~Even when you'd lost everything you
thought there was to lose, somebody
came along and gave you something for free.
-Jenny Valentine

I felt the pain, the taste of my own blood in my mouth. "Fuck!" I groaned. I sucked my lips between my teeth to stop the bleeding. She smirked at me while I still held her captive in my arms. "I should've done far worse than that." My grip had gotten tighter on her and I drew her close to me. She still didn't show any emotion, but I was willing to get one out of her.

"I know you missed me love." I moved a strand of hair out of her face, gently touching her cheeks at the moment she heaved a sigh, but I wanted more. My hands went slowly to the hem of her shirt, and I felt her shiver, but that wasn't what I wanted. I played with the waist of her jeans before slipping my hands inside her undergarment. I felt her. She was already wet. By just simply touching her, I knew she was fighting everything.

"Please stop!" She uses her next hand and slaps me. I chuckled watching her run towards the door pushing numbers on the keypad, but each time she tries it goes into denial. "If you were here earlier, you would've been out of my house, or would you? How keeping my kids away from me feels?" She snaps at me with anger overcasting her features.

"It feels great, but you don't look so good. You've lost weight and have you seen your face?" She chuckled and I had to.

I smirked. "Are you trying to tempt me to let you go, little one?"

"Excuse me? Did you just call me little one? She said through clenched teeth that her hand was now balled. "What are you doing? Like, four feet tall?" I ask pushing all her buttons. "I'm five-three bastard."

"Eight years, huh?" She sighs with a shake of her head. "It feels like it's been forever."

"Yeah," I agree thoughtfully, "It does."

"I'll tell you something that you haven't come to realize. Vincent," she said, her voice nearly a whisper now. "It never indeed happened to me that we wouldn't make it. I prayed that we would. And it never happened to you that we would. In fact, you were just holding up for us to go down in flames. I thought we could get through anything." Thinking something about me does not make it true. I gave her a piece of paper and words to let her leave, but that doesn't mean I didn't want what we shared. Those moments meant more to me than she could ever think of. I wanted to tell her, but she came back and caused all these feelings in me that could ruin everything.

"That's not true," I bellowed. "If you tell the truth about yourself, you can not justify it by saying it about others who you literally know nothing about."

"I know you well enough to know that you are a cruel, heartless piece of shit. Why did you ask for a fucking divorce? Even if the marriage was all a contract, we could've let that pass on. It wasn't real at all, so why did you ask for a divorce or maybe it was?" I stayed silent. I found it difficult to hear.

"It was? I knew this wasn't good to be true. You let me give in to a real marriage that I had no clue about. Very clever." She chuckled, flinging her head, but once her eyes met mine, I was completely disappointed in them. Something I had never seen before.

"You asked why I couldn't forgive you," Laura said, very quietly, and I tensed a little. "It was because you were the love of my life. I don't even know what you are anymore, Vincent. And you didn't want to be there. You pushed me away when we were getting along. That's hard to let go. I gave you everything that I had left of me, then you broke me."

"I needed one of us to be happy. And I chose you but." I simply said.

"I was happy-happy to be here with you. Pushing me away worsens me than how I was already. Do you have any idea how it has been for the last eight years? You don't because you weren't there with me-with your kids, but you deserved everything that you have put me through." She remembered all the bad things that I had done to her, but nothing good came across her mind, as if she had pushed them to the back of her head. My whispers went unnoticed every night. The words I said every night weren't heard.

"Your silence has always proven something, and it was always enough for me to know what you are thinking, and I'll take that as my answer. Goodnight." She walked up the stairs, but then came to a stop, "Where are my kids?"

"They are where you left them." I lied, but to come to terms, that's not a lie. She left them in the house but brought them to my room. She walked up to the third floor, and I followed closely behind her. Once she entered my bedroom, I closed the bedroom door.

There she is, all mine, attempting her best to allow me all she can. How may I ever harm her? But I didn't get it at the point. That I could hurt somebody so badly she would never recover. That a person can, just by living, harm another human being beyond repair.

"Where are they?"She looked at me; her eyes were shooting knives at me. "They're sleeping. You should too. You look exhausted."

"I'm not sleeping with you" I knew that she'd protest, but I just wanted her beside me, just to be sure I wasn't dreaming again. "I didn't say that I was going to sleep with you, but if you insist," I said, taking steps towards her," I would be more than glad to." Her eyes were trained on mine. I knew she was up to something and I knew she'd stepped on one of my feet at the moment. So I quickly pulled back. I grinned and walked inside my closet to grab her nightwear.

She was struggling to open the door which I had locked with the keys. "So you noticed that I wasn't joking about letting you go?" I threw her clothes towards her, and she quickly caught them in one swift movement. "Take a shower," she scoffed and walked towards the bathroom, slamming it.

I sank down into bed and thought about all that had happened. I sighed and tugged at my hair. Laura wasn't dead. All these years she stayed away, not to mention she had me thinking she was dead.

"Why?" I breathed out, still hanging my head low. "Why what?" She knew exactly what I was addressing, and I was not in the mood for any child's play.

"You know what I'm talking about," I gulped, snapping my head up, so she could see how her not existing in my life had torn me apart. "I'm talking about how you managed to let everyone know you were dead. You kept your pregnancy away from me. I had every right to know." Her face turned brick red as she stood trembling with rage before me.

