PART 3
Derek looked toward Linda.
She immediately looked away.
Dad continued.
“Say exactly what you did.”
Derek’s jaw tightened.
“Richard, I don’t think this is necessary.”
“I didn’t ask what you think.”
The kitchen became silent again.
Derek glanced toward the back door.
Toward me.
For the first time that morning, there was fear in his eyes.
Not regret.
Not shame.
Fear.
And somehow that hurt almost as much as the bruises.
Because it meant he understood exactly what he had done.
He had simply never believed there would be consequences.
Dad took another step forward.
“What happened last night?”
Derek’s face hardened.
“It was a marital argument.”
Dad nodded slowly.
“And during this marital argument, you hit my daughter.”
“She was provoking me.”
The words came out quickly.
So quickly that even Derek seemed to realize what he had admitted.
Dad’s expression did not change.
“Provoking you.”
“She kept pushing me.”
“So you hit her?”
“She wouldn’t listen.”
“So you hit her?”
Derek said nothing.
Dad looked at him for several seconds.
Then he asked something I had never expected anyone to ask.
“Where is the rest of her medication?”
Derek froze.
My stomach dropped.
I knew exactly what he meant.
Two weeks earlier, I had started taking prescription medication for anxiety and migraines. Derek had insisted on keeping it in the kitchen cabinet because, according to him, I was “too forgetful.”
I had never questioned it.
I had simply assumed he was trying to help.
But suddenly I remembered something.
Three nights earlier, I had asked where my medication was.
Derek had said he threw it away because I was becoming “dependent.”
At the time, I had apologized.
I had actually apologized.
Standing on the porch, I closed my eyes.
How had I become this person?
How had I learned to apologize for things other people did to me?
Dad’s voice came through the open window.
“You’ve been controlling her medication?”
Derek scoffed.
“Oh, come on.”
“Answer me.”
“She wasn’t taking them properly.”
“That wasn’t your decision.”
“She is my wife.”
Dad’s eyes sharpened.
“She is my daughter.”
The words landed with such force that Linda finally stood.
“Richard,” she whispered, “please.”
Dad turned toward her.
“Please what?”
Linda’s face was pale.
“You’re upsetting everyone.”
Dad stared at her.
“My daughter has bruises across her face.”
“I know.”
“And you’re worried that I’m upsetting everyone?”
Linda’s eyes filled with tears.
“I didn’t mean—”
“Yes, you did.”
He turned back toward Derek.
“Three years.”
Derek frowned.
“What?”
“Three years you’ve been married to my daughter.”
Dad’s voice became quieter.
“Three years I’ve watched her become smaller.”
My breath caught.
Derek looked confused.
Dad continued.
“She used to call me every Sunday morning. Then it became every other Sunday. Then once a month. Then only when I called her.”
He looked toward the porch window.
“I asked her why.”
I lowered my eyes.
“I was busy,” I whispered.
Dad heard me.
“No, sweetheart.”
His voice softened.
“You were afraid.”
I started crying.
I hadn’t realized how badly I needed someone to say those words.
Not that I was weak.
Not that I had made bad choices.
Not that I had been foolish.
Just—
You were afraid.
Derek suddenly raised his voice.
“This is ridiculous! You’re making me out to be some kind of monster because of one slap!”
Dad turned slowly.
“One slap?”
Derek’s face changed.
Dad pointed toward my bruised cheek.
“That is not one slap.”
Silence.
Then Dad walked toward the counter.
He picked up the bakery box.
For a moment I thought he was leaving.
Instead, he opened it.
The strawberry shortcake sat inside, perfectly decorated with white cream and bright red strawberries.
Dad looked at it.
Then he looked at me through the glass.
“Do you remember when you were eight?” he asked.
I wiped my tears.
“What?”
“You wanted a strawberry cake for your birthday. Your mother and I couldn’t afford one.”
A painful smile touched his face.
“So I bought strawberries from the grocery store and made one myself.”
I laughed through my tears.
“It was terrible.”
Dad smiled.
“You ate three pieces.”
“It was because I loved you.”
“I know.”
His smile disappeared.
“And I should have known sooner that you were doing the same thing with your marriage.”
I didn’t understand.
Dad closed the box.
“You kept eating the bad parts because you loved the person who made them.”
My heart broke.
Derek rolled his eyes.
“This emotional nonsense isn’t going to solve anything.”
Dad looked at him.
“No.”
He placed the cake on the table.
“But the police might.”
Derek went completely still.
My heart stopped.
Linda immediately stepped forward.
“Police?”
Dad reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone.
“I called them before I came inside.”
Derek’s face drained of color.
“You did what?”
“I called them.”
“You had no right.”
Dad’s eyes hardened.
“I have every right to protect my daughter.”
Derek moved toward him.
I instinctively stepped away from the door.
Dad raised one hand.
“Don’t.”
Derek stopped.
Dad didn’t touch him.
He didn’t need to.
“Take one more step toward me,” Dad said, “and you’ll give them another reason to come faster.”
Derek stared at him.
Then he laughed.
A nervous, ugly laugh.
“You think I’m going to get arrested because my wife has a bruise?”
Dad didn’t answer.
Derek looked at me.
“You told him.”
It wasn’t a question.
I shook my head.
“I didn’t.”
“Then who did?”
Dad answered.
“Her face.”
Derek stared at me.
And something inside me finally broke.
Not in fear.
In clarity.
I suddenly saw our marriage from the outside.
The excuses.
The apologies.
The locked bathroom door.
The deleted messages.
The money he controlled.
The friends I stopped seeing because he didn’t like them.
The clothes he told me were embarrassing.
The way he checked my phone.
The way he always needed to know where I was.
The way he convinced me that every problem was somehow my fault.
And the most frightening realization was this:
Last night’s slap wasn’t the beginning.
It was simply the first time I had stopped pretending it wasn’t happening.
A police siren sounded faintly in the distance.
Derek turned toward the front window.
Linda grabbed his arm.
“Derek.”
He pulled away.
“You said you could handle this!”
Linda stared at him.
“I didn’t know you’d hit her!”
Derek’s face twisted.
“You knew.”
Linda’s eyes widened.
“You knew about the other times.”
I felt the blood drain from my face.
Other times?
Dad looked at her.
“What other times?”
Linda covered her mouth.
Derek stared at his mother as though he wanted to erase the words from the air.
“Mom.”
But it was too late.
Dad’s expression became terrifyingly calm again.
“How many times?”
Linda began crying.
“I don’t know.”
“How many?”
“I don’t know!”
Dad’s voice cracked through the room.
“HOW MANY?”
Linda flinched.
“Four.”
I stopped breathing.
Dad looked at me.
“Four?”
I couldn’t speak.
Derek stepped forward.
“Don’t listen to her. She’s exaggerating.”
Linda shook her head.
“No.”
Derek looked at his mother.
She was crying now.
“I saw the bruises.”
“You never said anything.”
“I was afraid.”
Derek laughed bitterly.
“You were afraid of me?”
Linda nodded.
And that was when something strange happened.
Derek looked around the kitchen as though he had suddenly realized he was alone.
His mother wouldn’t defend him.
My father wouldn’t be intimidated.
And I wasn’t crying for him anymore.
The police siren became louder.
Derek’s eyes landed on me.
“Emily.”
I said nothing.
“Emily, tell them it was an accident.”
I stared at him.
“It wasn’t.”
His face hardened.
“Think carefully.”
Dad stepped toward the door.
“You should think carefully about your next words.”
Derek ignored him.
“Emily, you know what happens if you ruin my life.”
