"You hurt my mother."
King's normally stony façade was replaced with heat, and not the good kind either. All that heat was aimed at me as I sat on the edge of the bed and waited.
This was the first day in three years that I had not prepared dinner for the family. Instead, I had been sent to my room like some unruly twelve-year-old. Not even my own mother had ever sent me to my room.
I wouldn't say I was a good girl, although I did try hard to please people, but I also didn't go out of my way to cause trouble either. Whatever trouble I had made in the past, I'd manage to cover up or talk my way out of.
I didn't think King would cut me any slack for the situation leading to me kicking Lettie. I honestly never meant to hurt her. I was taught to respect my elders, but it wasn't in me to injure anyone, even if I weren't. And I could really have hurt the old lady.
"I'm sorry."
"She said you showed no remorse."
"I apologized to her. I meant it. I still do."
"Why did you kick her?"
With that, my head snapped up. "No one told you? All they said is I attacked her?"
"Teela, there is no excuse for hitting an elder."
"You're right, but I didn't just kick her out of the blue." I cupped my stomach. "King, they injected me with fertility hormones against my consent. I hate needles. Your mom expects me to show up in front of her every single day until I'm pregnant for more shots. King, I was freaking out."
King hmphed. He looked rattled for the first time ever. He ran a hand through his hair and studied me.
I felt seen. I never felt seen anymore. It made me uncomfortable.
"Mom wouldn't do anything to hurt you intentionally. If she thinks the treatments are in the family's best interest, then just go with it."
"But what about my best interest?"
"What is good for the family is in your best interest."
"So when I married you, I agreed to give up my basic rights as a human being? I don't even have a say over my own health? King, are you listening to yourself?
"Your mom isn't some god. She can't do whatever she wants."
"She can in this house."
This conversation was bringing out the defiant bitch in me that I'd pushed down so hard since joining the Heavenly family. I'd sacrificed everything to be King's wife and Lettie's daughter-in-law. I'd given up so much that I didn't even recognize myself now.
I remembered Lettie saying she was leaving it to King to deal with me. She'd told me that, at the same time, she would never forgive me for marrying her son. Was this his way of dealing with me?
"Alright. So what you are saying is your way of dealing with me is to kick me out of the house?"
"What gave you that idea?"
"Isn't that what all of this is about? You never talk to me. Now we've had an entire argument. It can't mean anything good."
Only leaving the house didn't necessarily feel like something bad. In fact, if my mother had left me more savings before she died, it would have been a huge relief, but most of Mom's assets had gone to paying medical bills. What was left, I'd stretched out over the last three years to buy personal hygiene items and small gifts for Thing One and Thing Two.
"No, Teela, it isn't, but that doesn't mean you get off Scot free. Violence and disobedience have consequences." He pointed to a spot on the carpet. "On your knees."
"What?"
"On your knees. You'll kneel here with your hands over your head until I say otherwise."
"Are you serious? I'm not a child, King."
"Would you rather I turn you over to my mom? She can be very creative with her punishments. When Daniel was twelve, he punched a hole in the wall. Mom made him sleep outside on the deck for a month to teach him to value having a bedroom.
"He went another month without a bed."
"I'd rather sleep outside."
I folded my arms across my chest, refusing to move.
"Not an option, Teela. Just kneel and get it over with. After an hour, I'll tell Mom it's done."
"King, no."
Before I knew it, King grabbed my arm and pulled me off the bed, then used brute force to press me to my knees. It could have been worse, I suppose. I could have been kneeling on concrete or glass instead of carpet, but at that moment, I saw red.
King kneeled beside me and pulled my arms in the air. I tried to go limp, but he wasn't having it. With a shake, he made it clear he was serious.
I corrected my posture and stiffened while I stared daggers at the man before me.
Even in this position, he loomed over me. His square jaw was set solid. His gaze was on where his hands clasped my wrists. He was close enough for me to feel the heat from his body, but we only touched at my wrists.
"Don't fight it, Teela. The sooner you learn to just go with whatever Mom wants, the better it will be for everyone."
I gritted my teeth against cursing him out. I'd put up with so much. Now, I had a laundry list of small and large grievances against King and the Heavenly family. This was the pebble on top of the boulder of pent-up frustrations that broke me.
"Let. Me. Go. King Heavenly."
"No."
He shook me again. He adjusted his grip, stretching my arms even higher until I felt the twinge of discomfort radiating down my arms and sides.
The next time I struggled, his body inched flush with mine.
King threatened, "Do it again, and the timer starts all over."
I don't know how long we kneeled there like that. Long enough for a film of sweat to break out on my forehead. Certainly longer than we'd ever been this close before.
I didn't know where this timer was, but it must have gone off because, eventually, King released his grip on me and sat back.
"Don't test my Mom again, Teela. Next time will be worse."
I let my arms fall to my sides. I had thought all the housework and cooking had toughened me up. I was mistaken. My arms were noodles, and my knees were ground beef. I wasn't sure if I could stand up, but I would try. I needed space between me and King before I committed more violence and slapped him.
When King saw me struggling to get to my feet, he stood as if what we had just experienced was nothing. He put out his hand to help me up. I ignored him and crawled to the bed.
Taking it a step at a time, I was able to get on the bed and curl into a ball with my back to King.
King left.
Ignoring the pain, I tried to sleep. If I could sleep, I could forget everything that happened today, at least for a little while. Tomorrow, though, was a different story. Tomorrow, I had to devise a long-term plan to get out.
I'd had enough, but I wasn't foolish enough to leave with no place to go and no way to support myself.
As unconsciousness niggled at my periphery, the bedroom door opened. A stream of light fell across the bed.
The mattress gave as King sat on the edge of the bed. He has a first-aid kit with him.
"Teela, take off your pants and shirt. Let me apply some medicine."
"I'm fine. I just need to sleep."
King dug through the first aid kit and came up with some pills.
"At least take these. It's a pain reliever."
I rolled away from King with a groan. It was too late for his kindness.
King coaxed me. "Come on. You need to rest well. You'll return to your chores in the morning."
"What? Are you going to force me to put chemicals in my body, too? Like mother like son."
"Mom is the one who sent me back with the first aid kit."
That surprised me. I assumed she would want me to suffer through every minute that my strained muscles ached.
King continued, "But I won't force you if you don't want it. I can do that for you. What about ice packs?"
"Go away, King."
The initial discomfort in my body was fading quickly, but the injury to our marriage and my psyche lingered. These people were crazy. Anyone who married into the Heavenly family was basically a hostage for the rest of their life.
And for what? Money? In three years, I'd not seen a penny. Prestige? I wasn't even sure anyone outside the family remembered that King had a wife. He certainly never took me anywhere or introduced me to anyone. Security? Well, that one I had to give them. As long as I was willing to play by their rules, I'd always have a place in their home.
But did I want a place in this home?