Page 34 of King: Darker Than Romance

“I understand. You just don’t think I love you anymore because of this mess with her and the baby.” His voice cracked when he said baby. “I married her because I thought I loved her, then you gave yourself to me and I knew she wasn’t the one meant for me, you were. I forgive you and still love you. I can prove it.”

Before I realized or even imagined what he was about to do he put his hand over his wife’s nose and mouth and pressed down, cutting off her air. She started to fight in earnest. She kicked out and flailed her arm, clawed at his hands.

I was frozen for a half a second. Then I reacted. I had shoved him off her before I even knew I was doing it. He jumped up. He got in my face. We started yelling at each other, neither one of us paying attention to what his wife was doing, which was a big mistake. Somehow, she got up. I watched over King’s shoulder as she stumbled in our direction. I thought she would attack him. She had every right to, but instead she pushed past him.

“Get away from him,” she screamed and lunged for me. He caught her mid-air, but she swung wildly. She was able to slash my face with her fingernails. “He’s my husband,” she kept screaming.

Stupid bitch. I had saved her life and she was still trying to attack me?

When King pulled her off me, I turned away. Unable to watch what would happen next, I left the room. I didn’t care what he did with her.

He came downstairs five minutes later. He sat on the sofa next to me.

I flinched away when he reached out to wipe my tears away. “She won’t try to hurt you ever again.” Roughly he grabbed my face and rasped, “Look at me.” He didn’t force my head around, but his grip on my jaw tightened until I faced him. “I’d never let anyone hurt you, Eden. You never have to worry about her again, ever”

I knew what he meant by ever. I shivered. Just thinking about it caused my heart to speed up. I tried to swallow but found it difficult around the lump that had lodged in my throat.

“Look at what she’s done to your pretty face,” he said. He leaned in to kiss the scratches on my skin. He paused and lingered when he got to my lips. “I have to go, Eden.” Just as he said that the doorbell rang. “Go to the guest bedroom and shower, but before you do that stuff your clothes into one of the trash bags in there. Leave them outside the door. Don’t come out of the guest room until I tell you.”

Everything he said to me went in one ear and out the other. He pecked me on the lips. “Go now, Eden.” He walked over to answer the door. He was talking to two of the guys from the hotel when I slipped out of the side door into the garage. I was barefoot wearing nothing but my cami and panties.

I quickly grabbed my spare keys from the junk drawer. I got in, cranked up, hit the garage opener and backed out. I was turning into the street when King came running out of the house. He ran to the end of the driveway then just stood there. I watched him through the rearview mirror. He looked downright evil, like he was ready to cause me pain. I trembled. I would explain to him I just needed a minute.

I was reeling from the violent grip of anxiety that had overtaken me. I knew I shouldn’t be driving, so I parked down the street at the park, climbed into the back seat of my car, then I cried myself to sleep.

When I woke up it was light out. I checked the clock and saw it was after nine in the morning. I panicked because I had an exam that morning. I tried my hardest not to think about what happened with King. I reasoned that if he hadn’t killed his wife she probably wouldn’t have stopped until she’d killed me. She seemed deranged, but she was married to King, so that was to be expected.

I crawled back into the driver’s seat and drove back home.

When I got there my momma had already packed my bag. She told me King had let her know I ran James away. “Why and how would I do that, Mother?” She slapped me. Instead of hitting her back like I wanted to, I grabbed my bag to leave. Fuck her, she wanted me gone. I would leave. I opened the door just as King was pulling into the driveway. A squad car pulled in right behind him.

He stared at me with so much malice it unnerved me.

Time seemed to slow down after that. King got out of the car. His white t-shirt and blue jeans had blood on them. He stood like he was waiting for something. The officers rushed him, slamming him to the ground. Momma rushed out past me yelling at the officer “What is going on? That’s my son.”

I later learned that King had went to Ellis’s house thinking I would be there, when Ellis told him I wasn’t King had assaulted him.

The whole time everything was going on I just stood frozen like someone had pressed pause on life, watching it all unfold. It was weird, because the look on King’s face as he was shoved into the back of the car was almost serene, like he was okay with being arrested.

I always wondered why. In the end I begged Ellis to not press charges. He didn’t, but King still went to jail. The cops had searched his car and found a gun. He was found guilty of possession of an unregistered firearm. In Florida that was a mandatory five years.

After that I had nowhere to go, so I moved in with Ellis. We moved to Georgia and I transferred to Spellman. I put the past behind me, somewhat. I tried to act normal. I finished my freshman and sophomore year of college before Ellis and I got serious. I thought marrying him would be the first step in the right direction.

He turned out to be worse than King, in my opinion. At least King had loved me. Ellis turned into a nightmare. He seemed to hate me but wouldn’t let me go. He forced me to drop out school. He didn’t want me to have friends. The sex that was already mediocre from the beginning turned terrible. Some night his dick wouldn’t even get hard. He would blame that on me. Then his parents started asking for a grandchild, so of course we had to give them one. We tried but couldn’t. For a year I thought I was the one with the problem.

King’s hand on my shoulder brought me back to reality. He held the gun out for me to take. “Do it.” He circled me. “Kill him. Prove to me that you never loved him, that it’s always only been me. You want to do it. You’ve dreamt of killing him. This is your chance. You say you love me, prove it. You started all of this. End it,” he taunted. “I showed you I’m willing to sacrifice it all for you, that I love you,” he said sounding less calculating.

“Why did you look so at peace that day?” I asked, ignoring the gun.

“What day?” he nodded.

“The day you were arrested.”

He paused; his brow creased as if he was contemplating it. A lascivious smile slowly spread across his lips.

“I knew that day even if I went to prison for ten years, I’d be in your head for every day of those ten years. You wrote me once a month for nearly four years even though I never responded. You say you didn’t come back here for me. But you didn’t leave when you found out I was here. You could have gone to a hotel. I’m in your head, Eden, your heart.” He reached out to tap me on my chest. “Your soul.”

I cut.my eyes at Ellis, uncomfortable at the fact that he was hearing one of my secrets. The letters I’d sent King I’d sent out of guilt at first, then it just became a habit.

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