Chapter 2 - THE TRANSACTION OF LOVE
The silence in the living room was suffocating. Outside, the December wind howled against the frosted windowpanes, but inside, the chill was coming from my own flesh and blood.
"He gave us until midnight," my father said, staring down at his phone as if the device itself had turned into a strike of thunder.
"And what did you tell him, Dad?" I asked. My voice was eerily steady, stripped clean of any remaining warmth or expectation.
My mother took a step toward me, reaching out with trembling, manicured hands. "Anna, sweetheart, look at the situation realistically. Derek was upset. You know how stressful his work is at the firm. He loses his temper sometimes, but he loves you. He loves Lily!"
"He broke my lip, Mom," I said, pointing directly to my face. "He threw me against the kitchen counter while Lily was screaming in her high chair. Is that love to you?"
My mother flinched, but she didn't apologize. She never apologized for the uncomfortable truths she preferred to sweep under her velvet rugs. "Relationships require sacrifice, Anna. Your father and I struggled for thirty years to keep this roof over our heads! When Derek came into our lives, he saved us. He paid off your brother's college tuition. He paid for your father's medical treatments."
"No," Daniel interjected, standing up from the hallway shadow. His face was flushed with embarrassment and growing anger. "Don't put this on my tuition, Mom! I worked two jobs to pay my way through school! Derek bought Dad a new golf membership and funded your wardrobe updates!"
"Quiet, Daniel!" my father barked, rising from his chair. The mask of shame he had briefly worn was rapidly hardening back into the cold authority he used whenever his authority was challenged. "You don't understand how business works! You don't understand how the world works!"
Arthur turned to me. "Anna, you have to go back. At least for tonight. Smooth things over. You don't have to stay forever, but if you abandon him completely right now, he will pull the funding from the family business. He owns thirty percent of my commercial leases!"
I looked at my father, seeing him clearly for the first time in my twenty-eight years of life. He wasn't a patriarch protecting his brood. He was a debtor terrified of his benefactor.
"You traded me," I whispered. "Three years ago, when he asked for my hand, you knew what kind of man he was. You knew about his ex-fiancée who filed a restraining order against him. That's why you encouraged me so heavily to marry him."
My father didn't deny it. He simply adjusted his collar. "He is a powerful man from a powerful family. A woman in your position—with a modest degree and no personal fortune—could not have asked for a better match."
"I am leaving," I said quietly.
"Anna, don't be stupid!" my father stepped forward, blocking the doorway. "Where will you go? You have no money of your own! Derek controls your bank accounts! If you walk out that door tonight without his permission, you won't have a roof over your head or food for that child!"
Lily stirred in my arms, whimpering as the harsh voices cut through her sleep.
"I would rather sleep in my car with my daughter," I said, looking my father directly in his cold, calculating eyes, "than live another second under a roof paid for by my own blood."
Daniel stepped past my father and grabbed my suitcase. "I'm coming with you, Anna."
"Daniel, sit down!" my mother shrieked. "Don't you dare ruin this family over a marital dispute!"
"This isn't a marital dispute, Mom," Daniel said, his eyes burning with tears of rage as he looked at our parents. "This is domestic violence. And you two are accomplices."
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Daniel opened the front door, stepping out into the freezing night to shield Lily and me from the draft. I carried my daughter past my father, who stood frozen in the entry, his hands clenched into tight fists, his phone still glowing with Derek's text messages demanding my immediate return.
We walked out into the snow, leaving the glowing Christmas lights and the silver-covered turkey behind.
