Tackling Her Obsession with the Tight End

Chapter 8: Whispers

*****Trigger warning for flashback of domestic violence, verbal abuse*****

Sarah

“I went on a date with you because I have feelings for you, Liam. Because I see you and I want you to see me that way. I want nothing more than to be with you. And I’m so sorry I hurt you that night.” I whisper against the door as I watch him through the peephole. He walks down the hallway until I can’t see him anymore. Two tears roll out and I dash them away angrily now. I turn and storm back towards my bedroom. Lifting the envelope from my bed, I thumb through the photos as every part of me fills with ice cold dread. I let my mind wander back to what happened before Liam showed up here.

I hear Paul’s words after Liam left the cafe. “You belong to me Sarah.” That was enough to make me want to die.

He hadn’t stopped there. Following me to my car, he reminded me of why. “You really should be more careful, muffin. I did thoroughly warn you last time I caught you with lover boy there. If I catch you with him again, it might not only be a football career ending injury he has. Could be a heart-stopping one.”

“Liam and I are friends, Paul. Caylee and Noah are engaged. We were supposed to plan a shower for them. Why we were meeting today.” I keep my tone level and slightly bored to make the lie more convincing. Not easy to do when agony rips through me at the thought of him hurting Liam.

He bites out. “Then do it over the phone." He turns me to face him at my door. "I won’t hesitate Sarah. You should know that by now. I mean, remember Wesley? Maybe, just maybe it’s time I demonstrate again…..” Fear spikes through me like a cold shard as he leaves the threat dangling.

“I haven’t forgotten. I merely wanted to explain.” Now I sound meek and it’s only a half act because he is more than capable of hurting someone else.

“Behave muffin. It’s not so hard. Now I’ll need to see you in two weeks. There’ll be a dinner. Left you a reminder at home too.” He’d tapped my nose and I had to contain the shudder of revulsion.

I drove home praying the “reminder” was like the others and nothing worse. The large brown envelope had been taped to my front door. I’d barely had time to get inside before my phone started ringing.

The number on it had me cringing too.

“Yes.” I answered tiredly as I pulled the contents out. One fell on the table and I gasped almost dropping the phone. It was Maggie and Leo having dinner with my parents. Sitting at the table next to them was Tate, the Chadwick family’s chief “problem solver.”

“Sarah are you listening!?!?”

“No. He left me an envelope. First picture is of my family with his f*****g goon at the table next to them! I am done with this, Quentin. I can’t do it anymore.” I can’t stop the tears. “I just had to hurt the guy I care most about in the world. Again. I want out.”

“You can’t, Sarah and you know that. Six more weeks. That’s it. And then we can be out and you can go back to Liam. Tell him the truth. I'm sure he'll understand.”

"Understand? He's never going to give me the time of day! I've lied to him so many times now.....and why should I believe you? I've heard you give me dates so many times. Only for it to extend." I'm furious and hurting and so done.

"Because it's been set and invitations are out." He drops that quietly. "I promise you."

"I don't trust you, but six weeks and I am done. I don't care anymore. He can kill me. It would be easier than living like this for the last three years." I hang up on him knowing he doesn't care.

I'm spent and lay down intending to think for a minute. The next thing I know, my phone is going off and I see I've been asleep for two hours. I didn't sleep much last night. It's a text message from Caylee.

"Liam really wants to talk to you. It's important and he's about to be beating down your door in ten minutes if I had to guess. Will you let him in?"

"Of course. Tell him to knock three times. I've been having issues with a nosy neighbor lately and want to make sure it's him."

She send the thumbs up and I press against my stomach to push down the nausea and butterflies. If he wants to yell at me, I'll take it. He was way too calm for his normal when he left me. I let him in and he's rushing out to apologize to me making the knife in my back twist further. Guilt washes over me in a hot wave. I can tell him. I need to make sure he understands everything....but then my phone alarms and I glance at it while he's pacing going through his reasoning.

"Get rid of him, muffin. You can have thirty minutes. Or else....." Sheer panic begins to take over, but I take a slow measured breath keeping my eyes on the floor.

Fuck! He's watching me. I should have known. At least I know he can't be listening to me. I need to see about having the hallway checked for hidden cameras and bugs. Lying to him almost guts me again. The only consolation I have as I utter the words is that we might have our friendship back. Hopefully, that helps when I can tell him the truth.

I go back to spreading out the photos. "no no no no no...." Usually it's my parents, Chad, Maggie and Liam. But I see Caylee, Noah, Quinn, Violet, Sean, Leo, Aunt Sof....

