L'amore e la guerra - Love and war

Ch. 3

"SLUT!"
Holy shit, thought Felicia. This is bad.
She put her hands on his chest in a vain attempt to push him away, but he would not move. Even if his left arm was pretty much useless, the rest of his muscles were another story. Ludwig was very tall and very well built. There was no chance that she could defend herself from him if he meant to hit her. So she tried to reason with him.
"What are you doing? Are you out of your mind?" she cried in fear.
He got on her eye level and hissed in her face "So, Roderich, eh?"
Felicia could think only two things: "he found the letter!", and "I'm fucked."
Seeing that Felicia avoided to look at him in the eye, he punched the doorframe and yelled
"WHAT THE FUCK HAVE YOU BEEN DOING WHILE I RISKED MY LIFE IN THAT FROZEN HELL?"
She could not think straight. She had never been so frightened. She could not believe how scared she was of Ludwig in that moment.
Seeing that he got no answers, Ludwig saw red. He slapped her across the face, making her fall on the ground. Felicia groaned in pain, started crying and clutched her cheek. Ludwig had never, ever hit her. She didn't know what to do.
Ludwig went to where she was liyng.
Felicia cowered in fear.
Ludwig took her by the hair and pulled hard to make her look at him.
Felicia stretched her arms forward to defend herself.
Ludwig spoke.
"You are the worst fucker I've ever met. What the hell were you thinking? What if the Gestapo got you? Eh?"
Felicia cried.
Ludwig got even angrier.
He got up suddenly. He towered over her.
"You... you unbelievable bitch. I loved you. And what did you do when I was away? YOU HELPED JEW RATS OUT!"
Kick.
"YOU CHEATED ON ME WITH ONE OF 'EM!"
Kick.
The blows hit Felicia straight in the stomach. They cut her breath and made her spit blood. She thought about the baby. She was shaking uncontrollably. She tried to get up and get away. She couldn't speak, and not only because of the fear.
Ludwig was beyond himself. He had never been angrier. He hoped that Felicia would say something to defend herself. That she would tell him that it was just a big misunderstanding. But she didn't.
He was furious. He kicked her again. She gave a muffled sound through her tears.
But this time Felicia gathered the strenght to speak.
"... please... let me explain... I didn't..."
"You didn't WHAT?" he yelled. But this time he didn't kick her. Hearing her voice so strained made him calm down a little.
"I didn't... c-cheat on you... I just...helped those people... because they needed... help..."
He was still towering over her. She was still cowering in fear on the ground, but there was blood on the floor now. He was slowly calming down. And slowly realizing what he had just done.
"You... you did! I saw the letter! It says lots of things... this Roderich guy... "with all my love", for fuck's sake!" but he felt he wasn't coherent anymore. He was just trying to justify himself.
And it wasn't working very well.
Felicia felt that he sounded more like himself now, but wanted to get the hell away from him anyway.
"He's just... a friend... he has a ... wife already..." she said while crawling away from him.
Ludwig stood there, looking dumbfounded. She reached the kitchen counters with her shaking hands and used them to get up. Her legs were trembling too much though.
Before she could hit the floor again Ludwig was by her side, cradling her protectively in his arms.
But it didn't make her feel any better.