Being Mr Hunt's Wife

ut shakily as if she was dr

their apartment, the walls peeling like

hen table like a finished man, he clutched an empty beer

p. His face was a mess of

e asked loudly this time,

m talkin

out of him like blood from a

d sharply.

esit

ll me ho

million dollars, it's

rs. She made barely fifty thousand a year working three part-time

. "You said the money was for the new busi

. "Just one game. I could double it or triple it. Pay back the

lid down her cheek. She held her

Her mother had died when she was ten, and her father had spent the la

s words slurring together. "Percy's men. They

ring herself for whatever ultimatu

were red with tears and alcohol

led backwar

king fingers and pushed something toward

ly picke

the second. Then back to the first b

ge Con

ler, CEO of Miller

: Alura

s came out trembling. "You sold

e everything. The principal, the interest, all of it. He's been asking about you for year

truly was. His greasy hair which was combed over his balding head and his small

nineteen, and you noticed but didn't sa

I say? I owe

gotten help! But you kept going back, you kept borrowing, kept gambling it away, and now." Sh

Percy already paid for the dress, the venue, everything. He's excited. He keep

cked. It felt like a clean

marrying

hav

enough to be my father becau

se aren't normal creditors! Percy runs half the loan sharks in Cedarville! If you refuse, they'll kil

y. "He's going to rape me legally and

ce crumpled. "D

use you know exactly what kin

no ch

Every single time! When Mom died, you chose alcohol and poker over helping me grieve! When I almost had to drop out of my first year at the uni

to

now you're choosing to save your own p

he table hard enough to make the beer bottle jump.

r the moment you signed tha

fro

that followe

otions. Shame, anger, more shame. Fin

there's no other way. Percy won't negotiate. It's mar

to ride a bicycle, who made her favorite pancakes on her birthdays, who

gone for years. This was j

ontract copy from w

She held it up. "This i

a, pl

ped it

n half

ag

es in his face and

are you

feet into her sneakers, and walked out into the hallway.

We need to talk about th

oors down, until she was out of their buil

ion. Just away. Away from that apa

idn't stop instead she walked faster, then jogged, then ran. She ran past the convenience store where she worked, past the subwa

her legs shook and she couldn't t

topped, she was at

ad been here before, months ago when things had been merely as bad as this. She had come to

nd collapsed right ther

ease, I'll do anything. Just

inst the wet stone and let h

a dangerous p

head sna

erfectly dry in an elegant dress, standing bene