[Sunday, Apr 14th]

The alarm wakes me at 6:30, curled up in Alla’s arms. I brush the hair out of her face and gently kiss her cheek. Stealthily getting out of bed, I make my way to the bathroom.

Honestly, I don’t care what anyone thinks of us. I love being with her and she makes me happy. So, how could this be wrong?

I start the shower to let it warm up, then climb in and let the hot spray run down me. A few moments later, I feel arms slip around my waist and turn around to look at the only person it could be, Alla.

She smiles at me and says, “Good morning.”

I return her smile. “Good morning. Last night was fantastic.”

She pulls me against her and murmurs in my ear, “Mhmm. That it was.”

Alla gives me a kiss, picks up the sponge and washes me. Once I rinse off, she washes and conditions my hair. Picking up the sponge, I wash her and then her hair. Once we dry off, she blow dries and brushes out my hair. Then we head back to her room, where she throws on a nightgown and watches me dress.

Frowning, she says, “I wish you didn’t have to go.”

“Unfortunately, I don’t have a choice, unless you want to see an explosion that will wipe out Key Largo.”

She giggles. “I know, but that doesn’t mean I can’t want you to stay.”

I walk over to her and say, “Trust me, if I had my druthers, I’d still be in bed with you, snuggling.”

I give her a kiss and put on my shoes. She walks me to the door and gives me a long, deep kiss. Making my way out to my car, I open the door and look up to see her wave goodbye. I wave back and blow her a kiss. Getting in, I drive home and arrive there a few minutes later.

I sit in my car for a few minutes, preparing myself for what I am certain is about to happen. Remembering what occured in the dream, and the fact that he tried to strike me I’m obviously nervous and hesitant about going in. Once I finish mentally getting myself ready for this, I head inside and peek into the living room to see my dad watching the news.

Forcing a pleasant smile, I say, “Good morning, Dad.”

“Good morning? First off, why weren’t you here to greet me when I got home last night?”

Keeping my pleasant smile plastered on my face while my tension ratchets up another level, I reply, “I went to an anime convention with a friend and spent the night at her house. Mom didn’t tell you?”

He leaps off the couch, points his finger at me and declares, “This will never happen again! No daughter of mine is going to be a lesbian!”

Even though I knew what would happen from my dream, I’m still shocked at his ferocity. Clenching my fists I struggle to contain my anger before finally giving in a few moments later and demand, “How does two friends spending the night make them lesbians?”

Red-faced and spittle flying, he shouts, “Because they are sleeping together!”

I don’t even care at this point. Outraged, I lose control and angrily yell, “You’re making a lot of assumptions! That’s like saying if siblings share a bed that it’s incest!”

Even knowing how he is, even though he’s my father and I’m supposed to love him unconditionally, I can’t stand him and his views anymore. I’m sick of this and fed up with listening to this idiocy.

He stomps over towards me and immediately, I’m terrified as I glance around and realize Mom isn’t in the room. She’s not here to save me. As he draws his fist back, I tightly close my eyes and scream while raising my arms defensively and turn away, but I am unable to fully do so before his fist connects with my cheek and I hear a sickening crunch that makes me feel nauseous.

Reflexively, I open my eyes and desperately try to fend off his unrelenting attack, but that only serves to make him angrier. He finally knocks me to the floor, climbs on top of me, pinning me in place as his fists continue to rain down unceasingly. The last thing I truly remember is him shouting, “I’ll kill you before I allow my daughter to be a lesbian!” There’s another blow to my head and I vomit. When he throws one more punch, thankfully, everything goes dark.

[Miriam’s POV]

I’m getting ready for church as I hear Andie come home and Michael and her start yelling at each other. I quietly sigh and tell myself, ‘I knew something like this would happen. Damn, I wish Michael would think more about his family, rather than that idiotic minister’s opinion.’ I love Michael, but he’s becoming ever more controlling of Andie as the years go by. However, it’s when I hear Andie’s terrified scream, soon followed by Michael yelling, “I’ll kill you before I allow my daughter to be a lesbian!” that I realize this isn’t just a normal argument.

Fumbling a bit as I rush to remove my phone and pistol from my purse, I run into the living room to find Michael on top of Andie still punching her even though she’s unconscious. My heart breaks, even as I’m filled with rage that Michael would do this to my baby.

