"You stupid bitch!" he shouts as he smacks me across the face, causing me to fall onto the ground. I wipe my hand across my mouth and once I look down I see blood covering my hand. He goes to kick me but I manage to move just in time, which he didn't like.
He then makes his way towards me again even more pissed than he was before. He grabbed me by my hair and lifted me off the floor so that I was now standing in front of him.
"You're going to fucking regret doing that."
I wake up gasping for air as I realized that it was all just a dream. He's not here and I'm not in London, I'm safe and perfectly fine. Although I am confused about how I got home, I don't really remember anything from last night. I know I went to work at the club like I do every night. I just can't recall anything that happened when I was there. All I do know is that I have a pounding headache right now, and I need to do something about it.
I slowly got out of bed and that's when I realized that I was still in my work clothes, which only made my confusion grow more. I don't bother changing right away because I need to wake Amelia up and have her eat breakfast. As I exit my room that's in my small two-bedroom apartment, I make my way across the hall to Amelia's room.
"Amelia?" I call my daughter's name softly as I enter her room, I make my way around all of the dolls that she has lying around her floor to her bed. She is still sound asleep which makes me smile at how cute she looked. She had her blonde hair up in two space buns which I am assuming Jenna had done before she put her to bed, and she was wearing her favorite set of Barbie pajamas.
I look down at her and move her hair out of her face, which makes her slowly open her eyes. Her blue eyes locked on my green ones before a smile appeared on her face. My heart swells as I look at my beautiful daughter. I sometimes feel like a bad mother because I can't look her in the eyes because she looks so much like him. It has improved over the years, but when she was first born it was hard. I didn't love her any less because she looked like him, in fact, I love her more than anything in this world.
She was my world.
"Good morning Sunshine." I say as I kiss her on her head as she sits up to hug me.
"Good morning Mommy." Amelia was five years old, and she was a very sensitive child. She has separation anxiety from me and whenever I'm not around she tends to have small panic attacks. When Jenna had first started to babysit for me I remember having to leave my shifts early to come home and take care of Amelia before she got sent to a hospital. That was my biggest fear for two reasons, one no one ever wants to see their child in a hospital, and two I didn't want him finding us.
Leaving work early all the time was why I got fired from my last job at the diner, but luckily as time went on Amelia grew to like and trust Jenna so she feels content with her. There are still some rocky days but it has gotten better. I think her anxiety had formed because when she was little I refused to ever let her out of my sight, especially considering the circumstances we were in, are still in.
"Let's go eat some breakfast, what do you say?"
"Yes please." She gets out of bed and I walk her out of her room to the bathroom to help her brush her teeth.
"What sounds good to eat this morning, Sunshine?" She looks at me for a few seconds before putting her index finger on her chin in a mock-thinking manner.
"Pancakes!"
"Okay, you finish up here and I will start the pancakes." I make my way out to the kitchen but stop mid-way when I see Jenna sleeping on the couch. She never stays the night, unless I have an all nighter shift. Which I didn't last night, not that I can remember at least.
"Jenna." I say her name as I gently shake her shoulders which causes her to wake up. Once she sees me her eyes widen and she sits up quickly.
"Oh thank god you're okay, you fucking had me worried Lucy." She says my fake name which sometimes catches me off guard. I forget that I'm no longer Lydia Jones, here in New York I'm Lucy Meyers. A single mom who works at a club that pays pretty decent, not enough to move out of state or to a new apartment complex, but enough to put food on the table for Amelia and I.
"Why wouldn't I be okay?" I asked confused as to where this was going.
"One of your coworkers last night had to bring you home, she said that you passed out during your shift at the club. I told you that you needed to start eating more before going to work that late at night Lucy." I don't hear anything else that leaves her mouth after she says the first sentence.
I passed out at work?
That doesn't make sense, I was feeling perfectly fine when I arrived at the club and I did eat before my shift. So passing out at work didn't seem likely, but yet again I don't remember anything about last night and I woke up with a headache so maybe it was a possibility.
"What coworker was it?" Last time I checked everyone I worked with hated my guts. They were all single women in their twenties who only worked there to get some action from the rich men that attended Club Phoenix. Not to mention they all had a thing for our boss, whom I have never met in person before. The only coworker I could think of is the bartender Scott who is pretty nice to me but Jenna had said "she", so it couldn't be Scott.
"I don't know, she never told me her name." Jenna shrugs as she gets off the couch and folds the blanket she was using.
"Why don't you go change and take a quick shower, it might help make you feel better." She suggested as she looked at me, I probably look like a hot mess.
"I have to make Amelia pancakes."
"It's fine I'll make all of us breakfast while you go take care of yourself." I go to argue again but she gives me a look which makes me shut my mouth and make my way to the bathroom where Amelia was still finishing up.
"Mommy's going to take a quick shower, Jenna says she will make the pancakes for us. Is that alright Sunshine?" I asked which made Amelia look up at me with puppy dog eyes.
"What's wrong my love." I bent down so that I was now face to face with Amelia to see that she had tears growing in her eyes.
"Don't cry, do you want to shower with me." She nods her head which makes me smile, I quickly exit the bathroom to grab some clothes for Amelia and me before I enter the bathroom and started the shower for the two of us. Once we were done, we both exited and I dried both of us before getting Amelia dressed first and then myself.
After I finished getting the two of us ready for the day, I then took Amelia out to the kitchen where Jenna was standing making all of our plates. I wasn't aware of how hungry I was until the smell of pancakes hit my nose, causing my stomach to groan in anticipation of the delicious food to come.
"There you guys go, I made sure there were extra strawberries for you Melly." Jenna says to Amelia as she places her plate down infront of her. Then passes me my plate with a smile on her face. She then grabs a plate for herself before taking a seat next to me.
"Do you work tonight?" She asked me as she took a bite of her food.
"No, I have tonight off, I was just going to go out and do a little bit of shopping." I got my check for this week and I wanted to go get somethings for the apartment and Amelia. I also had to pay rent, which I am happy that I can actually cover this months rent, the past few months I have been late which has managed to make my landlord grow a hatred towards me.
"Okay, I'll watch Amelia for that time then. Oh and Lucy, I need to know when my next check will be, you know I love watching Melly but at the same time. I have bills to pay." She acts as if I didn't know. I'm not exactly friends with Jenna, but I respect her and I appreciate her watching Amelia. I just don't enjoy her throwing the favor in my face.
I send her a small smile before getting out of my seat, I make my way over to my purse pulling out the two-hundred dollars that I owe her. I hand it to her which makes her smile up at me.
"Thanks Lucy, so how long do you plan to be out. I am suppose to meet up with some friends later." If it was up to me I would have no problem taking Amelia with me. The only problem is I don't want her to be in any kind of danger. If they were to catch up to us, I rather them catch me instead of her.
"Not too long, and hour or two at most." We eat the rest of our breakfeast while we listened to Amelia's crazy stories before I cleaned up the kitchen. After I finished in the kitchen I said goodbye to Amelia before I left to head to the store. On my walk to the store I make sure to watch my surroundings just in case anything looks out of the ordinary, but I was interrupted by my phone buzzing in my pocket.
I grab it to see that it was a text from an unknown number, and it had my heart beating out of my chest in fear and aniexty, and it was enough to send me running back towards my apartment.
UNKNOWN: I can't wait to see you again, Princess.
~~~