CHAPTER EIGHT

“You ’re wedding is going to be absolutely wonderful! There will be rows of flowers and the most beautiful dresses—Royce can afford that, can’t he—of course he can! Oh, we’ll invite the closest friends! But not Charlotte, she can be a nuisance...”

I listened to my mother drone on and on about the wedding that it would look like she was planning her own wedding. I was leaning against the wall with Royce’s phone pressed against my ear. My mother didn’t pay attention to my passiveness or unresponsiveness, but she probably didn’t care.

She didn’t even suspect that something could be wrong by the way her daughter was giving simple yes or no answers to her on the phone. My fingers were rubbing my temples as I felt a headache coming on even though I didn’t drink yesterday. Just thinking about Royce drinking gave me a headache.

I hadn’t gone home last night because he wasn’t in the mood and I didn’t want my mother—who I knew would be waiting—to see him drunk.

I took another step back and brought the dress back down to its full length. I sighed. “Just take me home,” I told him, my voice shaky.

Royce sighed and stood up, before coming close and staring right at me. Then, he said, “A beautiful girl like you shouldn’t wait forever.”

He didn’t wait for me as he left the room.

I knew he wasn’t completely there and I knew that if my parents saw him they would be absolutely heartbroken. I couldn’t risk it. They expected so much from me and to have it all taken away that would just leave them disappointed... I didn’t know if I would be able to handle it.

“You know what,” I told Royce as he held onto a wall. He gazed up into my eyes, his eyes only half open. “I’ll stay here tonight. It’s late. I don’t want to disturb my parents if they’re sleeping.” He had a lazy grin on his face and I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes. Since when did I hold back? Since I saw a drunk Royce who was twice my size and I wasn’t completely sure of what he could do when he was inebriated.

“I’m just staying the night. No... whatever you want to call it. I’m just sleeping here, okay. And I’ll call my parents in the morning.”

He seemed satisfied enough and told me he’d be in his room waiting for me, and that he expected his bride-to-be to come. Before he left he leaned in close and pressed his lips against mine. My body involuntarily tensed, but he didn’t notice. He was holding my hips and pushing me towards the wall. His hands were travelling and he tried to deepen the kiss, but going intimate with Royce was one of the last things on my mind. I went stiff and he didn’t seem to care, because when he was done he went to his room.

I didn’t say anything the entire time and he didn’t care, or he forgot to wait for an answer, and stumbled out of the room. I looked at the empty bottle with disgust, on its side on top of the table. As I looked behind it I noticed a telephone. I looked at Royce’s door and saw that it was ajar, but I knew he was probably dozing off already. I stood waiting and listened closely before retreating back to the telephone.

I bit my lower lip and contemplated my situation. Before I could actually think it through, however, I was already calling my home. As I suspected, my mother picked up.

“Rosalie, it’s late, where are you?” She sounded frantic, but I was sure there was some kind of hope in her voice.

“Mother, I’m staying at Royce’s tonight, it’s late.”

And like I knew, she was okay with it and told me I should stay more often. She tried to talk more, but I told her I was tired and wanted to go to sleep. She understood completely, but before she could hang up I asked if I could talk to Tom. She told me he was sleeping. I told her I didn’t care.

It was quite for a moment before Tom’s lazy voice drifted into my ears. I needed to hear his voice.

“Hello?” he asked, yawning in the process.

“He’s drunk, Tommy,” I whispered into the phone, my fingers drumming on the table in anticipation.

I expected the 'I told you so' or the taunting, but he gave none of that.

“When the Depression’s over he’ll probably be back to his old self, Rose,” Tom told me, trying to reassure me with my own words. I didn’t know if I believed myself anymore.

I sighed and rubbed my eyes. I was tired. I wanted to go to sleep.

“I didn’t want them to see him like this, so I’m staying over, okay? Mother seems excited at it, actually.” I let out a strangled laugh. “Do you really think he’s going to stop with the liquor when this is all over?”

