With a heavy sigh, I pivoted on my bare feet, walked over to the sink and dropped the knife into basin, then I made my way to the pantry to pull out garbage bags, gloves, tape, bleach, the mop, scrub brush, and bucket. First things first: Get rid of the dead husband then clean up the blood.
After gathering everything I would need to put my house back in order, I made my way over to Ellis, leaned down. I reached for his still body. My heart thumped a mile a minute in my chest. I hesitated to touch it, but I had to. I immediately regretted it. As soon as my fingertips contacted his filthy skin, the memories of abuse flooded me.
Broken nails.
Bashed in eyes.
A battered face.
Bloody tears.
Bruises on almost every inch of my torso.
The sound of the loud crack as his hand connected with my face caused me to jump. The insults being yelled sounded so real and present I flinched away from each one. “You’re so fat. You’re so ugly. Black bitch.” “Fat bitch.” “Bitch.” “Pathetic bitch.” Kick, scream, punch, repeat. “I don’t know why I married you, Eden. Will you ever fucking learn to please me? I bet you fucked King like he wanted.” My breathing became rapid and shallow. “Fucking tainted womb, can’t even give me a baby.”
King, King, King. Never Ashford. Ellis behavior made it clear that he felt inferior to King and tortured me by mentioning his name every chance it got.
I was overtaken by the primal need to flee. Snatching my hand away too quickly, the momentum caused me to fall back onto my butt. I scooted away from his as fast as I could until my back collided with the kitchen wall, and I couldn’t go any further. I cupped my mouth and screamed my agony into my hand. Blackness crept up my spine, adrenaline pierced my heart causing it to beat so fast I couldn’t catch my breath. I was drowning. My head swam, then just like that, everything went black.
When I woke up my husband’s body had disappeared, and I did what anyone in that situation would do, I ran.
Eden: The King Is Back
Present
I jolted awake. Someone was in the room with me. I could feel them. The air crackled with negative energy. My heavy lids fluttered open. Darkness hid them, but I knew they were there. Just as I was going to sit up, their weight pressed down on top of me, trapping me against the bed. A large cold hand covered my mouth, silencing me. I immediately began to panic. My heart banged against my ribcage. I swung my free arm up, but whoever was on top of me caught it and pinned it to my side.
“Don’t scream. Don’t fight me.”
I stopped fucking breathing. My entire body shuddered then went completely still. The fact that I recognized the voice of the person who held me captive did nothing to slow my hammering heart; as a matter of fact, it sped up and did a complete 180 in my chest. I suddenly wished I was back at home, hundreds of miles away. Which spoke volumes because I’d run from “home” just days before. But there was also a conflicting emotion. I felt safe, safer than I had felt for the first time in a long time.
“Ashford.” His name slipped from between my lips, barely above a whisper. It was him. He smelled different though, like sweet cigars instead of Newport cigarettes. His usually musky cologne had been replaced with something cool and crisp and underneath that was the smell of him. It was a heady mixture that caused my head to swim and my skin to grow damp. I knew he would come for me; I just didn’t think it would be so soon. Momma had just left a few hours earlier to pick him up. King was supposed to do five years in prison, but then Covid 19 happened and they released him a year early.
It was too dark to see anything more than his eyes; they bore into me. Anger swirled in them. There had always been something dark lurking behind King’s eyes, but it was darker now. Chills ran up my arms. I had only feared King once before. He hadn’t hurt me then, but after all that had happened between us, I was genuinely scared he would hurt me now.
I closed my eyes to block out his anger and the emotions I was feeling.
“Look at me, Eden.” The deadly calm tone he used forced my eyes open. They connected with his.
“When I move my hand, Eden, I need for you not to scream. Nod if you understand.” I could smell fireball on his breath, and his words were slurred. Inwardly I groaned. King was volatile when sober; he was menacing, drunk.
My insides tingled despite my fear.
I nodded my head, though as soon as he removed his hand, I planned to scream loud enough to wake the dead and he knew it. He knew me too well.
He gave an exaggerated sigh then gripped my jaw, digging his fingers into my face, stilling my head. He chuckled, but his tone was flat when he said, “Your mother’s downstairs with all our relatives. You scream they come running and everybody finds your big brother with his dick buried balls deep inside of you. Is that what you want?” He kneed my legs apart.
Suddenly, I could hear voices and music playing downstairs. Momma had gathered everybody to welcome her King home, as if he were a real King and we weren’t in the middle of a pandemic.
I shouldn’t have cared if they found out. He wasn’t my real brother. We didn’t share blood, we didn’t even share race, but still I frantically shook my head, “no.” I already had enough to deal with, adding the stigma of fucking my stepbrother to the list wasn’t something I wanted to do.
“Now that we’ve come to an understanding...”
He ghosted his lips almost lovingly against my jaw, cheek, then my mouth. My body betrayed me. I went limp. On their own volition my legs spread wider to accommodate him. He settled comfortably in between them as if it were his rightful place.
Since I slept naked, the only thing separating us was the thin sheet I’d pulled over myself. I tried to ignore the feeling of his rock-hard cock pressing into my center but couldn’t. It took everything in me not to grind into him. Sweat broke out on my forehead.
“Now we can talk.” His voice was low and dangerous.
As soon as he went to remove his hand, I opened my mouth to scream. I regretted it immediately. He wrapped his hand around my throat, restricting my ability to swallow, to breath. No sound escaped. I panicked and started to struggle in earnest but couldn’t do much with one of my hands tucked under me and the other in his vice grip.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk, still fucking stubborn.”
His grip around my neck got tighter, and I knew it wouldn’t loosen until he got what he wanted.
“I’m sorry,” I managed to croak out.
He took his time letting go. When his hand fell away, I sucked in a deep breath.
“You’re not sorry now, but you will be, you treacherous fucking bitch!” He spat his words so venomously, I felt them physically.
“You’re going to pay for what you’ve done to me, and you’re going to take your punishment like a good girl, aren’t you?” I heard the restrained anger in his voice and knew he would spend however long we had together trying to break me. I wished I were back with Ellis. We fought, and I gave as good as I got. But with King, it was different. He was too strong, too vindictive.
If I hit King, he didn’t punch me back. He was calculated. He would take things from me that I cared about. The one time I’d hurt him emotionally, he’d taken the little bit I had of my mother from me.