Page 1 of A Trial of the Heart
Chapter
One
Shiloh:
“Whew! Shoot!” I shivered. The heat I’d left on earlier kissed my bare skin. It was the middle of fall, yet the weather was giving winter. My thirtieth birthday was approaching fast. I couldn’t wait to get far away from the insanely cold weather Virginia offered and enjoy the bottomless drinks. I had booked a fourteen-day cruise of the Caribbean with my long-term boyfriend, Daniel, almost two years ago. The time away together was much needed.
“Really?” I sighed, noticing Daniel’s basketball shorts sprawled at my feet while stepping from my heels. I was home early from the office, so it was positive had it not been for my early arrival the shorts wouldn’t be there.
Seeing his shirt a few inches away, the annoyance I had grew. Though I loved Daniel and so badly wanted us to work, deep down, I knew he wasn’t my future. We had dated off and on since college. For a while, our future had been set in stone until he got hurt playing college ball and lost his scholarship, forcing him to drop out of school. From then on, things were downhill. Daniel cheated more times than I could count, began heavily drinking, and even thought I was his punching bag a time or five. I knewI deserved better, but love had me doing some crazy shit. He’d been all I knew, and I couldn’t seem to want better, even though I knew I deserved it.
Preparing to call out for him, I hesitated, hearing the faint sound of clapping and low moans.I know you fucking lying,I mouthed, not wanting to say it out loud and risk being heard if something was happening. With light steps, I headed through the apartment. My heart pounded harder with each movement. I had been so focused on the noises I was oblivious to the trail of woman’s clothes that followed closely behind Daniel’s. Reaching the cracked door, I peeked in. What I already suspected came into view.
With a heavy exhale, I lifted my sweaty, shaking hands to push the door open. Before the image came into view, I already knew what was happening, but seeing it caused me to see red. Daniel had done it again. This time, inmybed. If I didn’t already know how little I meant to him, this trifling gesture alone wrote it in the sand.
“How could you?” my voice came off much lower than I intended. I knew I wouldn’t get an answer, but it didn’t stop me from asking.
Daniel jumped from the bed, his uncovered, barely average sized manhood bouncing with his movement. He backed into the corner.
“Baby, w?—”
His full sentence never came since I’d lifted the nearby lamp, launching it his way and missing his head only an inch. Forcefully, I charged his way, blacking out.
I didn’t know who or what I was hitting, but I was swinging and kicking like my life depended on it. Every broken promise, every time he cheated, every lie, every minute of my life that I wasted on him, came with each move. The love I thought I had for Daniel quickly turned into hate. I wanted to take him out.
Tossing one left jab that connected, I felt my body being expelled before roughly being tossed into the wall, hitting my head with force. I got knocked out cold.
Hearingthe faint voices around me, I slowly opened my eyes, squinting, having to adjust them to the bright fluorescent lights above my head. I sat up quickly. The sharp pain that shot through my head forced me to lie back down.
“Hey, beautiful. Take it easy,” my best friend LeeAnn said just above a whisper, standing beside me. Her petite hand stroked the top of my head.
LeeAnn and I had been friends since the sandbox days, so if no one had my back, I knew for sure she did. She was my sister from another mister.
“Where am I?” I made the mistake of trying to sit up too fast again. The second wave of pain was worse than the first. Though I asked LeeAnn where I was, I didn’t really need the answer since everything around me said hospital.
“The hospital.”
“Why?”
LeeAnn swallowed hard. “Because of Daniel.”
Confusion took over instantly, but it didn’t last long since I’d remember last seeing Daniel in my bed with another woman. The reason for being hospitalized was unbeknownst to me.
“He put me here again?” The memories of the previous times flooded my mind with ease.
She sucked her teeth “More like you put him here, and they’re just observing you because of the head injury.”
My brows dipped in the middle of my forehead from confusion. Not wanting any more pain to jolt through my body, I sat up slowly.
“What do you mean?”
“Let’s just say you turned that no good ass bum every way but loose, and he better be grateful the maintenance man showed up when he did.”
Should I have been proud of what I’d done? I couldn’t lie and say no, but the realization of why I’d done it stung my heart. I’d risked everything for a person who wouldn’t care when it was all said and done. The warm tears that gave no warning slid down my face slowly.
“Girl, why are you crying?” LeeAnn questioned, speaking again before I could respond. “I mean… shit… since the tears are there, I sure hope they’re happy ones.”
“Happy tears?” I questioned in disbelief.
