Teach Me To Love - Chapter 15 Part 2

Taking a deep breath to steady her nerves, Rachel applied the deep brown concealer to her skin. It was amazing what six years of unhappiness could do to a person. Six years of trying to make it through another day.

This day was almost over. Checking the clock, she saw she had five more hours to go.

Brushing her hair back in place, she noticed her nose had begun to bleed again. Quickly getting a Kleenex, she wiped her nose and forced herself not to cry.

Today, Robert hadn’t even given her time to get in the door before he was tried to connect his fist to her face.

What she had done to anger him this time, she didn’t know.

“Can you hurry the fuck up!” Robert growled. “I’m hungry as hell, bitch, and these damn kids are going crazy in here.” He hit the wall outside the bathroom making her jump. “Get the fuck in here!”

She took another deep breath to collect herself mentally before leaving the bathroom and going to in the kitchen across the hall. Living in the four family flat in Virginia Park in Detroit, Michigan was very different from their Davenport, Ohio home, but anything was better than being in a house with Elizabeth Herlong. Also they were back in the States again, which Rachel loved because her teaching degree could be easily accepted and she could get a job instead of depending upon Robert all the time for money.

Three years ago Robert decided to move from Canada back into the United States. It was then that Rachel found out Robert’s true reason for demanding to marry her.

His visa had been about to expire six months before they married and the INS had been in the process of deporting him for his gambling ring in college. He had gotten expulsion from college for the ring, which she had never known anything about. If he had not married her or if he gets a divorce, he will lose his US citizenship because of all the crimes he is suspected of committing before and after they married.

Since the information had been revealed to her, she had seen a different side of Robert. While he still never paid any attention to her physically other than to knock her around every once in a while when his stress level was over the top, he constantly threatened to take away the children if she even thought about leaving him.

“You’ll never see those bastards again,” he would sneer.

Trapped with nowhere to go! If she had family this would probably be different. If she had someone to care for her, this would probably be different, but Rachel had no one.

Her only sunshine – other than her children – in her dreary life after moving back to the states and landing a job at an elementary school in the Detroit Public School system was that she found out that Tonya worked as a office manager in the main office of the school Rachel had been assigned. Yet, Rachel never told Robert this and she had ordered Tonya to never come to or call the house.

Tonya had grown so much and although she never said anything about the past because Rachel couldn’t stand to think about it, Tonya was Rachel’s only friend.

Would Tonya see the new abuse? Hopefully not! Her former student always became so mad when Robert hit Rachel.

Serving Robert his food, Rachel had lost count of the times she wished he would choke on it. His pot bellied stomach now looked as if he was nine months pregnant and he had some strange growth on his shoulder. For a black man, he was very hairy all over including his arms and back. Rachel knew Elizabeth had some strong Italian in the family and Robert had picked up some characteristics from the bloodline.

After getting the twins ready for bed, she cleaned up around the apartment until Robert barked at her to cut the vacuum cleaner off because he couldn’t hear the Pistons playing basketball.

The twins had come into their color and resembled Robert’s darker skin tone, but with Rachel’s looks. Rachel hoped in a way that Justin didn’t get his father’s height of only five foot eight, although the doctor said the twins – now going on eight this year – were tall for their ages.

Trudging back to the small bedroom in the back of the apartment, she tried her best not to think about the horror with which her life had become. If she thought too much about it, she didn’t know if she could make it to the next day. Peeking in at her children, who lay in a twin size bed together in the back room of the apartment behind the main bedroom and adjoining kitchen, she watched them in their sleep.

Justin was now an avid reader. They had started first grade in the same school she taught in and were pretty much very independent. She was always so proud of them and although Jessica was a bit slow at the studies, Justin was always there for his sister. Jessica had her own talents. She had won an art’s scholarship and n the afternoon a bus picked her up to take her to a center where she was educated in art, music and dance. Justin’s after school activity was at a day camp down the treat and if he came home early enough, he used the basement as his own laboratory. His interest was in science and Rachel was so pleased with him at only seven to know what he wanted so early in life.

Going into her room and to get in bed, she set the alarm and started to lie down until she heard Robert’s raised voice in the living room. Looking at the phone by the bedside, it indicated that Robert was using the other line in the living room.

Just out of curiosity, she picked up the line and pressed the mute button to hear what he was saying.

“...ain’t gonna do a damn thing, Bobby?” a deep voice was asking. It sounded like Fletch, who lived two blocks away. “Once I get to Chicago, I’ll call you and you can make the transfer into your name, but just stay low until I can get back.”

“When is that?” Robert asked impatiently.

“In two day. I’ll finish selling off the shit and Western the money to be picked up by you.”

“Don’t you worry ‘bout nothing, Fletch,” Robert said. “Carne ain’t shit. He talks big game, but he knows I’m invaluable to him. I helped get him up and running and the money I stole from another big fish put him where he’s at now. I think it’s ‘bout time, I got my proper cut. So the hell that I used his lab to make my stash, I think I got every right to do whatever the hell I want to. Just get the shit sold and I’ll give you your share when you get back.”

Hanging up the line, Rachel shook off that intuition that told her that something bad was going to happen. Getting in bed, she tried to read a book hoping Robert didn’t try to jeopardize their family again. Whoever this Carne was, if he was big game, she knew her time in Detroit would be short if she stayed with Robert.

Teach Me To Love Chapter 14 Part 2 (c) 2005 Sylvia Hubbard

Sylvia Hubbard
Author of Stone's Revenge just newly re-released @ http://lulu.com/StonesRevenge .

Check out my blogs: http://sylviahubbard.blogspot.com/ or http://loveablackwoman.blogspot.com/

Want to promote your book: http://HubBooks.biz

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