You Can Go Home Again

Chapter 5

The dining room is loud with stories and laughter. We all enjoy expensive red wine and plates of a fancy pasta dish. The room is pleasantly warm, and for the first time all the banter is only light. More wine gets passed around, and Derrick holds my hand under the table. Dad kisses Mom on the cheek, and Thomas makes kissing faces when they are not looking. I roll my eyes at Thomas and notice that the tension of why we are all here is lifted. My glass keeps getting re-filled, while others slow their drinking down. I feel as though I have forgotten something important. The dinner plates get cleared as we move on to dessert. The atmosphere becomes more relaxed as the evening gets closer to a close, but I still have that nagging feeling that I have forgotten something.

"More wine?" Derrick asks as he holds the bottle poised to pour.

"No, thank you," I answer as my head swims from all of the wine I already drank this evening. He pours more in anyway, and I cannot help but laugh a little. "Derrick," I turn to scold him, but it is not Derrick. My throat catches at his sneer.

"You know you want the wine," he suggests as he hands me the now full glass. "Drink up, Laney," he instructs. I cannot resist. I stare into the black abyss of his eyes as I down my glass. He refills it again and commands, "Again, Laney-bug." I drink again, and I feel a weird burn in my nose. Tears slip down my cheeks, although no one else in the room seems to notice what is happening. I feel sick. I set down my glass to try and breath. "That won't do, Laney," he lifts the glass back up to my lips. "Be polite, finish your drink." My head spins as I down the rest of my glass. Something about all of this seems familiar and wrong.

"Where's Derrick?" I manage to ask.

"Laney, we have been over this." He takes his napkin and dabs at the corners of my mouth. He has always made me feel like a child. He has always found joy in belittling me. "Derrick is gone. You broke his heart. You and I are together now, forever." His sneer widens, taking over his entire face. The look is grotesque, and I turn away from it.

"This isn't real. This cannot be happening."

"Laney, don't you remember? You told your Pawpaw right before he died." His voice sounds far away, yet the words are crystal clear.

"I don't want this. I don't want you. Pawpaw is still alive." I begin to sob, and still no one in the room seems to know that Ray and I exist.

"Your Pawpaw is dead. All the secrets you kept killed him. All your secrets drove Derrick away. Even your family hates you. They only tolerate you because of me." He grabs my chin aggressively again, and something about his eyes makes my whole body freeze, as if I am paralyzed. "We deserve each other. So now, you belong to me." He kisses me fiercely. He pulls back and smiles that wicked smile that sends fear throughout my bones. I get up to run away, but immediately trip. I look down at my feet and notice shackles locked around my ankles. Ray laughs, and the rest of the room follows suit.

I hear murmurs and whispers, "She deserves it."

"Ray is a saint for taking her in."

"She's hurt plenty of people, shackles are a mercy."

"You see, Laney," Ray stands up and lifts me off the floor. Why am I not fighting him? "You are mine. No matter where you go or what you do, I will always be there. I will always find you. No one else could ever want someone as beaten and broken as you. I am your savior." He carries me off into a blinding light. The next moment we arrive in an eerily quiet maternity wing of the hospital. Derrick stands over an infant bed alone in the middle of the room. Ray sets me on my feet, and I walk cautiously over to him.