Olivia Graham was twenty-two when she started a whirlwind romance with charismatic Jakob overseas.
By age twenty-five, Liv was back home and checking off the widowed box on paperwork. With zero plans, Olivia and beloved dog Snuggles find themselves...
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Flashback
In moments like this, remaining calm is the only viable choice. If you so much as breathe wrong, he will scream louder, and it can escalate higher.
He needs to feel like he's in control.
I am smaller; he is bigger. He is stronger; I am weaker.
"Why do you always do this?!" His strident voice could probably be heard at my neighbor Tommy's house. I hope he doesn't come over to check on us.
The last time he did, I had to think quickly on my feet because I didn't want to call law enforcement. I had gestured to one of the broken plates, and my knocked over Christmas tree. "Silly accident," I had said lightly.
"Do you understand the kind of goddamn PRESSURE I am under?!" Something smashes in the kitchen, and I jump a little, despite always trying to not.
I hope it wasn't that vase I had shipped from Santorini.
I sit on our couch, letting Jakob go off. Snuggles is perched next to me, her ears perked up, trying to figure out how to help the situation. I stroke her head to let her know it's okay.
I don't say a thing.
Just wait.
I commented on the way home about him flirting with one of his coworkers' wives while we were out.
His fingers grip the steering wheel, and his nostrils flare. "Why can't you mind your own business?" He snarls at me.
"I thought you were my business, dear husband," I retort.
"Do I tell you what to do?!" He demands angrily.
"Only with every breath and decision you make."
He exits out of the car before me, stomping toward the front door. I let myself in silently behind him and tensely wait for the worst to pass.
Jakob thrives on trying to gaslight me; it feeds the depraved part of his spirit. He accuses me of being the one who flirts with his colleagues. Trying to fuck them behind his back. He says I'm the emotionally unavailable one.