"NO!" I shout as I throw them across the floor before collapsing on the bed. I put my head between my knees to let the nausea pass. Once I sit up, I scrub my hands over my face. "All my fault. This is all my fault." I let this monster in. I exposed my family and the people I love to him.

Needing an outlet, I call the one person I can. "Please answer." I plead weakly as it rings.

On the fourth ring, that familiar deep voice fills my ears. "Pumpkin, what's wrong?"

"Paw Paw, pictures. Not just the four of them anymore. Caylee, Noah, Sean, Violet, Quinn, Leo and....and Aunt Sof. He took her freaking picture when she was watering her flowers in her damn front yard. He's got Mom sitting with all the aunts at the nail salon. I can't anymore. Q says six more weeks and it will be over but....I am just done." I break down then, sobbing. He murmurs soothing words and lets me cry until I have nothing left.

When I'm hiccuping, he starts in with that gentle voice that always used to come out to help us growing up. "Pumpkin, listen to me. You can do this. You've been so strong for a long time now. Believe me if I could get you out this minute, I would. I'd have done it three years ago. Killed that sonofabitch with my bare hands. Him and that entire damn family. But then they'd still have you. Why did he leave you photos?" He almost growls the last bit. My grandfather is a retired police lieutenant. He was a sergeant when Aunt Sofie was stalked by a crazed psycho in college and he helped with her investigation. How Dad ended up becoming such good friends with the rest of Nutville.

"I went to lunch with Liam. I was going to tell him everything." He knows everything. The only person I could confide in.

"Sarah, pumpkin I'm so sorry." He sighs. "Liam will understand. You could find a way to tell him still."

"I don't think I can. He's having me followed. Otherwise, he'd have no way to know where I was going today. I only told Liam about it and it was a text sent off my "extra" phone. He threatened to kill him today, PawPaw. No more injury threats. I can't put him at risk. If Paul hurts him in any way, I....I won't be able to handle that. I lied to him. Told him Paul's never been physical with me. Lied about why I went on a date with him. He's going to hate me."

"He won't. Liam cares deeply about you, Sarah. He will understand." He says soothingly.

"I hope so. I wish I could go back in time and tell Paul to go to hell." I say with venom.

"I wish you could too. I asked Jared if he could build a time machine. Arthur too. He mentioned he didn't think he could find a flux capacitor easily these days. I do think he looked up DeLoreans."

I let out a small laugh at that. Pop would be like Emmett Brown in Back to the Future if he accomplished that.

"Thanks PawPaw for listening. I...Mom and Dad are going to be so disappointed too."

"I'm here pumpkin. Whenever you need me, you call. I know this isn't easy and I want you to know I think you are made out of steel baby girl. You can get through anything. Liam will still be there. You two have a bond. Your parents will understand and I will take the heat for you not telling them. I'm the one who stopped you before because they would not be able to sit back. And obviously they are being watched. I'll work on closing that loophole."

I don't believe him, but I let it slide. "I agreed to it. I only want to protect them all. I should go. Love you."

"Love you too."

I end the call and stare down at the pictures. I remember when Paul asked me out the first time. I hadn't been on a single date, was way too shy and of course most of the guys thought I was a fat unattractive cow as one so eloquently put it. Paul had been sweet and charming. Saying I was beautiful to him and he wanted to take me out. I had a crush on Liam, but he was dating Jenni at that point and they were pretty serious. I realized he didn't think about me that way, so I said yes to Paul. He was nice and treated me like a princess. I hung on his every word for the next six months. Then he broke up with me saying college would be too hard for him to keep seeing me long distance. That he loved me and it gutted him. Naturally, I felt grateful when he came back saying it was infinitely difficult to be without me. Stupid, lonely, low esteem Sarah just fell at his feet. And then he did it again six months later. Leaving me because his father thought he needed to focus on school. When he came back three months after and professed he would defy his entire family to be with me because of how great his love was, I swooned and thought it was romantic and a fairytale. I should have known to look for the true villain in the wings of the fairtytale. He was right in front of me.

It started with little insults about my clothes. "Aren't those jeans a little too tight? I mean I like it but don't want every other guy seeing how round your ass is?"

"Isn't that shirt a little low cut? I mean your t**s are great for me but they are a bit too big for a normal girl and other guys might judge you for that. Trying to catch their eyes, they'll think bad things about you."

Eventually it progressed to "you look like a w***e in a dress that short."