I didn’t get an answer. Instead, I got someone’s hand around my wrist, pulling me to them. The phone fell from my hand and onto the table, and I felt strong arms wrap around my chest.

“Who were you talking to?” Royce asked, his rancid breath surrounding me.

I raked my brain for any excuse I could give. “N-no one. I mean, no one important. Someone called... one of your friends, he wanted to—I... he wanted to talk to you about something, but you were sleeping. And... and I—I just was asking him about how long you would do... the 'liquor business' I don’t know. I was curious and just wanted to ask him, I didn’t mean to pry or anything, I—”

I couldn’t look at his eyes. I knew they were red and absolutely dangerous.

“You’re a horrible liar, Rosie,” he seethed, and I dug my nails into the palms of my hands, nervous, “who were you talking to?”

“I told you, I—”

“Who were you talking to?” he began to yell, grabbing a hold of my wrists and tightening around them.

I tried to push him off, but instead he fell onto me and we crashed against the wall. My back hit the corner of the table and I let out a cry, before hitting my head against the wall. He pinned me down and soon I couldn ’t breathe. His arm was pressing against my chest and I needed air.

“Royce, stop,” I breathed out.

“Who were you talking to?”

At that point, I needed air so much that I just decided to give in.

“Edward,” I murmured, his name coming from my lips hurting my chest.

Royce ’s hold loosened and he narrowed his eyes at me. For a second I thought he would know I was lying. I told him Edward because I knew if I said Tom I would be in big trouble. Royce’s face was as red as his eyes and he was breathing in deep. I hoped I had worn him out. His strength, even when not fully there, was still much stronger than mine.

I watched helplessly as he came close again, his lip inches from mine as he stared into my fearful eyes. Never was I scared of anything or anyone, but Royce could knock down whatever walls I had so easily.

He was breathing heavily and I could smell his breath. I resisted making a face, knowing it would probably set him off. His chest touched mine as he breathed in deep and he leaned close, kissing the corner of my lips, his teeth the biting them as well. It hurt, but I didn’t make a sound. Then as he pulled away, he whispered to me as his eyes were still trained on mine,“Nobody like a liar.” And as he said the words I knew he hadn’t fully believed me.

He grabbed my wrist and brought me into his room. He pushed me onto the bed and got in himself. He didn’t make a move. He was probably too tired. A part of me was glad. I had trouble sleeping that night, and I didn’t want to know how much he would remember once he woke up.

“Rosalie, are you still there?” my mother was practically yelling through the earpiece.

I snapped out of my thoughts and told her, “Yeah, just daydreaming, mother. I agree with the wedding plans.”

“Oh, I knew you would. I am so excited! He is such a prefect gentlemen, tell him to escort you home!” I agreed and we talked for a little more before she finally left. I was sitting on a chair and resting my elbows on the table. My head was in my hands and I sighed. My mother thought Royce was this perfect man, when really, he was far from it. If she ever knew what he did for a living I didn’t know how she would take it. I could see it, how disappointed she would be at the last hope for the family as she completely failed them.

I couldn’t let Royce continue on like that. I needed him to stop before he went too deep into selling illegal liquor.

All of Royce’s friends came back in the evening, and after spending so long with them yesterday, I knew all of their names, and I was pretty sure they knew mine. The only one who wasn’t there however, was Edward.

…Not that I cared, of course. I tried to convince myself that as I tossed my blond hair over my shoulder, catching a few stares along the way.

I was sitting on one of the room away from the phone. Royce told me he didn’t trust me with it. I didn’t care though. My arms were folded across my chest and I told Royce I wanted to go home, but he told me I had to stay. I didn’t try to fight him after the third time I asked and the third time he said no, because I knew he had a couple of drinks already and I didn’t want to get involved with that kind of Royce again.

None of his friends tried to talk to me because I wasn’t a friend to them, just Royce’s fiancee, and Royce was concentrating too much counting the money he made and watching as men came in and out of the house to get some liquor. He wasn’t drunk yet, but I knew he was getting there. Whenever someone was a dollar short he got aggressive and his friends had to hold him down so he couldn’t attack any customers. His friends were also drinking, chatting happily as they did so.