I scream at him as loud as I can, “Michael, stop now and lay down on the floor or I’ll shoot you!” He turns back to look at me and his eyes widen when he sees the pistol in my hand. I yell, “Move, now, and lay down on the floor! If you even think of moving toward me, I’m going to empty this in you!” Once he moves off of Andie, I see how bloody she is and my blood burns in my veins. I bark out, “Move further away from Andie!”

He moves over a couple of yards and lays back down, looking at Andie with a devastated expression. I think, ‘Oh, so now you feel bad?!’ Right now, I couldn’t care less about him. I dial 911 to stammer out a request for the sheriff and an ambulance.

Kneeling down beside Andie, I gently touch her and call out, “Andie?!” When she doesn’t respond, I glare at him and emphatically state, “I ought to kill you!” I can already see her swelling and bruising from the beating he gave her. “Michael, this is the last fucking straw! I’ll be calling a judge I know and filing for an emergency protective order, so even if you’re able to post bail, don’t even think of coming back here or I’ll kill you! You will never see Andie again and I will be filing for divorce on Monday morning!” He starts to say something and I yell, “Shut up! I don’t want to hear it! Nothing you can ever say will make you beating my daughter alright!”

As I look at Andie, I blame myself for this. I know all too well just how volatile he’s become over the years and I failed in protecting her.

Anxiously, I wait next to her, wanting to hold my precious baby girl, yet afraid to do so, as time seems to pass by in slow motion. It feels like an eternity, though in reality I’m certain it’s only a couple of minutes before I hear the sirens come down the road and stop in front of our house followed quickly by pounding at the door and a voice shouting, “Monroe County Sheriff! Open the door!”

I call out, “The door’s unlocked, come on in!” They enter and immediately draw their weapons when they see my pistol in my hands. One of them demands, “Drop the weapon!”

I set my pistol down, raise my hands, and tell them, “I’m the one who called you. My husband just beat my daughter.”

Not taking any chances, they handcuff both of us. One of them looks over Andie and curses under his breath when he sees how badly she’s injured before shooting a glare at both of us. A few minutes later the ambulance arrives and the paramedics rush in. He waves them over and they kneel down to begin checking out Andie. After a couple of minutes, one of them rushes out and returns with a gurney.

At the same time, the other deputy asks me what occurred and I tell him that Michael flipped out and beat Andie. He glances over at Michael’s hands and distraught expression before taking the handcuffs off of me and walking over towards him to read him his rights.

While the deputy reads Michael his rights, the paramedics are placing Andie on a gurney and rush her outside while one mutters something into a microphone on his lapel.

I call out, asking, “Where are you taking her?!”

He curtly replies, “Homestead Hospital,” as he exits the house.

Dismissing the deputies from my thoughts as they escort Michael out to their car, I rush into the bedroom, dress, grab my purse and make my way out to my car to see a lot of neighbors outside watching everything. Pulling out, I race to the hospital as I mentally berate myself over and over on how I could have prevented this situation from occurring. All while fighting not to cry and praying to God that Andie will be alright.

Once I arrive, they have me take a seat and finally, three hours later, a doctor comes out and asks, “Mrs. Williams?” I stand and walk over to him. “I’m Dr. Yiannopoulos. I’ve been treating your daughter, Andrea.”

I nod. “Andrea is in very bad shape. She has a concussion, her left forearm is broken, her left cheekbone is fractured and her left eye was swollen shut, which I drained. In addition she has a couple of broken ribs and most of the rest of them are badly bruised, but that along with all of the bruises on her upper body are the least of our worries. Needless to say, she probably won’t be moving around much for a while. I don’t know what happened to her since she’s still unconscious, but I only need to look at her injuries to see that someone tried to kill her… Mrs. Williams, right now, I’m more concerned about the bleeding in her brain, so I won’t be releasing her due to that and the fact she hasn’t regained consciousness.”

I cover my mouth and tears begin falling as he explains everything. “Mrs. Williams, we’ll be keeping her admitted until the bleeding hopefully subsides. If not, we’ll have to go in and seal it. I hate to have to say this, but we have no idea how much damage has been done due to the bleeding. Hopefully, there’s none, but we’ll have to wait and see.”

Struggling to control myself, I ask, “When can I see Andie?”

“We’re transferring Andie to CCU right now. Once they get her settled in, you can see her.”