"You had what right!" she shouted, her hands gripping tight on the towel. "You-you used me, then pushed me away like I was useless." A look of bitterness swept across her face. She scoffs, marching back inside the closet when she got no reply. "Why are my clothes still here? thought you'd throw them out to make space for your new wife." She spoke with disgust, but I could tell she was angry by the tone she used on me.

"Why would I throw them out? That's the only thing I had left of you." I kept my voice above a whisper, but I doubt she could hear it.

I turned back and forth, trying to push the images out of my mind, but no matter what I did, the memories still showered over me. They kept reminding me that I was the cause of Laura's death. Even though it was proven in front of me that she wasn't, my mind blamed me for it.

I stared in horror. The wall was stained with gruesome bloodstains. I looked down at my hand and saw that it was red. The smell became all too obvious and I felt the need to vomit... that motion was put away and forgotten in an instant when the shuffling of feet rustled. Panic. I turned around in a blur, my eyes huge and watering. Laura was covered in blood while she clutched her stomach. She threw up blood and cried, and in pain her eyes never left mine.

Was it real or a figment of my abused mind? Curiosity would get the best of me, lending me a tiny spurt of energy to get me on my feet. Teetering footsteps led me forward cautiously, random tremors reminding me of my weakness that I had lost her. She was close enough for me to touch, but she disappeared. Turning sharp on my heel, I let out a blood-curdling screech as I came face to face with two dead babies. Their faces were pale, almost white. Their eyes shot open. I felt the color immediately drain out of my face.

"Dad you killed mom," they both mocked, and I had to shake my head to disagree. "And you killed us!" Their eyes turned red immediately they drew close to me. They had a lopsided smile with stinking razor-sharp teeth as they chanted, "You killed us!"

Terrified and shaking, I gave out a loud scream. "No!" Cold sweat poured down my face. I looked down at my hands to see them shaking. I got out of bed, and swiftly crossed to the other side of the bed.

A solemn tear fell down my cheeks. My body looked calm compared to how tangled my mind was.

I felt something on my shoulder, but I refused to look. I didn't want her to see me like this. Broken. "Please just look at me."

Once I was facing her, my gaze lingered on her mouth, wide and sweet. A sudden hunger to kiss her made me draw her close. I pressed my lips against her softly, a gentle caress, not a searing kiss, for I didn't want to frighten her away. Her hand on my arm tightened. I ran my tongue smoothly over her lips until she opened up to me, making a small moan escape her lips. I wanted to plunge my tongue into her mouth and deepen the kiss, to pull her against me and slide my hands over her curves, but I knew that I was a brute who had hurt her.

I held back and waited for her to lead. Laura pulled back a few inches. Her eyes fluttered open, dark and luminous, the gold flecks sparkling in the moonlight. She swallowed and licked her lips to moisten them. She was studying me with the look on her face. Her generous mouth trembled, and then her lips turned up. "Why did you kiss me?"

"Because you are mine." I touched the tip of her nose with one finger. "I'll do whatever I please with my wife."

"No, no!, You don't get to do this. You don't get to kiss me and make up for what you have done. What you made me go through for years, you don't get to," she shakes her head, tears streaming down her cheeks, an angry expression distorting her face.

"What about me?" There was an eerie silence between us. A boiling fury swelled inside me. "What about me!" She jumped at my sudden outburst, but still I had no answer.

"Look at what you did to me! Seeing me hurt isn't enough for you. Tell me!" I grabbed her shoulders, shaking them; she looked at me through teary eyes, but I was too angry to even stop."Kill me then.I wish to die for you so you can be happy. You hate me for what I did, huh? Then kill me." I rummage through one of my drawers, my eyes land on the pistol.

Grabbing a hold of her hand, I let her hold it. "Wh-what are yo-you doing," she stutters in horror, covering her whole face, bringing her hand that was tightly held by mine to my head. "Shoot me!" I said through clenched teeth. "Vinc-"

"You want to be happy, right?" I shouted while she shook her head, "I took all your happiness away. I hurt you. Why don't you put an end to all your suffering?"

"Please-please don't do this," She sobs, I pulled the gun from her hand. Once I got the gun away, she buried her face in her hand and slumped down to the floor. Her cries filled the whole room. I couldn't do anything. She didn't want me to touch her. She hated me. I knew she did. I balled my fingers into a fist in anger and drove them through the wall, then slammed the door behind me.

Complete hopelessness converted into tears raining down my face at lightning speed. Once I slumped down the wall, I started chewing on my lower lip. My eyes welled up with more tears. Gut-wrenching sobs tore through my chest. Why? It hurts.

"Father?" I looked up through my teary eyes, and made out Venice's seating position on the bed. She yawned, tucking a strand that covered her cheeks. "Yes princess," I sat still and wiped away my tears.

"Why are you not sleeping?" I smiled and trodded towards the bed. "I couldn't sleep." I lied, stroking her cheeks. Even though I still went through two hours of sleep, I couldn't because of the nightmares, so I didn't utterly lie.

"Then sleep here." She scooted over more towards Vince, who was sprawled out on his back. I sighed and got under the covers.

Once I was buried in the mattress, I closed my eyes and collapsed into a deep sleep.