I told Royce I wanted to go to sleep—anything to get out of the room—but all he had to do was glare at me from across the room and all tiredness seemed forgotten.

I could feel the bruise on the side of my hip from where I hit the table and my back ached from hitting the wall. My head slightly pounded, but I could deal. I was leaning against the table and my eyes were only half open.

“Why doesn’t your lovely fiancee have something to drink? She looks tired. Give her a stiff hooker of whiskey, eh?” I knew it was Owen talking. I turned my head away from him, not in the mood to talk. My eyes were then locked onto Royce’s.

“Can I go now?” I asked him, shutting my eyes and rubbing them with my fingers.

Royce ignored my request. “Owen asked you a question, Rose. Aren’t you going to answer him?”

No. “No thank you, Owen,” I said, trying to muster as much fake happiness I could. I was thinking about giving him a smile but I knew that would be too much.

I looked back at Royce and he was ignoring me. I sighed. With new found strength I said across the room, “You’re going to get nailed and sent to the big house, Royce. Having bent cars can’t be as worse as this.”

Royce turned to me and his passive expression turned into anger, and I could tell he was annoyed. I wanted to be alone, or at Vera’s,but I knew he would have none of it. At the same time, I didn’t want to stay here. I wanted to just breathe some fresh air for a while.

“You’re wrong, Rose. The only way we get sent to jail is if you open your mouth, because none of my boys are going to say anything, right?” He turned to them and they all agreed. All eyes were on me now and the strength I thought I possessed was vanishing.

“Just let her go, Royce. She’s miserable here. She doesn’t want any of the money,” his friend William said.

Royce thought about it for a moment before finally agreeing. Pushing his chair back he came towards me and I thought he was going to grab me and pull me close. Instead, he reached behind me and pulled the coat he had bought for me. He helped me into it and whispered, “I’m letting you go because you’re being a pain today. But I expect you to act like a proper fiancee when you come back, got it?” His lips were brushing my cheeks and to his friends, it probably looked like a loving gesture. It hardly was.

After he helped me into my coat he took a hold of my hand and led me to the door. When his friends were out of sight he dropped my hand.

“Aren’t you going to ask where I’m going?” I whispered, fully expecting him to have done earlier.

“I don’t care,” he spat, “but if I find out you told someone about my business, I won’t be happy.” He was threatening me and for once a part of me knew it wasn’t just from the alcohol. I had a hard time understanding how someone I loved could hurt me like that. I tried not to cry.

He stood staring at me, waiting, but I wasn’t sure of what. I waited too, before I opened my mouth and said, ever so quietly, “I love you, Royce.” The words came out choked.

He gave no reaction and I wasn’t even sure if he heard me. I was going to repeat the words, but then his hand came to my elbow and the other to the side of my face. His touch was soft, and I was surprised.

I was expecting him to tell me he loved me too, but the words never came out. Instead, I felt his hand touch my leg and I stiffened, fear taking over me once again like it had yesterday.

I stepped back from him. “Is that all you love me for?” I whispered harshly to him.

He looked at me and grinned. “Of curse darling. Your gams, your pretty face. All my me are jealous of me.” He reached for my face and pulled me for a kiss again, faster than I could react. He tried to reach higher on my legs, but I pulled back.

“You’re drunk again, Royce. I’ll be back tonight. Actually, I don’t know yet. I’ll be back when you stop drinking,” I said more harshly than I intended.

When I turned to leave he took a hold of my arm and pulled me back, seething as he said into my ear, “Don’t ever try to talk like that to me again, Rose.” Then he opened the door and pushed me out of his house. The door slammed loudly behind me and I listened to his footsteps retreat back to his friends. I found it hard to breathe and had to count steadily. I wanted to cry, but above all, I was angry. As I barely heard Royce’s half drunk laughter, my anger intensified.

It wasn’t dark just yet, and instead of going home I decided to go to Vera’s. I couldn’t be alone today, not tonight.