My Hero Husband, My Monster

ore from

er despair. Tears streamed down my face, but I was laughing. Laughing at the monster

, my voice a ragged whisper.

t need to answer. I saw it on his face. H

the hate, the will to resist-it all

e numb and detached. "I'll

walked, stumbling like a drunk, toward the kitchen. I felt nothing. It

k to the living room. Celesta was now seated on a plush velvet armchair, looking every bit

anded, her voice drip

in in her face, to run, to fight. But the image of my father's g

my knees on the cold marble floor. The humiliation w

cured. I submerged them in the warm water. My tears fell silently into the

o gently scrub, C

oor. Water and porcelain shards scattered everywhere.

You can't even perform a simple task! The water is too h

ewarm. It was just anoth

ning to him with a pout. "Something to make her remember h

eyes fixed on me with a

n in discipline." He turned to the guards. "Take her outside. She will kneel in the cou

s the middle of autumn.

ed, the words catching in

ore upsetting Celesta again," he sai

e. I looked at him, at the man I had once loved with all my heart, and I saw noth

ted that hate. I saw him

refuse," he said, his voice low and menacing, "I

t in my eyes went out, leavin

The courtyard was paved with stone, already slick with evening dew. They forced me t

anvas. A fine, misty rain bega

began to chant, my vo

hy. I am her

I was forced to make while my spirit retreated t

old settled deep in my bones, a painful, numbing ache. My knees were raw and bleeding again

hy. I am her

zing rain, and the humiliating words. My body shivered uncontrollably. My teeth chatte

ck. I pitched forward, my face hitting t

he clanging of

d concrete floor in a small, dark space. The air smel

in a

of the mansion. A thin blanket had been thrown in with me. My body

always been kind to me, appeared at the bars.

"Miss Norman said... she said you had a fever and

d. Like a

s through the bars. "I'm so sorry," she whispered, tears

hivering body. I looked at the pills and the water. It would be so

ought of his dignity, his quiet stren

s. I swallowed them with the cold water, th

s, and let the darkness take me again, a silent, tea