The Adventure of My Dreams {Colby Brock}

Fifty Four

"Get off of me! Get off of me! Let me go!" I cried out. I didn't know who was touching me but I didn't feel comfortable with anyone touching me after what just went down.

Honestly who would even feel comfortable with any sort of touch from a person after you just got choked by someone? Until Colby came over everyone just stopped what they were doing and watched. So much for a city with good citizens. Not even a single employee came over to try and stop anything or even get bystanders to get out of the way.

I just wanted to feel safe. I didn't want comfort. I didn't want pity. Just safety.

"Hey, hey... it's just me Soph." Colby cooed, trying to calm me. "Please, I just don't want touched right now." I said as I wiggled out of his hold.

I just wanted to fucking breathe.

Being in the midst of almost a panic attack after being choked so much, I should've passed out. It wasn't the first time he's done this to me, but it was the first time in public that he's done this specifically.

Nobody understands my point of view unless they're in my shoes. My dad was simply an abusive alcoholic, and it's clear he's still mad about me selling my Grandma's house. But at this point I didn't care, I needed out of Denver to protect my life.

"Please, follow me to my office." I looked over at Colby before going into the room. "Can you please just wait out here? I can't handle everyone at once. I need to regroup so I can get this over with."

He nodded his head and pressed a gentle kiss to my cheek, and quickly pulled his mask back up. I walked into the office to be met by two police officers as well.

"Take a seat." The stores manager said and pointed to the chair I could sit in. I sat down and crossed my arms over my chest, looking over the three people in front of me.

"My name is Joseph, I'm the stores manager. I do apologize for the altercation that just went down and not getting out there soon enough to help. An employee spotted what was happening and came to me, and I made the decision to call 911 and get some police on the scene. Matters like this we take very seriously." He sat down in his own chair and directed his attention over to the two cops.

There was a man and a woman there.

"My name is Alan and I'm here with my partner Melissa. We are here to assist you with this situation. Can you explain to us what happened to cause any of this?"

I nodded slightly and balled my sleeves up in my hands. It all happened so quick but I needed to really think and keep my story straight.

"Well, myself and Colby, which is the gentlemen waiting outside of here, we came down to grab down groceries so I could cook us dinner. We aren't together, we're kind of on the way to it. Anyways, I told him I would meet him at the register after I grabbed us some drinks, and told him if there was anything else he wanted to grab it."

I reached up and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear so it was no longer curtaining my face.

"I guess I was taking too long and Colby went to find me, and he heard some commotion. He ran over and found my dad, Brian, choking me in the aisle."

"Now why exactly would your father be doing this?" Melissa asked as she scribbled away on a small notepad.

"He's a raging alcoholic. My entire life he's been abusive. I don't know how he has such a good reputation at work because that's the only place he won't drink. He doesn't let my mom work, but be a housewife and wait on him. He got my siblings to follow in those footsteps but I wouldn't allow that for myself. He's basically obsessed with my ex-fiancé Evan. He wanted me to be a housewife for him and I wasn't trying to let what I wanted to do with my life go down the drain. That's not fair to me."

"Are you talking about Evan Peterson?" Alan asked, and I nodded my head. "Interesting. He's dating my sister's daughter."

"I'm not here to intrude on their relationship; it's just only fair that I tell you the entire story of what led up to today." I paused and looked at him as he nodded his head once. "Go on."

"It was the day I found my wedding dress and made a down payment on it. I was so excited that things were progressing with the wedding planning, and came home ready to tell him I found the dress that made me feel like an absolute princess. That was until I came home and found him sleeping with another girl in my bed. It turns out they had been dating behind my back because she was okay with living the housewife life. I broke off the engagement out of pure embarrassment. Obviously, they are still together. He took all of his stuff and left, let alone took all of our pets and left me to be the epitome of alone."

I awkwardly rubbed my hand on the back of my neck. It wasn't the most comfortable thing to be telling Alan this when Evan is dating his niece.

"Now fast forward to Thanksgiving. My dad doesn't shut up about Evan. We were having dinner and he pulls out two chairs. Turns out the two of them were invited by my dad and that was the final straw for me. I was already planning on telling them that I was moving away before I got there, but I was so pissed off at how badly he would disrespect me that I said it right then and there."

I sat there for a moment chewing on the inside of my cheek. "That's why I didn't want Colby in here. I'm surprising him by moving to LA to be with him."

"Doesn't that seem like a pretty risky move?" Melissa asked out of curiosity.

"Not in the slightest. When I visited LA and met him, everything in my life began to fall into place. I know that he's the right person for me, and that LA is meant to be my home. I'm not happy here. I never was. I've just been living the shell of a life, always having to lie about why I had new bruises or marks on me. That's not fair! I refuse to be unhappy because of all of them."

I stood up from the chair I was sitting in and began pacing from one end of the room to the other as I spoke.

"At Thanksgiving my dad ended up telling me that I was adopted. I can imagine my biological parents would be better than this, but honestly who knows? He's mad because I want to sell his mothers house that I've been living in for seven years. Mad enough that he slapped me, and I pushed him away and threw a drink on him. I needed him distracted so I could safely get away from him. When she died, she left the house to me in her will. She always wanted to me to go after my dreams. That's what I'm trying to do, but I also want to feel safe while I'm still here trying to get this place sold."

"Copy that." Alan closed his notebook and looked over to me, then glancing at the paused video footage. "Now I know this is going to be hard, and you don't have to watch it, but we do need to look over the surveillance footage of the incident."

"Of course. Do whatever you need to do." I slowly sat back down in the chair and pulled my knees up to my chest as I watched the video.

This man that I was supposed to look up to as a father figure had so much rage towards me. It was really as if I was the child he never wanted. If that was the case, why not put me back up for adoption when I was still young enough? Why keep me around for the torture? The emotional and physical abuse? What made me deserve all of this?

Alan paused the video and pulled his radio out, pressing the button to speak. "Edward, do you copy?"

"Go for Edward." The man on the other end responded.

"We got all of the evidence that we need, cuff him." He turned to look over at me with a smile on his face.

"We're going to do everything in our power to keep this family away from you. For your dad, leave that to us." He said and I nodded. "Keep an eye on your throat. If bruises or any marks start to form we will want photographic port of of it."

"What about past pictures I have from other occasions?" I asked.

"Whatever you have, please send it out way." Melissa said as she handed me two cards with both of their information.

Was this the start of my freedom?