Worth the Wait (Picking up the Pieces #4) Read Online Free PDF Page A

one side of the zoo to the other. It was absolutely perfect and by the time we headed back to the car, everyone was thoroughly exhausted. When we got to our car, we noticed one of the tires was flat and as Lance fumbled around trying to get the tire replaced, my anxiety spiked. I couldn’t help but wonder if the difficulty he was having with changing the tire was going to set him off. When a man and his family stopped to offer up help, Lance politely declined and went back to work. I offered a quick thank you to the couple and once Lance got the spare on the car, we were on our way home. Thankfully, he still seemed to be in a good mood.
    I was such an idiot.
    “Lance, honey,” I tried desperately. “I didn’t look at any man, I swear. I don’t even know who you’re talking about.”
    “Don’t’ lie to me, you stupid bitch! I saw it with my own eyes!” he shouted. “Are you calling me a liar? I take time away from my job, for you , and you have the audacity to eye fuck that man in the parking lot while I’m changing the tire? You’re a goddamned slut!”
    “Please,” I plead on a whisper. “The kids will hear you. Please don’t yell.” That was definitely the wrong thing to say, but damn it, I refused to subject my kids to his violent outbursts. So far I’d been able to shield them from it, but he seemed to be getting worse and worse every day.
    Unhappy with my response, his face grew even redder as he lifted his hand and slapped me across the face, sending me sprawling to the kitchen floor. Tears burned my eyes and blurred my vision as they streamed down my face.
    He crouched down and hissed, “Don’t you ever tell me what to do. You’re nothing but a worthless piece of shit. If it weren’t for me, you and those little brats would have nothing. You better learn your fucking place.” With that, he stood and aimed a well place kick to my gut, shoving all the air from my lungs.
    I lay on the floor, gasping for much needed air as he told me, “You belong to me, do you understand? You will always be mine. If I ever catch you looking at another man, I swear to God, this is nothing compared to what I’ll do to you.” He calmly strolled from the kitchen but before he cleared the doorway, he turned and glared at me over his shoulder. “And finish fucking dinner. I’m starving so it better be good.”
    As I tried to push myself onto my hands and knees, my trembling limbs uncooperative in my efforts, I berated myself for being so weak.
    I knew it wouldn’t last. I just knew it. But I was so stupid, so beaten down and desperate for things to change, that I believed him when he promised to never lay his hands on me again. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew that our day as a family had only been a fluke.
    This was my fault. I’d been so desperate to escape my abusive parents that I ran willingly into the arms of a man so much worse than they ever were. Yet I was the one who had let him beat me into submission to the point where I had nothing and no one to help me escape.
    I was weak.
    I had no one to blame but myself.

    Present
    Ever since that little scene with Brett in the salon, memories of my life with Lance had shoved their way to the forefront of my mind.
    I’d only been seventeen when I met him. A man eight years my senior and a successful associate at a fancy law firm seemed like a knight in shining armor to a naïve, inexperienced teenager who’d always dreamed of escaping her horrible home life. The fact that he was the only man I’d ever been with was something that pissed me off every time I thought about it. It had only ever been him. From seventeen to twenty-eight, I’d only ever been with one man in my life, and I hated that.
    But when Brett actually asked me out, it catapulted me back in time to every single accusation Lance had ever made, to every beating I took when he accused me of looking or flirting with another man. If I was being honest with myself, there was a part of me that