NOBODY SAID LOVE WAS GONNA BE EASY
Chapter Nine
Meanwhile, in the Parlor…
Nathan Hockley sat down with a brandy in his
hand. Cal walked into the room, also with a brandy in his hand. Cal sat down
across from his father.
"You wanted to talk to me, son."
"Yes, I do. I wanted to let you know
that you won’t be disowning me after all."
"Have you found yourself a wife all of a
sudden?"
"Yes, in fact, I have."
"Well…where is she?"
"She’s in the basement." The elder
Hockley looked at him in disgust. Cal took a sip of brandy and told his father
everything. Nathan listened intently to his son as he told him that he had
found Rose and that he had married her. Nathan agreed that Cal was putting her
in her place when he told her how disrespectful she was being.
"Well…I guess I won’t have to disown you
after all. Now, about her condition…you have to get rid of the thing."
"Why? She’ll be miserable once I take it
away. To her, it’ll be torture. Rose is already beginning to fear me, Father. I
want to keep that fear in her." Nathan looked at Cal. He had a point, but
she would fear him even more if he killed her unborn child. When Nathan said
this, Cal agreed. Later that night, Cal would go down into the basement and fix
this problem once and for all. She would have his baby. Not Jack’s. Cal and his
father planned to go down to Rose later that night.
At Midnight
Rose was asleep in a fetal position on the
small mattress. As she heard the door unlock, she awoke with a start. Rose sat
upright as she saw Cal and his father come down the stairs. She looked at them,
confused. What did Cal want now? And what was Cal’s father here for? Nathan
grabbed Rose and pulled her upright. Cal faced her and smiled.
"Now, sweetpea, I think it’s time for
you to learn what happens when you disobey too much," Cal said, balling
his hand into a fist and hit her in the abdomen over and over. Rose cried out
in pain, and tried to break free from Nathan’s grasp as he restrained her while
Cal did this.
"Cal, please…the baby. Please
stop!"
"That’s the point, Rose," Cal
replied as he beat her. Rose wondered what he meant by that. Was he trying to
kill her unborn child? Cal kept this up for a while. Rose screamed out in pain.
She felt liquid run down her leg. She knew with the pain she was feeling and the
liquid running down her leg that she was losing her baby. All of a sudden, she
felt like her voice had been sucked from her. Rose had been ripped away from
Jack and now she was losing her unborn child. Nathan tossed Rose back onto the
small mattress. She looked like she was in a trance. Cal and his father looked
at her and began to laugh. They left Rose in her catatonic state and locked the
door behind them, leaving her to her thoughts and misery. She wondered why he
had done this. Would she ever see Jack again? Did he even want her still?
Wouldn’t he have come and saved her already if he did? So many questions
consumed her mind. Rose just lay on the mattress and stared up at the ceiling.