I stood at the bottom of the stairs with my coat over one arm.<\/p>\n
For a moment, I couldn't make myself move.<\/p>\n
My father waited beside the front door.<\/p>\n
He didn't tell me to hurry.<\/p>\n
He didn't ask why I was taking so long.<\/p>\n
I looked up the stairs and thought about all the ordinary things waiting in our bedroom.<\/p>\n
My clothes.<\/p>\n
My toothbrush.<\/p>\n
The book on my nightstand that I had been trying to finish for weeks.<\/p>\n
It was strange how difficult it felt to leave behind things that had never made me feel safe.<\/p>\n
"I'll be quick," I told him.<\/p>\n
"Take your time."<\/p>\n
I climbed the stairs slowly.<\/p>\n
At the top, I stopped outside the bedroom door.<\/p>\n
The house was quiet.<\/p>\n
I could hear the clock downstairs, but nothing else.<\/p>\n
I had spent years learning to recognize Derek's moods from the smallest sounds. A cupboard closing too hard. A glass set down sharply. A sigh that meant I had disappointed him.<\/p>\n
Even now, with him outside somewhere and my father waiting below, I was listening for signs of trouble.<\/p>\n
I hated that.<\/p>\n
I pushed open the bedroom door.<\/p>\n
The bed was neatly made because I had straightened it that morning.<\/p>\n
My shoes were lined up beside the closet.<\/p>\n
A folded sweater lay across the chair near the window.<\/p>\n
Everything looked ordinary.<\/p>\n
I had always thought that if our home looked peaceful, perhaps our marriage would eventually feel peaceful too.<\/p>\n
I understood now that I had been confusing appearances with reality.<\/p>\n
I went to the closet and pulled out a small overnight bag.<\/p>\n
Then I stood there holding it, unsure what to put inside.<\/p>\n
A change of clothes seemed too little.<\/p>\n
Packing everything seemed impossible.<\/p>\n
I chose two shirts, a pair of trousers, underwear, and a sweater.<\/p>\n
I added my toothbrush and the small bottle of face wash I kept beside the sink.<\/p>\n
Then I went to the bathroom.<\/p>\n
The concealer was still on the counter.<\/p>\n
I had left it there before dinner, along with the foundation and the little sponge I had used to blend the makeup around my eye.<\/p>\n
I stared at the products.<\/p>\n
For most of the afternoon, I had treated them like the solution to my problem.<\/p>\n
If I could hide the bruise, nobody would ask questions.<\/p>\n
If nobody asked questions, I wouldn't have to answer them.<\/p>\n
If I didn't have to answer them, I could keep the evening under control.<\/p>\n
I had followed that reasoning until my father walked through the front door.<\/p>\n
I picked up the concealer and put it back in the drawer.<\/p>\n
Then I looked at myself in the mirror.<\/p>\n
The bruise was still visible.<\/p>\n
So was the swelling.<\/p>\n
I touched the skin beside my cheekbone without pressing against it.<\/p>\n
It hurt.<\/p>\n
That simple fact seemed more important than it should have.<\/p>\n
I was hurt.<\/p>\n
I had been trying to make the evidence disappear instead of admitting what it meant.<\/p>\n
I turned away from the mirror and returned to the bedroom.<\/p>\n
My phone was on the nightstand.<\/p>\n
I checked that I had my charger, then slipped the phone into the side pocket of my bag.<\/p>\n
I looked around once more.<\/p>\n
There were photographs on the dresser from our wedding.<\/p>\n
In one of them, Derek had his arm around me, and I was laughing at something outside the frame.<\/p>\n
I remembered that day.<\/p>\n
I remembered being happy.<\/p>\n
I didn't want to pretend those memories were false.<\/p>\n
But I couldn't keep using them to explain away everything that had happened since.<\/p>\n
I zipped the bag.<\/p>\n
The sound seemed unusually loud.<\/p>\n
Then I picked it up and walked toward the stairs.<\/p>\n
Halfway down, I heard the front door open.<\/p>\n
My hand tightened around the railing.<\/p>\n
My father was standing in the hallway.<\/p>\n
Derek had returned.<\/p>\n
I couldn't see him from where I stood, but I heard him ask a question.<\/p>\n
"Where is she?"<\/p>\n
My father answered calmly.<\/p>\n
"She's getting a few things."<\/p>\n
There was a pause.<\/p>\n
"Getting things for what?"<\/p>\n
I stopped on the stairs.<\/p>\n
My father didn't answer immediately.<\/p>\n
Then he said, "She's coming with me tonight."<\/p>\n
Derek let out a short laugh.<\/p>\n
I knew that laugh.<\/p>\n
It was the sound he made when he wanted to suggest that someone was being ridiculous without having to say so directly.<\/p>\n
"You're serious?"<\/p>\n
"Yes."<\/p>\n
I stood still, gripping the bag handle.<\/p>\n
The bedroom suddenly felt far away, and the front door seemed much farther.<\/p>\n
Derek's voice rose slightly.<\/p>\n
"This is my wife."<\/p>\n
My father answered without raising his own voice.<\/p>\n
"She's also my daughter."<\/p>\n
Nobody spoke for several seconds.<\/p>\n
I looked down at the bag in my hand.<\/p>\n
I had packed so little.<\/p>\n
But for the first time in years, I had packed something because I wanted to do it, not because I was trying to prevent an argument.<\/p>\n
I continued down the stairs.<\/p>\n
When I reached the hallway, Derek turned toward me.<\/p>\n
His eyes went straight to the bag.<\/p>\n
Then they moved to my face.<\/p>\n
I could see him trying to decide what expression to wear.<\/p>\n
Anger.<\/p>\n
Disbelief.<\/p>\n
Concern.<\/p>\n
He settled on disappointment.<\/p>\n
"Emily, don't do this."<\/p>\n
I looked at him.<\/p>\n
For years, those words would have stopped me.<\/p>\n
That night, they still frightened me.<\/p>\n
But I kept walking toward the door.<\/p>\n
I stood at the bottom of the stairs with my coat over one arm. For a moment, I couldn't make myself move. My father waited beside the front door. He … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36588,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insightdrama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36597"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36597\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36617,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36597\/revisions\/36617"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/36588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}