Married to my suspect

I dropped my bag and bent to the woman that had crouched in pain, staring in surprise. I knew she had been meant to have arrived today, but what I hadn't counted on was the way she would look when she came.

"Eleni??" I called.

"Hey." She responded with a wince, tears already forming in her eyes, and holding her broken arm. "Sorry, I just got too excited to see you."

I pulled her up as gently as I could, and she hugged me, this time gently. "It's also nice to see you again. Let's go inside."

I pressed the code for the door, and we entered the house. She stopped and sat on the first couch, a wince of pain still on her face.

"Should I get you some pain relief? When was the last time you took one?"

She smiled. "A few hours ago. I'm not due for another one anytime soon. The pain will soon fade."

I stared pointedly at her arm that was in a cast and the bruises and redness on her face. Every part of her that was visible was bruised, so I couldn't help but wonder what the part that wasn't covered by the long pants she was wearing looked like. Now, her coming here and Jonathan's worry made more sense. The Eleni I had met at the party wasn't the same woman in front of me. She was slimmer than she was then and looked visibly exhausted. The dark circles under her eyes were almost reaching her cheek.

Eleni noticed my attention, and I blushed, apologetic I'd been found staring. "Sorry."

She shrugged, and even that brought a wince. "It's okay. I'm sure you have some questions. After all, I'm coming to crash at a newlywed's place."

I dropped my bag. "Let me go get you some water. Have you eaten yet?"

She nodded. "Jonathan dropped me here after grabbing lunch near the airport. Thank you."

I sat back down, feeling flustered. She looked so in pain, and I felt helpless. Plus, as curious as I was, I didn't feel like it was right that she had to spill all her life tale to me. I was the one that suggested she come here to begin with.

"So… I don't plan to stay here for a long time. I just needed some time to get a plan."

I shook my head. "You can stay as long as you like. I'm not chasing you away. And if you need anything, don't hesitate to just ask. I want to give back the help you gave me at the party."

She scoffed. "This is not even similar to that."

I looked around the living room. Jonathan hadn't arrived back at the office after going to pick her up, so I'd come home alone with the driver he'd left with me. "Did Jonathan leave?"

She nodded. "About an hour ago. He said he was going back to the office, so you probably missed each other. He mentioned that you worked together."

I nodded. "Yes. I'm his secretary."

She yawned and glanced at me. "Sorry."

I stood up. What was I doing when she should obviously have been resting?

"Did Jonathan show you your room?" Where was he anyway? Why couldn't he have even prepared me a little?

She stood up as well. "Yes, but before I go and rest, I want to explain what happened to you."

I started shaking my head, but she lifted her uninjured arm. "If I don't say it now, I won't be able to. Please."

I reluctantly sat down. "You really don't have to if it causes you more pain. You look tired enough." If she had taken a pain reliever a few hours ago and still looked that much in pain, was it really that dangerous if she took another one? Normally, I wouldn't have said anything, but she didn't look okay to me. Not at all. "You look like you need some ibuprofen at least. If you're still hurting, that means what you took wasn't enough."

She smiled. "I can't take another one. I built a tolerance already, and it doesn't really work."

I nodded, understanding what she wasn't saying. Taking another one could increase the chances of addiction if she wasn't already, and I could relate to that. Wasn't I also addicted to sleeping pills, and so I steered clear of them no matter how tired and sleep-deprived I was? "Alright."

I stared ahead in silence as she got her thoughts together. "Do you remember how happy I was for you during your honeymoon?" She began, and I nodded. I could see her rubbing her palms together, probably from nervousness.

"I was happy and jealous at the same time. You had just gotten married to Jonathan and I knew how amazing he was. There were still women outside that could get married and be happy in marriage, not like me. Most of the women in the party can relate to me. They only have happy outsides. The inside is rotten. Not like you."

I kept quiet even though my situation disagreed with her. Better that she kept being in the dark.

"My parents linked me up with my husband five years ago, and we got married without even seeing each other."

My eyes widened, and she nodded. "Yes. I met him for the first time at our wedding, but he had seen me before, when I was much younger. He had asked for my hand in marriage before I was even legal, but my parents insisted that I turn eighteen first. The day after my eighteenth birthday, I got married to him, and that was when everything started. My husband is a very cruel person, and he has a very short temper, so it didn't take me long to realize that the wedding was going to be the worst thing to happen to me. He wanted me when I was younger because he believed I would have obeyed his words even better then."

I had, like, so many questions, but I kept my mouth shut. I couldn't imagine the pain she was feeling as she recounted all these without any iota of emotion. She must have had to bury her emotions and feelings. How could parents be that cruel? I didn't want to imagine what I would have done if I were in the same situation.

She sniffed, showing she hadn't truly disengaged herself from the pain, and I pushed the tissue on the table closer to her. "I didn't want to tell anybody since he threatened me not to, but I slipped up one day and told Jonathan when I was drunk, the first time I met him. That was how desperate I was, but like everything else, he found out about it and made sure I regretted it." She shrugged. "I didn't try it again."

I nodded, since she looked like she was waiting for a reaction from me. That couldn't have been easy, but it now raised questions within me. If he knew, why didn't he do anything about it? From what I could remember at the party, he had been in a meeting with her husband. Maybe it was the ignorance or amateurishness in me, but I doubted I would have been able to work with someone like that. But apparently, my husband didn't mind.

She shrugged. "I learned to survive and endure the pain and abuse, but I could not allow myself to bring another life into this world with that behavior. How was I to protect an innocent child if it was a girl, and how could I teach a little boy that what he was seeing wasn't the way to treat a woman? I'd been banned from using contraceptives because he wanted a boy to take over his empire, but he caught me going against his order a month ago and stopped me from being able to purchase any or leave the house."

She shuddered. From her tone and dull eyes, this story was about to get worse.

"The abuse didn't stop, and I found out the day this happened that I was pregnant. No matter how much I tried to rationalize it, getting rid of it was the best way to survive, and that's what I did. I intentionally pushed his button and made him get rid of it with his own hands."

Tears were dripping down her face now.

"But there was no way to hide the positive test since he went through everything, and so this was because he found out." She gestured to her body.

I moved closer and hugged her tightly as she shook and cried, sobs of pain racking her body.

"It's going to be alright." I repeated, not knowing what else I could say. My eyes were watering as well, but I had to keep it together, for her sake. What she had gone through would have made a good book; it was that horrific, and even though sometimes I got caught in my feelings and considered myself the unluckiest person on earth, I knew I couldn't have survived something like that. My mother would have never allowed for this to happen to me, and it was a wonder what her parents were thinking. She was most likely much younger than her husband.

"I really didn't want to do it, but I had no choice." She whispered, and I nodded against her, letting her know I wasn't judging her choice. I normally steered clear of matters like this, as people didn't like my opinion that a fetus, even in the womb, was alive and didn't deserve some actions, especially when said actions were deliberately brought about, but even I would have done what she did. No child should have to experience what she had, and God only knew what her husband would have done if the child had eventually been a girl. Thankfully, he hadn't killed her.

I held her until her sibs stopped, and she started hiccuping, and eventually her body relaxed against mine as she slept off. I couldn't imagine the anguish she must have been feeling. Had she told Jonathan about this as well?

The keypad began beeping as someone pressed the code to open the door, and I turned as Jonathan opened the door and entered the house. There my husband was, and what were those in his hands?