I still regret this to this day. We will forever be each other's first love, but it's my fault Jess was ever in the picture. She gave me everything a man could ever want, everything a man would love to have in a woman. I ran. A full fledged run. I regret leaving, but I would've regret pushing her slowly away. She deserved everything I wasn't ready to give her. I was scared of it going wrong even though it went tragically. I walked out on her and that led her to someone that thought she was a punching bag. He beat her around and that was the cause of the miscarriage. It wasn't until she got away that he put on a face of change to get her back.
I always watched from afar and I knew something was off about her. My little lady always looked terrified. Finally, one day I couldn't take it anymore. She was in her third trimester, beat up and bleeding, trying to make it out the house. I always knew something was off, so I had to watch. I stepped out of hiding and ran to her. I don't think she would have made it down the steps. "Kemper," She questioned as she nearly fell into my arms. "I got you, baby. I got you. You're safe now." I do a quick scan over her. She was bleeding from her nose, her face is bruised, she was bleeding from there. I scooped her up. The agony in her moans killed me. The more she bled all over me, the more I cried. I finally got her in the car by the time he walked out the house. He was in a drunken and whatever else state.
"Your blood is mine and hers. Don't come near her."
"I love her. She just makes me mad sometimes. I never mean to hit her."
"But you mean to kill her?!" I almost black out until I realized I had a more important situation to deal with. He stood there because he knew he wasn't a match for me at the time. I carried her all the way inside the hospital. Nurses hurried and prepped her for surgery. There was my life right in my arms being beaten by another man. Before they took her away, she looked me in my eyes, took a firm grip of my hand and faintly said,"It should've been you." I nodded my head and sobbed quietly. The more they pulled her away, her hand slowly slipped from mine. She left something in my palm. Her bloody engagement ring.
K.
YOU ARE READING
"Untitled"
Short StoryChamyl Ati Leumas's collection of short stories tells three different points of view from the husband, Kemper, the abusive ex, Jess, and the traumatized Gecko that lost her voice and memory in a terrible accident that delivered her baby early.
