I had my back turned to the sink, singing the words of praise whilst wiping the plates, when I heard the front door unlocking, followed by footsteps and dropping off keys.
"Did you forget your phone." I assumed it was Andy, he had a habit of dropping things and when I didn't hear anything for a while, I turned curious. "Andy?"
No response.
I could hear slight whistling.
I wiped my hands and slowly walked out of the kitchen.
"Andy, is that you?" The whistling became even more mellow and it seemed to be coming from the living room, "Andy—"
I made my way into the room and a sharp gasp sliced through my lips abruptly.
"Curdles, you finally got the boys to wear a suit." Luke was standing in the middle of the room, looking through the pictures on the walls. "Where were these taken?"
I didn't speak or move. I couldn't.
My body was literally frozen in fear, my limbs refusing to respond to my brain's commands to tear the door open and run free as fast as my feet would possibly take me.
He chuckled,
"You look like you've seen a ghost, it's just me. Come..."
I got my senses and sprinted towards the door, and I started to scream for help as I tried to yank it open as fast as I could to escape, only to have a hand fly out mere seconds after my attempt and slam the door shut with a dreadful bang.
"What's wrong, Jane?" Hot breath fanned out across the back of my neck as he leaned in closer, his voice starting off soft as he spoke in my ear. "You don't know how long it took me to find you, to locate my family again." I was suddenly spurned around to face him, he looked furious, "Why did you leave? I relieved my worst fears in a nuthouse, getting better for you, missing your touch every second of day without being able to reach you, then I return home one day to find out you've left me, that was the worst pain, Jane."
"Why did you think I left.." I gasped.
"I dunno Jane. You tell me? Things were finally going to be different between us and you ran away."
"Different?" I scoffed, "Are you serious!? You thought one moment of serenity could erase an entire decade of injuries and agonies you've caused me." My voice escalated as I spoke and so did my rage, "You've caused me so much grief."
"We had a system that always worked for us, Jane."
"I'm done with that system, Luke."
"Curdles." He took my arm and brought it to his lips, "I'm a different man now. You were right, all that therapy did wonders, it made me see how much I hurt you, I have different perspectives now, I'm a completely changed man." He paused, "You won't have to worry about my temper anymore because things are finally going to be normal."
"If only I had a coin for every time you said things like that Luke."
"I promise you this time it's different, I'm really changed, Jane."
I exhaled and pulled my sense together,
"I'm happy for you, I really am but I'm still not returning to you, Luke."
"Jane go and pack your bags, we are leaving tonight, I already booked us a flight."
"I'm not going anywhere with you." I stood firm.
"Jane, for the last time I said go pack your bags, we are leaving tonight."
"This is exactly the sort of thing I had to deal over the years with you, you're controlling, not only that you completely destroyed my self-confidence, you humiliated me every second you got and made it nearly impossible to make any decisions for myself, you always told me what to do, how to feel, how to dress, you turned me into a shadow of myself. So no, I'm not leaving, I'm not going anywhere with you. I'm never going back to living with you." Being in front of him I was suddenly reminded why I left him, I don't miss this at all.
