Resisting my step-brother 2

Bad egg

The next evening, I came back from work to an empty house. Dan was no where to be seen and hasn’t contacted me at all. His conversation on the phone was replaying in my head and I had to find out what has got his back up. We had turned Annie’s room into a study where Dan keeps all of his files from work. I never went through them because they were private. But I needed to know what he was so annoyed about and why he was taking his anger out on me.

I opened the filing cabinet and started searching through various documents. None of them were dated from this week so I went over to his computer. Once I logged on there was a document already opened on the screen. It read:

Release Report

Due to exceptional behaviour and cooperation given by the inmate, Cameron Marsdon will be released on January 15th at 10am. He will be on probation which will last for 5 years to cover the remaining time of his sentence. Monitoring must be carried out by officers and reports should be written after each shift. Mr Marsdon will not be allowed to undertake any activities which involve being close to Miss Elise Edwards or her associates....

I scanned the rest of the document with my mouth opened wide. It all made sense now. Dan was stressed out because that bastard was being released and he wanted to keep me safe. Why couldn’t he have just spoken to me?

“What the f**k are you doing?” Dan yelled from the doorway. I jumped and stood from the chair.

“Dan! Why didn’t you tell me about this?” I exclaimed and he looked really angry. His jaw was tensed and his stance was defensive. He walked over to me scowling.

“Why are you snooping?” He growled. 

“Dan...” I was interrupted by his hand grabbing the front of my shirt in a threatening manner. I couldn’t believe how aggressive he was being with me and I gasped.

“Dan please, you’re hurting me!” I groaned from his tight grip.

“Don’t you ever come snooping in here again! This is private and if I wanted to tell you about it then I would have! I don’t like it when people start being nosy!” He yelled and tears were welling up in my eyes. This wasn’t the Dan I fell in love with, this was another side to him I have never seen before and it frightened me. 

“Please let me go” I begged him and he did. I was trying to catch my breath from the adrenaline that was pumping around my body.  His body language indicated he was ready to hit me, but instead he let go of my shirt and stepped away from me. His head was facing the ground and he seemed really regretful. I was still frozen with shock. 

“Elle, I’m sorry, I just wanted to protect you” his tone was soft and calm and I said nothing. He looked up at me and tried to console me, I walked past him and went downstairs.

“Elle” he called after me. I went into the living room and sobbed on the sofa. Not once in the whole time that we’ve been together, has he showed me even a hint of aggressive behaviour. Why all of a sudden has he switched? He walked in to join me and sat down beside me. I flinched as he raised his hand to my cheek.

“I’m not going to hurt you baby” he reassured and wiped a tear that had fallen down my cheek.

“Look, when Cameron was locked up, the wardens kept a report of his conversations with other inmates. A lot of his conversations were about you” he explained and I looked over at him.

“Saying what?”

“I don’t know exactly, but I do know that he kept talking about how you were the reason he was in there. That if he hadn’t of met you then none of this would have happened”. My eyes were flickering as he spoke. The tears were still rolling down my face and he placed his hand to my cheek.

“I won’t let him get you” he promised. I nodded and curled into his chest.

“Just please, don’t go snooping again” he warned me. 

Wearing my navy blue dress that flowed down to my feet, I stepped out of Dan’s car. It was elegant but casual as it seemed pretty plain. I had my dads necklace on and held my clutch bag tightly. The restaurant that we were standing outside of was beautiful. It wasn’t overly posh but posh enough to be dressed up for. Dan locked the car and guided me in hand in hand. We saw Mark at the bar and walked over to him. 

“Ahhh, Elle, you look gorgeous” he greeted with a hug then shook Dan’s hand.

“Liam, Gemma and your mother are sitting over there” he pointed at a table in the corner where they were sat. There wasn’t anyone with Liam which surprised me. We headed over to them and sat down. After the drinks and food was ordered we got down to our chit chat. 

“So how is work Dan?” Mark asked him after taking a sip of his beer.

