Page 174 of Beautiful Scars

Chapter 15

SARAH

The bedroom door thuds. Thuds. Thuds.

It’s locked but I have no idea how much longer the little bolt will last.

The wall against my back trembles as I scan through Netflix categories, trying to find something suitable.

“Barbie Fairytopia?” At least, I think that’s what it’s called—it’s hard to read when your head is full of fog.

The little thing on the bed shakes her head and screws her face up. “No way.”

“Sponge Bob?”

“Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I love SpongeBob.” Maddie wiggles up and down on the bed a few times like she has ants in her pants.

“So you stay here, okay?” I tell her as I press play on season one. “Even...even if you need me, don’t come down. No matter what. I’ll come back up soon and check on you.”

She nods her head but her eyes are glued to the television set. She looks so much like Meisie, it’s unreal. At first, she wanted to know why the ‘man’ wanted to come inside the room so badly, and why I didn’t just let him in. I told her he was impatient, and he had to learn manners. That, apparently, was all Maddie needed to know about the situation.

The door thuds again, and my hand shakes as I put the controller down on the dresser.

He’ll break down the door. In fact, I’m convinced the only reason he hasn’t done that already is because he’s playing a game with me.

We just need to keep playing long enough for Kill to get here with Cole’s medicine.

I flick the bolt along and slip outside, pressing the door closed to my back. There’s nothing I could do to stop him if he wanted to barge past me, but my firm grip around the cold metal handle feels like a safety net. A layer of protection, even if it’s a useless one.

Cole looks me up and down, malice in his eyes. “What the fuck were you doing?”

I paste a smile on my face while I steel myself enough to reply. “I was just putting a film on for her.”

He grunts as he turns away from me, heading down the landing toward the stairs. “Why bother? It’ll be dark soon.”

I glance out of the small window at the top of the stairs. It’s probably...ten? Maybe later. A chill runs down my spine when I realize if this had been three weeks earlier, the sun would have set. It would already be dark. Maddie would already be—

“Sarah!”

My hand goes to my mouth and I suck in a few deep, hot breaths. Should I lock Maddie in? I’d feel better, knowing she was safe, but what if something...what if something happens to me? Then she’d be trapped inside.

No. I just need to hold him off for a few minutes. Kill will be here soon. I just hope Maddie stays put.

The stairs creak as I follow him down to the living room.

The cocaine seems to have multiplied in the ten minutes I’ve been upstairs. He’s sitting on the sofa, arched over the coffee table, using his bank card to arrange countless thick lines along the polished wood.

He seems occupied, so I say nothing as I sit opposite. I just watch him quietly.

When he leans back and looks at me, my heart jumps into my throat. He uses his foot to push the table across the laminate flooring, only stopping when the edge presses against my shins.

Lifting a finger, he says, “They’re for you.”

I take a long, deep breath.

He’s done this before. Not at the start—it’s never at the start, though, is it? The start is just fun. Just sex. Just a man who’s horrible to everyone, except you. It’s power and dominance and danger, the kind that makes you weak at the knees. And then the turn is so subtle it sneaks up...and by the time you realize, you’ve already forgotten who you used to be. Forgotten how to live without him.

No...the time he did this before, he swore blind it was an accident. That he didn’t mean for me to take so much. I wanted to believe him, until right now, with the evidence staring me in the face.