What Lies Beneath

What Lies Beneath Part 51-52

~51~

After carefully arranging the flowers in the vase, she turned on the faucet, filling the vase with water. Victoria leaned her hands against the sink, closing her eyes and sobbed.

She loved Joe so much. She felt ripped in half. Part of her wanted to stay but another part of her wanted to leave for fear of her own life. Hearing footsteps she quickly dried her eyes and shut off the water, dumping out part of it so it wouldn't overflow.

"You were gone so long, I was worried baby." Victoria nearly dropped the vase she was holding when Joe came up behind her and wrapped his hands around her slender waist.

She closed her eyes and opened them again, willing her body to obey her and not break down. "I'm....sorry Joe." She stammered turning to him and giving him a kiss.

"It's okay luv. I'll take these. Go get dressed, and we'll have breakfast together. I'm cooking." Joe boasted.

Victoria smiled and padded up the carpeted stairs to their room. Pulling on a pair of blue denims and a t shirt, she ran a comb through her hair weeping as she thought to herself that she wanted so much for things to be as they were before. Taking a deep breath, she wiped her eyes and went into the kitchen to find Joe fixing up some pancakes and eggs. This was her favorite meal.

Joe smiled widely seeing Victoria standing in the doorway with her hair draped softly around her face and her simple outfit hugging her curves just right. "You look beautiful luv. Sit down, it's almost ready."

Victoria sat at the kitchen table wordlessly and took the plate from Joe's hand. He sat opposite her and began cutting the sausage with his fork. He looked up at her and winked. "You should probably call in sick to work today. We can't have you going to work like that, now can we?" Joe said as if he were simply talking about a bump on her head that looked like a goose egg.

"Yes Joe." He smiled at her and went back to his sausage.

~52~

"Good girl. I have to go into town today to pick up a few things but I won't be gone all that long so I want you to be a good girl and just stay in the house and don't answer the phone. Okay?" Joe said. Telling her, more than asking her.

He finished his breakfast and put his plate into the sink. He frowned when Victoria was just pushing the food around on her plate. "Eat luv. I don't want you getting sick." Joe told her kissing the top of her head.

Victoria placed a piece of egg in her mouth and chewed it slowly. "That's my girl." Joe left the room and when she heard Joe shut the front door she rushed to the sink and vomited what little was in her stomach.

Collapsing to the floor, Victoria sobbed realizing that Sav was right. Joe wouldn't stop until he had either landed her in the hospital or worse. Not wanting to think about the latter, she slowly rose and gathered the dirty dishes dumping her breakfast down the disposal and began cleaning up the kitchen.

The kitchen spotless Victoria called Randy and told him she was sick which was actually true and made her way upstairs sinking into the bed they shared, praying Joe would come home in a good mood.

*At Sav and Paige's*

Sav sat on the large overstuffed leather sofa with Tyler curled up in his arms watching Jimmy Neutron when Paige appeared in the doorway. "Sav, I need to talk to you a minute." Sav ruffled Tyler's hair and told him to tell him what happens and followed Paige to the kitchen.

"What's wrong luv?" Sav asked with concern thinking it was the baby.

Paige smiled. "I'm fine Sav and so is the baby. It's Victoria. I have this bad feeling. I feel like she's in a lot of trouble. I think Joe knows she told us about the beatings. Would you go over there and check on her? I would feel better knowing she's okay." Paige pleaded.

"I'll go right now." Sav stroked her cheek softly and padded from the room popping his head in the living room.