He bought most of my clothes. What are you talking about?” I tried to pull away, but he grabbed my arms before I could get very far.
He didn’t say anything else to me as he dragged me into the living room and started talking to Trix.
“Little warrior, go on and play in your room for a little bit.”
“I wanna play with my Legos!” she whined back at him.
I didn’t know who this child was, but my Trix would have never whined about being sent out of a room.
“You can play with those in a bit. Leave ’em out here, and go in your room. I gotta help your mama in the bathroom.”
“Why do you have to help Mama in the bathroom? Mama doesn’t need help in the bathroom,” she prodded him with a dubious expression on her face.
“She needs help with her hair.”
“But why?” she asked again.
I could feel my head darting back and forth between them, like I was watching a tennis match played by aliens. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing or hearing.
“Trix,” he growled, “room. Now.”
She must have finally understood that he meant business because she scrambled up and, with one last look at her new toy, she ran into her room.
When Dragon started pulling me toward the bathroom, I tried to stall him. “She could’ve taken those Legos with her, you know.”
He didn’t break his stride even though I was dragging my feet along the hardwood floor. “Don’t want her to choke or some shit while I’m dealin’ with you.”
His comment made me laugh for a second, completely forgetting that I didn’t know why the hell he was dragging me into the bathroom.
“She’s four. She’s not going to stick them in her mouth and choke on them.”
His head whipped around toward me, and I could tell he was pissed I was laughing at him.
“Well, seeing as how I haven’t seen her for more than a week her whole goddamn life, how’s I supposed to know that?”
My jaw snapped shut as we stared at each other, and seconds later, he turned back around and dragged me into our tiny bathroom.
“I don’t know what your problem is!” I tried desperately to put a little distance between us as he shut the door, but there wasn’t any place to go.
“I fuck you, and you get up and shower and put on some shit that the douche bag fucking bought you?”
“I-I—” I stuttered as I tried to find a reply to his question.
“What the fuck did you do to your hair?” He wrapped his hands around the back of my neck and ran his fingers through the hair at my nape. “My fingers don’t even get fucking caught in it,” he grumbled to himself.
He shook his head once to clear it, and before I could pull away from him to figure out what the hell was going on, he reached down to the straps on my tank top and jerked against them hard. My breath caught as both straps snapped, and my gown slid down my body to the floor. Then, he crowded me against the tub and reached down to turn the water on. As soon as he got it to the temperature he wanted, he took a step back and opened the bathroom door a crack.