“Where’s that?”

“On the 5th floor.”

I tell him, “Thank you,” walk to the elevator and go to the 5th floor. Once I arrive, I announce myself to one of the nurses at the desk.

She tells me, “Have a seat. We’re still getting her hooked up to the monitors and everything. We’ll let you know when you can go in.”

“Thanks.”

Taking a seat, I wait impatiently, even though I know that there’s nothing I can do for her, other than being with her. Taking out my phone, I call my friend, Judge Stephanie Anders, and tell her what happened. She tells me that she’ll have an emergency protective order drawn up within the hour and waiting for me to pick it up. I thank her and end the call. Next, I call the Mayor to let him know that I won’t be in tomorrow.

Half an hour later, they tell me I can go in. Steeling myself, I head into her room and catch my breath when I can’t even recognize my daughter because of the swelling and bruises. Moving a chair next to her bed, I sit down and gently hold her hand as I again pray for Andie to be alright.

　◇ ◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆ ◇

[Monday, April 15th]

I didn’t even realize I fell asleep, until Andie’s groan wakes me up. Sitting up in my chair, I glance at my watch to see it’s 6:20 and then I look at her. Her voice is barely above a whisper as she asks, “Mom, what happened?”

Anxiously, I ask, “You don’t remember?”

Andie shakes her head and groans again before looking around the room.

I open my mouth to say something before closing it, wondering how to tell her that her father tried to kill her. Finally, I decide to not beat around the bush on the topic. “You came home from your sleepover with your friend, and got into a fight with your dad over him accusing you of being a lesbian for doing so…” I pause, my heart aching as I tell her this. I can see Andie tensing and tearing up herself as the realization of what I said seems to dawn on her. My voice breaks as I continue, “Your dad… he beat you horribly as a result, I…” Tears begin rolling down my cheeks as I am overwhelmed by my emotions. “I-I…I’m so sorry, I wasn’t able to-to protect you, until it was too late.”

As I struggle to compose myself while tears continue to fall, I see that Andie is crying as well. I squeeze her hand and then lean in to hold her gently and then softly kiss her forehead. “I was so afraid you wouldn’t wake up. I prayed and prayed that you would be fine.”

Sitting back in my chair, I finally manage to compose myself, at least as much as I’m able to right now, and wipe away my tears as I look into Andie’s eyes. “I already called my friend, Judge Anders, and she’s already had an emergency protective order drawn up, and I’ve told the Mayor I won’t be in today. After this, I’m through with Michael, I will be filing for divorce later today now that you are awake. This won’t be happening again.”

Andie remains silent throughout this as she seems to be in shock over what her father did to her. Finally, she grimaces as she brushes away her tears and nods slightly.

[Andie’s POV]

I sit quietly listening to Mom tell me what happened. Truthfully, every part of me is screaming in protest with every breath. A few moments later, a nurse comes in and says, “I’m glad to see you’re awake, Ms. Williams. How do you feel?”

I roll my eyes and think, ‘I just had the shit kicked out of me by my dad, how do you think I feel?’ I croak out, “Hurting like hell.”

The nurse nods at me and says, “Let me call your doctor. I’m sure he’ll give you something for it.”

She walks out and I look at Mom. “Mom, can I borrow your phone?”

Mom looks at me questioningly, but reaches into her purse, pulls out her phone and hands it to me without comment. Opening the message app, I text Alla, ‘I’m in the hospital, so I won’t be able to take you to school.’

A few moments later, the alert chimes. ‘What happened? Where are you?’

Looking up at Mom, I hoarsely ask, “Where are we?”

“Homestead Hospital in CCU.”

I reply to Alla, ‘My dad beat the hell out of me. I’m in CCU at Homestead Hospital.

She replies almost immediately. ‘OMG! I hope they throw that fucker in jail and lose the keys! Can I come see you?’

I look at Mom again and whisper, “Can Alla come see me?”

Mom nods. “Of course.”

‘Of course you can. Come see me after school. Don’t be surprised though, going by my mom’s expression, I look really bad. I can barely talk and I’m hurting like hell.’

‘Fuck school! You’re far more important! I’ll be there soon.’

‘I wish you’d wait until after school, but I know I can’t stop you.’

I wait a minute and she doesn’t say anything else, so I sigh, hand the phone back to Mom and whisper, “Alla’s on her way.”