T•H•R•E•E

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One second she was falling. Tumbling down a set of stairs before landing at the extreme bottom. Cold and wet. That was how she felt.

Then the next she was in a white room. A hospital room? Right.

The beeping of the monitor was slow and constant. It sounded horribly annoying.

Doctors were in the room. They were saying something to her, she didn't want to hear because she knew exactly what it was.

Dead. He was dead.

It was his fault...or was it hers?

"Do you want to see him?" Someone asked, but she had no desire to look up at them. She nodded.

They were handing him to her and she took the last set of energy she had left to take him from their arms.

Cold. That was the first thing she noticed. He was stiff under her fingers, not soft like women described in books. Stiff. Dead.

She leaned forward and pressed her ear to his tiny chest. Hoping, praying, begging to hear even the faintest sound.

Nothing.

It all came crashing down. The sadness. The pain. The tears. Everything.

They tried to take him back, but she didn't want to let him go. He....he was hers. Her baby.

Her dead baby...

Marinette's eyes shot open.

That dream again....

It had almost been six months since that incident, but the wound was still fresh and it tormented her.

She allowed her eyes to trail over to her right and released a breath she didn't know she was holding when she saw that it was empty.

Throwing her legs off the bed, she winced. Her body ached all over as it always did when her husband had his way with her.

Dragging her tired form the bed, the bluenette made her way to the joint bathroom. Her twisted ankle from the night before was awfully hard to ignore resulting in her almost falling over several times.

'I hope he left already,' She thought as she slipped into the bathtub, wincing as the warm water touched her bruised skin. Though it was Sunday, Nathaniel always insisted that he had to head to work.

Sinking down further into the water, she lifted her hands so she could see them. Knuckles torn from trying to fight him off and bite marks were littered across the top -- how did she even get those? she had no idea.

Running her wet hands over her face, she attempted to fight back the tears that tried to surface.

A fight she ended up losing when she felt the hot tears streaming down her flushed face.

Strangled sobs left her as the tears came harder.

"Y-you're going to l-leave, Marinette," She whispered to herself. "Y-you h-have to leave, o-or he's going t-to kill you."

After mentally preparing herself for the day, she forced herself to stop crying and climbed out of the bathtub. As she let the water out of the tub, a knock on the door startled her.

"Mrs Kurtzberg?" A low voice called. A maid.

'God, I hate that name,' She thought before replying, "Yes?"

"Your husband requests your presence at the table for breakfast," The maid stated causing the bluenette to stiffen. Nathaniel had, sadly, not left for work as yet.

"Tell him I'll be down soon," She gritted out, knowing that if she refused he would come drag her out.

"Will do," The maid muttered dryly. Marinette shook her head.

Slipping a robe over her bare form, she made her way out of the bathroom with a terrible limp.

Quickly dressing into a floral, flowy dress and slippers, she made her way to the dining room as fast as she could.

"Why are you walking like that?" Her worried husband questioned as she sat across from him.

She refrained from cursing at him as the maids placed their plates in front of them. "I tripped while going up the stairs last night," She replied, bitterness dripping from her tone as she avoided his gaze.

"You should have been more careful," Nathaniel scoffed as he took a sip of his orange juice.

Marinette's head shot up as she glared at him. Luckily, his eyes weren't one her. 'I should be careful?!' She wanted to scream at him, her grip tightening on the utensils in her hands.

"I suppose I was a bit harsh on you last night," He sighed, bringing his gaze back to the bluenette. A smile spread across his face. "What can I do to make it up to you, love? Anything you want."

She used her fork to push around the food on the plate, not having an appetite for it. 'I want to leave' was what she wanted to say, instead she said, "I want to go visit my parents today."

The smile disappeared almost immediately. "You are not leaving this house unless it is with me. How many times do I have to tell you?"

"You said anything I want and I want to go visit my parents," She countered quietly. "I haven't seen them in six months, Nathaniel."

"And this is my problem how?" He rose a brow as he slowly got irked at her.

"Can they at least come here?" She tried to negotiate. She needed to see them. "Please."

Nathaniel sighed heavily as he glanced at his watch. "Fine, but you won't be left alone with them."

Just what she was afraid of, but it would have to do. "That's fine by me."

"Good," He said as he stood and made his way over to her. He gripped her face and forcefully pulled her into a rough kiss. Marinette's eyes widened as he began to force his tongue into her mouth when she tried to push him away.

When he finally pulled away, she discreetly wiped his saliva from her lips. "I'll see you when I get home. I'll get your parents to come by noon. They are allowed to stay for thirty minutes, no more."

She wanted to protest, but she knew she'd only end up with a slap across the face so she nodded and kept her head low.