“Yeah great thanks Mark, busy” he replied. For some reason I felt slightly uncomfortable because I didn’t know if he was going to get mad at him for asking him questions. He reacted badly when I looked through his computer and reacted in a way he has never done before, so to me he was unpredictable. I wanted to change the subject quickly.

“How’s your job doing Mark?” I asked.

“Yeah brilliant actually. We started...” the conversation drowned into the background as I felt Dan’s hand touch my thigh and squeeze slightly. It was more of a warning than anything else, but he didn’t remove his attention from Mark for a moment. 

“... didn’t you Liam?” Marks voice gradually emerged from my day dream. 

“Yeah, I got a huge promotion. It was based at... agh” he groaned in pain as I kicked him. I widened my eyes to indicate not to say anything but he didn’t seem to catch on. 

“Sorry, what was I saying... oh yes. It’s based in Elle’s department” he finished. My heart sank and I was fearful of Dan’s reaction. He was pissed off about me looking through his computer, who knows how he is going to feel knowing that Liam is my new boss. It went quiet at the table and Dan’s hand was squeezing tighter on my thigh. What the f**k is his problem lately? He always treated me with nothing but respect and now it’s as if I’m his stress ball. I cleared my throat and stood up.

“Sorry, I just need to go to the bathroom” I excused and rushed off. I sat inside the cubicle, trying to pull myself together. Why was I so scared of Dan all of a sudden. He would never hit me. He’s just under a lot of stress right now and I need to just be honest with him. 

After my pep talk I walked out of the cubicle and felt my phone vibrate in my clutch bag.

Liam

Is everything okay? You’re acting really weird

I sighed and ignored his message. I walked back to the table and sat back down. 

“What did I miss?” I asked.

“Well, Liam was explaining his new job title” Dan responded with attitude. 

“I’m sorry Dan, I was going to tell you but you were dealing with a lot from work. I didn’t want to stress you out anymore” I said, hoping that he would let this one slide since I was saying it in front of everyone. 

“Baby, it’s absolutely fine. I understand why you didn’t tell me. Just don’t be afraid to talk to me in future” he calmly suggested and kissed my cheek. Was this just for show? Or was he actually okay with this?

Dinner went by smoothly and we all said our goodbyes. It was actually a lovely evening and I really enjoyed. Gemma was pretty quiet all evening but I know she has been working a lot lately. She tends to become very isolated when she’s either tired, hungry or sad. Your typical woman I suppose. We hopped into the car and drove away. 

“That was nice wasn’t it?” I smiled at Dan who was focusing on the road. He didn’t respond, instead his grip tightened around the wheel.

“Baby?” I tried to gain his attention and he tensed his jaw. 

“Why didn’t you tell me about Liam becoming your boss at work?” He asked me and my cheery attitude turned dull. 

“Huh?” I groaned and he pulled over down a dirt road. After we came to a stop, he turned the lights and the engine of then sat back in his seat. 

“Why did you lie Elle?” He asked me. 

“Babe, what’s going on with you lately? You’ve become very aggressive towards me all of sudden and I don’t like it” I stood up for myself but Dan didn’t seem to like this. He got out of the car and walked round to my door. Once he opened it, he dragged me out and leant me against the car.

“Dan! What the f**k are you doing?!” I shouted and he grabbed my cheeks in his hand. 

“I have been working my arse off to make sure that Cameron doesn’t affect our lives. But you Elle, you just want to be rude and disrespectful. When were you going to tell me about Liam?!” He snarled. My face was hurting from his tight grip and I was trembling.

“I don’t know when, I wasn’t sure if it was going to happen or not” I tried to say clearly but my words were muffled by his strength. 

“Please Dan, please let go” I begged. He loosened his grip slightly and stared at me. He commanded that I got in the car and we drove away. I didn’t speak again until we got home.

“I’m going to have a shower, you want to join?” He asked as if he didn’t just cause me harm in the car minutes earlier. I shook my head and replied “I’m just going to go to bed”. As soon as the door shut, I burst into tears. My Prince Charming turned out to be the psychopath and I was trapped. I felt like Gemma!