The Weaker Sex (Unedited)

Chapter 27

My entire face felt sore and tender the next morning, not to mention the two black eyes the doctor had told me would show up. As soon as I saw myself in the mirror I dissolved into tears on the bathroom floor. I was in my mother's position. Tobias banged on the bathroom door demanding I get out there that very instant. I shakily rose to my feet and pulled it back for him. He took my face in his hands pushing it up to look at my nose.

"You should ice it, the swelling hasn't gone down yet." I nodded as he passed by me into the bathroom. "I made you breakfast as an apology, May. I made your favorite."

I looked over to the bed to see a stack of pancakes with bacon and syrup resting on a tray.

It felt as though my voice was not the one who thanked him and it was a ghost instead. It was a ghost who sat down to quietly eat despite that her appetite was gone. What was wrong with me? This wasn't me.

"You also shouldn't think about leaving the house looking like that." He warned.

"I have school on Monday." I said, sucking in a shaky breath when he turned off the shower and stepped back into the entrance of the bathroom.

"We'll see on Monday morning if I'll allow you to go to work."

I needed someone's help and that someone was going to be the person he respected most, and the only woman he'd never hurt, his mother. Tobias eventually finished getting ready and wished me a good day with a sweet kiss on the cheek. As soon as I was sure he was gone, I dialed Emily and asked her to come over.

Her cheery voice accepted my invitation then I went to slip into a pair of fitted sweatpants and my old Virginia University sweatshirt. There was a complete lack of desire to pull my appearance together. There was nothing I could even do to make a swollen nose and two black eyes look pretty. This time he wouldn't be able to hide it. Emily arrived close to noon to have lunch with me. She gasped when I opened the door and ushered me onto the sofa.

"Oh darling girl, what happened?" she asked, timidly reaching for my nose.

"... Tobias broke it." I tearfully confessed.

"Tobias? Sweetie, what did you do?"

My tears seemed to dry up in my ducts. Her words hit me harder than Tobias.

"What did I do? He came home drunk for the 7th time in a row. I had to confront him." I said, pulling away from her hands.

"Madison, Tobias likes to spend time with his friends and sure sometimes he'll drink a little more than he should, but you can't stop him from having fun."

"What? I can't let him come home drunk at 2 in the morning every single night! Something could happen to him. This isn't my fault!"

"Of course not Madison, you didn't know any better, now you do."

This couldn't be possible. She was okay with this! What mother would be okay with her son beating his wife or girlfriend?

"I—I'm not feeling well." I said, looking down at the floor.

"I'll leave you to rest sweetie. Um... I don't mean to be the mean mother-in-law, but you should really do something about your clothes. Tobias won't be happy."

I bit down on my tongue to keep from kicking her out. Goodness knew that if my appearance didn't send Tobias over the edge, kicking out his mother would. She wished me a swift recovery then shut the front door.

Emily knew this whole time and she had never told me. This was the kind of thing you told your son's fiancée even if it ruined the wedding! My mother, my mom would help, she'd been through this, twice. I picked up the phone, feeling a ray of hope as the line rung and her voice greeted me.