His shoes clicked against the tile as he left the room and Marinette felt like she could breathe when she heard the door slam shut.

She sat there for roughly fifteen minutes, still not having the appetite to eat a thing, when a maid came out to clear the table.

This maid was one of the older ones that were there since the moment she moved in with Nathaniel. This one went by the name of Bertha.

The maids in the house -- to put it lightly -- hated Marinette. She never understood, but she never missed the dirty looks that get thrown her way nor did she miss the snide comments that they whispered around the house when they thought she was out of ear shot.

As Marinette readied herself to leave the table, the maid spoke.

"You are ungrateful," She said, catching Marinette by surprise.

"Excuse me?" The words tumbled out of the bluenette's mouth as she started at the lady in shock.

"You are ungrateful," Bertha sneered. "The young master took you and your family off the streets and gave you a roof over your heads and you are being fed by gold spoons and this is how you repay him? By trying to take his well earned money and leave?"

"What-" Marinette tried to speak only to be cut off.

"You don't get to say a word to me," The lady scowled. "Mr Kurtzberg honestly deserves so much better. Back in the days, I learned that women should live please their husbands and only their husbands. Why do you fight him? The least you can do is lie on your back if you're shoveling up all his money-"

"SHUT UP!" Marinette couldn't take it anymore. "What the hell do you know about anything?! I DON'T WANT THIS! You are here, you see what he does to me and this is what you say to me?! I don't want to be here! I don't want his money nor do I care about it! I want out! He abuses me in every way possible and I can't take it anymore. He fricking rapes me! None of you will help me. At first I thought you wouldn't help because you feared him, but....now I know that you are all shallow minded and ignorant people! He- he m-murdered...h-he murdered..."

She couldn't find it in herself to say it.

"Why you little-" Bertha rose her hand as if she wanted to hit the girl only to stop when she thought of the consequences. Nathaniel didn't like when other people touched what belonged to him.

Marinette stood abruptly and limped away from the table. "I hope you all rot in hell," She muttered as she felt the sadness fall over her. "Every single one of you."

Soon she found herself curled up on the bed, her legs pulled up to her chest as she thought of what the woman said.

How could someone even think like that?

Didn't they have eyes and ears?

Every person in the house knew exactly what Marinette went through yet they did nothing to help. They thought that she was ungrateful. That she was a whore.

Reflecting on all of this, she knew that she was the one to blame.

She put herself in this situation, so....she deserved it.

She was unsure of how long she lied there lost in thought. It could have been a few seconds, maybe minutes...or was it hours? A heavy knock on the door drew her from the depth of her dark mind.

Another maid poked her head in. "Your parents are here," She informed the bluenette.

So it was hours...

"I'll be right down," Marinette muttered bitterly. She wasn't one to be petty, but if they did not like her and thought the worst about her, why did she have to pretend to like them?

Marinette wasted no time to limp her way downstairs to the sitting room.

Happiness filled her chest when she spotted her parents and they wasted no time to pull her into a warm hug.

She wanted to cry. She missed them.

"Our meeting will be monitored," She whispered to them before parting from the hug.

She took a seat in the arm chair and her parents sat across from her on the sofa.

"We missed you dearly, Marinette," Sabine spoke first, holding one finger discreetly before dropping it.

"Are you doing okay here?" Tom did the same.

"I'm alive," Marinette replied, chuckling dryly as she caught onto what her parents were doing. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a maid at the corner of the room recording the conversation to show Nathaniel later. "How is the new bakery doing?"

"It's getting a lot of good feedback," Tom said, discreetly holding up two fingers this time.

"That is awesome," The bluenette spoke.

"You have been on our minds a lot these days," Sabine confessed with a heavy sigh. One finger. "Are you stressed out?"

Four fingers.

"Not really. I'm okay enough. Nathaniel treat me very well," The words burned her tongue. What awful lies and her parents knew too. "Is the bakery making a lot of money these days?"

"Of course!" Tom exclaimed with a hearty laugh. One finger.

"We brought pastries here if you want some," Sabine offered with a smile. Four fingers again.

"Really?" Marinette asked, pretending to be surprised. "Totally random, but what day is most busy for you guys?"

"On Tuesdays," Sabine laughed.

A smile made its way to Marinette's face.

"Your thirty minutes are up," The maid announced loudly causing Marinette's frown to disappear.

She bid her parents farewell with tears in her eyes before heading upstairs immediately.

As she lied in bed, hope filled her chest. Her eyes fluttered shut as her parents' promise swam around her mind.

'We are getting you out of here on Tuesday.'

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A bit tame, isn't it?

Anyways, what are your thoughts?

I hope you all enjoyed the chapter :-) Until next time,