"Your thighs are way too fat for those pants. I don't want anyone making you feel bad muffin."

He convinced me to move schools to be closer to him. And because his had a huge graphic design department. It made sense and I had planned to move to them for my senior year. Instead, I did it much earlier.

The last straw had been when he called me a cow and said that since I looked like one I should start adding in more salads because cows love grass. It was the first time he hadn't added the condescending softening blow he always did. I told him we were through and he hit me. A backhanded slap across the face. I ran, with him chasing me down to apologize profusely. I was about to call Maggie and tell her what happened when he showed up with flowers and a bracelet. Explaining pressure from his dad and school and I took him back. My self-esteem was nothing by that point after I'd heard others saying things about my weight when we went out. Little did I know, he had paid them to do that. For a while, he was sweet like before. But then he got mad after I went to lunch with Vi, Sean and Liam. He hit me again, only this time it wasn't to my face. I was blindsided when he slammed me against the wall by my throat. The pain in my head and back as I cried paled when he got in my face saying it was my fault. I was his and no one else could look at me. I didn't clear my lunch with him first. He dropped me to the ground and kicked me in the back twice. It only happened once more. It left a horrible bruise on the back of my neck. My infraction was I wore a skirt that was too short. In class the next day, my professor walked behind me. I sat on the back row to hide and he paused back there for a second. Thirty minutes later, as class was about to end he called out to me.

"Sarah, I need you to stay after class about your paper. My teaching assistant will meet with you. Allison if you will." He pointed to a blonde female that I'd never seen before. I was confused but nodded. Paul's best friend, Adam was in the class and he usually waited for me, but I watched him leave. Professor Jacobs walked out right behind him and shut the door. I heard it lock shortly after. Allison pointed to the big desk at the front. "Sarah, please sit."

She pulled out a paper and made sure I was looking at her. "Professor Jacobs saw your bruise. Someone hurt you. Are you being abused, Sarah? That Adam guy always follows you he said. I am a counselor and he texted me. He left because whoever is hitting you might be angrier if you were left alone with a man."

I couldn't hold back the tears and told her everything. Within minutes, she had an appointment set up with a therapist next week and wanted to call my parents. I asked her to wait on that and let me tell them myself that weekend. They would be so ashamed of me. Dad always drummed all the warning signs into us and I ignored them all. I was stupid and desperate. Our whole family would be so disappointed in me. Aunt Sof because she told us all how her ex debased her after they broke up. Dad probably won't even be able to look at me and that almost broke me again.

"Now let's make a plan for you to be safe. If you were to leave today, would he follow you?"

"Yes."

"Then we need to get you out for sure today before he can suspect it. I have your schedule. I want you to skip classes and go meet with the nurse now. Is there someone you can trust to call and get them to pick you up? Get you back to your place, pack you up and get you home after that?" I agreed to it all feeling true relief.

"Yes, I can call my sister or my friend Liam."

Little did I know that within an hour, I'd be in hell. Paul was waiting for me outside the clinic office. He'd been smiling that cold sinister grin same as when he'd insult me. "Oh muffin, I am so disappointed in you. Good thing I had your backpack bugged."

He'd taken my purse and backpack the minute I stepped through the door. Turns out he lied saying he was Liam here to pick me up after I texted him about my abusive boyfriend.

He'd basically kidnapped me to his family's home right then, handing me a cocktail dress once we got there.

"Put that on. We have business tonight. I was going to leave you out of it, but you've made your choice. I'd hate to waste all the time I spent breaking and reshaping you into what I wanted. Makeup and other toiletries in the bathroom. Make sure you look very presentable."

I remember sitting there crying and wishing I could call my dad. But then I'd stemmed the tears and started thinking. I had to earn his "trust" back and then I'd be able to call my family. All I really needed was two minutes with a phone. So when he came back, I was dressed and made up. Shaking inside fiercely but I knew I had to go along with this.

"Muffin you look like a sparkly cow." How did I ever find him charming? How did I let him fool me? Hindsight is more like 30/20.

Terrified of what he had planned for me, I managed to stutter out "where are we going?"

"To work muffin. We have a large shipment coming in soon and you're going to be my date. With your aptitude for numbers and computer design, we're going to employ you to work for us. And if you breathe a word about it to your precious family, you'll regret it."

I head for the shower, not wanting to keep reliving my nightmares as I think about the last bit of that day.

I'd regret lots of other things before the night was over that would end with me being arrested in one of the largest FBI drug raids that year. True hell and imprisonment would start then.