He dragged me into the bathroom.
Sure enough, a pipe had burst, and water covered the floor. A few neighbors who'd followed us in took one look and started murmuring.
"So he really was fixing a pipe. Maybe it was all a misunderstanding?"
"Of course it was a misunderstanding!" Bianca rushed over, eyes rimmed red. "Tilda, I know you trapped Nathan into marrying you by using your pregnancy as leverage, but not every woman is like you!"
"I'm independent. I don't need a man to survive. I'm nothing like you. I didn't spread my legs for some guy before I even had a marriage certificate!"
The crowd erupted.
Every pair of eyes turned toward me, glinting with mockery and amusement.
"No wonder she's so paranoid about other women. Look at what she did herself."
"I knew it. The day she moved in, I could smell that kind of woman a mile away."
Bianca saw that everyone had taken her side. Triumph flickered across her face.
"I already called the police. Breaking into someone's home is a crime!"
I stared at that face of hers, and a surge of fury roared through me. Before I could think, my hand shot out and cracked across her cheek.
The sharp sound hung in the air. Then I saw Nathan's expression. His eyes were bloodshot, his jaw clenched so tight the muscles twitched.
He shoved me hard, and his palm came down across my face with full force.
Right then, several officers in uniform arrived at the door.
I fell back onto the bathroom tiles, the lower half of my body soaked through with cold water. I was shaking uncontrollably.
"Nathan Ellison, you hit me?"
Nathan seemed dazed for a moment after the slap. But Bianca leaned into his arms, and just like that, the clarity returned to his eyes.
"You were being completely unreasonable. Why wouldn't I hit you?"
"Officers, take my wife away. I think she could use some time reflecting on her behavior."
Then he actually asked them to put me in handcuffs.
My cheek burned with searing pain. My body, still weak from the procedure, could barely hold itself upright. The agony swallowed every word I tried to say. I was led to the car in silence.
Because I was soaked from head to toe, a female officer handed me a towel to wrap around myself. But I couldn't stop trembling.
Bianca called the station directly.
"I'm not going to forgive her. Let her sit in there for a full day!"
Nathan said he'd go along with whatever Bianca wanted.
My clothes slowly dried against my skin from body heat alone. I really was held at the station the entire night.
Nathan didn't come to see me. Not once.
I just sat there, staring blankly out the window at the fireworks blooming across the sky. The officers on the night shift were chatting among themselves.
"The Ellison family has that kind of money? Those fireworks have been going for three hours straight and they're still not done?"
"You haven't checked social media? His little girlfriend got upset, so he's setting off fireworks to cheer her up. He's even making up some excuse that someone else is behind it."
"Didn't people say a while back that Ellison Group had some kind of financial trouble?"
"Come on, you actually believed that? That was just a stunt."
I curled up in a corner all night. The next morning, I walked out of the station in a daze.
I barely made it around the corner before a burlap sack was yanked over my head and I was dragged into an alley.
The sack was ripped away. Several pairs of hands slapped me across the face, hard and fast. Two, three strikes, and both cheeks had already swollen grotesquely.
I spat out a mouthful of blood and tried to make out the faces in front of me.
Another slap answered that effort.
"Don't even look at us. You messed with the wrong person, and this is what you get!"
"That man belongs to the boss lady. Who do you think you are, trying to take a bite?"
They kicked me a few more times. When I was curled up in a puddle on the ground, they finally sneered and walked away.
The buzzing of my phone dragged me back to consciousness.
I answered it on instinct.
Nathan's voice was light, breezy, as if nothing unpleasant had happened at all.
"Tilda, I'm really swamped today. No time to come pick you up, so just walk home on your own. It's only about ten miles anyway."
"And don't go misunderstanding my Bianca again. She's got a proud streak. She blows up when people accuse her of things she didn't do."
