pte

D

it and nearly empty at this hour. I walked through the automatic doors with my sweatshirt

age unit bathroom-the skin was angry and red, blistering in a few places. Nothing seriou

ra-strength pain relievers. The cashier barely looked at me as she rang

nother thirty minutes. It was nearly two in the morning when I pulled into the driveway

mach d

sense. He'd said he wasn't coming home. He was supposed to b

sudden spike of anxiety. Old habits died hard-even now, knowing what I knew, my bod

hope. No

harmacy bag and

essed in the same clothes from the club, his hair disheveled like he'd been running his

hell have

e was something else underneath it. Some

n't how things usually went. When Damien stayed out, he stayed out. He didn

thing smaller, more apologetic. The docile wife. The role I'd perf

oticed his phone clutched in his hand, the screen still lit up with our

the one time I took ten minutes to reply, you accused m

ion color my voice. "I had to get ointment for the burns. I didn't have my phone with me-

ere hidden beneath my sweatshirt. Something flickered across his fac

he said, reach

t and examined it like he was verifying I'd actually bought

t d

Everything was a command, a directive, an exp

one farthest from where he typically sat, the one that let me stay small

e I can see

sofa. Damien sat beside me, closer than he usua

I need to see

w. He'd poured that soup on me. He'd humiliated me in front of his friends, called m

a little longer. Just until I figured ou

th. The burns covered my chest and stomach in angry red patches, s

," he sai

ed some onto his fingers and began applying it to the burns with surprising gentleness.

ge. He's performing concern because that's what husbands are supposed to do. Or ma

on that familiar patronizing tone I'd heard a thousand times before. "If you had brought the soup at the ri

ally blaming me for this. For him pouring hot soup down my front. For

ay, the word tasting li

ing across my ribs. "I don't like punishing you, Ad

tudent who just couldn't grasp the lesson. As if pouring soup on me w