Slapping a tear from her face, she stared at the doctor with bruised and swollen eyes. “I would have thought I’d be stronger than I was. That, perhaps, what my father had done to me would have taught me to run at the first sign of abuse.” She shuddered, clenching her eyes shut against the memories. “I don’t understand the dreams, Doc. Not the direction they took or the way the memories got jumbled. Why did you keep taking me back to discuss my father? How did you know that he had anything to do with the events of my life with Max?”
Settling back against his seat, the doctor tapped his pen against his notebook before reaching up to reposition his glasses over his nose. “I believe you put yourself in the place of a captive woman because you couldn’t face something far more frightening: the fact that you ran away from one abusive man, just to end up in the arms of another. I thought that by remembering the actions of your father, it would open you up to remember what occurred with Max.”
She sighed. “Well, it worked. That and reminding me of the damn price I paid for the luxury Max had given me. For the life he’d chosen for me.”
Glancing at the clock ticking on the wall, the doctor looked back at her. He didn’t need to remind her that time continued marching forward to an unknown end.
“You have to keep going, Alice. We have to piece together this puzzle in time.”
Alice shook her head, her arms tightening even more over her legs. “It’s not going to save her, Doc. Time has already run out.”
Giving her a patient and thoughtful look, the doctor spoke softly when he said, “We’ve established that the dreams are memories, Alice. Why do you still insist this has something to do with you sister?”
A violent tremor coursed over Alice’s body, screams erupting in her mind because she allowed herself to go to that place.
It was the truth that broke her apart completely, the memory she never wanted to face.
“Because it has everything to do with Delilah, Doc. Of that, I’m entirely certain.”
A year had passed since Alice and Max married, and in that year Max had laid down a set of rules that Alice was expected to follow. What he asked of her was nothing surprising or unheard of when it came to the roles played by a married couple, and when Max had first made his demands and listed his expectations, Alice hadn’t thought twice about what those demands would one day mean.
It was never more than just the two of them. Neither had to leave the house to work on a daily basis, however Max would often leave for a few days at a time to manage the multiple properties his family had owned and left to him when they died.
In addition, there was still a lucrative family business that provided income to Max, and although he didn’t have an active role in any of the companies, he was still an overseer, an owner that had to check in every so often to ensure that the businesses were being managed successfully.
Alice never bothered to ask the details. It never concerned her and she didn’t much care for anything that occurred in the outside world. She was happy in the small bubble she’d created for herself, venturing outside of the house only on the nights when Max insisted on taking her to the theater, to dinner or to some other special date he’d arranged.
However, over the course of their short marriage, Max’ change in behavior had been subtle. Alice didn’t understand the danger she was in until the day came where he could no longer hide the person that he was, the monster that had been hidden inside him all along.
While Max was away on one of his extended trips, Alice had come down with a cold. She’d attempted to work in the garden that she’d planted over the spring and summer months. She didn’t have to do much to bring the garden to full bloom and she was thankful for the richness of the soil that fed the plants so abundantly that Alice had to do little more than stick them in the ground. Looking over the garden that had been a pathetic plot of dirt before she selected the plants that were now growing healthy and strong, Alice smiled.
Her head bothered her because of the sweltering heat. She wasn’t able to stay outside for much longer than an hour before retreating back inside to drink a cup of tea and lie down for a mid-afternoon nap.
Her disorders hadn’t bothered her since the first night she slept in Max’ arms, but on the nights he was away, she found herself thrashing, especially now that she was sick.
Having only been able to sleep for an hour, she woke with a start, her body springing forward to find the pillows on the floor and the sheets tangled tightly around her feet. She looked up and jumped in surprise to find Max standing silently at the foot of their bed.
A smile spread across her face to see him after the week he’d been gone, but as her eyes cleared of the blur left from sleep, his expression frightened her and the smile slipped away.
“Max?”
His eyes were a slice of cold steel across her senses, his lips a thin sharp line that pulled up into a sneer.
“Are you enjoying the life I’ve given you, Alice?” Every word he spoke dripped with sickening venom, the icy chill of his voice crawling up her skin until she’d frozen in place.