Chapter 4 - The Crawl
Time changed shape on the floor. The television came on in the living room. Dishes clinked. Ethan laughed at something Richard said. Victoria spoke about nursery curtains as if I were not a few rooms away trying to breathe through waves of pain.
To them, it was an ordinary evening.
To me, it was the moment I understood kindness was never coming.
At some point, I heard Ethan say, “You have to put women in their place early. Otherwise they stop listening.”
The words did not break me.
They woke something up.
My phone was on the hall table, too far to reach. My purse lay near the dining room entry. The front door was visible from the kitchen, but it might as well have been across a field. Every movement sent pain through my side. I moved anyway.
I dragged myself across the marble, inch by inch, careful not to twist. My cardigan slipped from one shoulder. My dress caught on broken glass, and I paused until I could free the fabric without cutting my hand. I kept one palm near my stomach and whispered, “We’re leaving. We’re leaving.”
The house was too large. Too polished. Too full of expensive surfaces that reflected a life I no longer recognized.
When I reached the hall table, I pulled my phone down by the charging cord. The screen had cracked at one corner but still worked. I saw the recording app running.
I had started it when Victoria said “household structure.”
I had not planned to need it.
I saved the file, slid the phone into my bag, and forced myself upright against the wall.
Then I walked toward the door.
Not gracefully.
May you like
Not bravely.
Just away.
