We’d been singing happy birthday to Calvin, everyone holding their drinks in the air, giving a cheers to him. It was the first time I allowed myself happiness like that in a long time. Jake hovered close behind me, and I shuddered to remember the way he always had control. I recalled the way the bar was packed that night, a warm fall day with many out to enjoy it into the night.

“It was loud. I could barely hear Calvin and my friends over all the chatter,” I said.

It was almost like a my mind placed me right back in the moment. Reality slipping away.

“Did you notice anyone? Someone around you who didn’t fit or was taking notice of your group?”

I glanced around the room. I could see my friends, people I hadn’t spoken to in years now. Calvin with his arm around Eloise. It was one of the first times I truly got to know her. Jake’s hands were on the small of my back, but not in a comforting manner. It was in the type of way I knew, at any moment, he’d rip me from the joy.

I tried to look around, but I didn’t notice anyone else.

“No,” I said, feeling discouraged.

My heart raced, and I felt the sinking in my stomach.

“It’s alright,” Stone assured me. “You’re doing great.”

I knew it was the calm before the storm. I’d lived it out before. Any moment now, Jake would pick a fight and storm off, leaving me alone at the pub.

“What happens next, Lenny?” he pushed gently, and I ignored the flutter my stomach gave at the name.

My hands trembled in my lap the second I pushed forward in the timeline. I couldn’t tell if it was real or just part of the memory.

Jake spun me around to let me quietly know it was time to go, but I hadn’t wanted to leave. I wasn’t ready. My brother‘s birthday was the first time I’d been able to celebrate with him, and I wanted to share my own news. I’d been waiting for the right moment to pull him aside and tell him, but I hadn’t found my chance yet. All I wanted was to share one night with my friends and family, then go back to being the perfect fiancée Jake expected.

“He left,” I said quietly.

“Who left?”

The moment I protested leaving, he’d been pissed. He pulled me off to the side of the bar and started laying into me as quietly as he could, but I could hear the anger behind every word he spat in my face.

Ungrateful, disobedient, bitch.

Just a few the choice words used to shame me. I remembered holding my stomach, praying it would end.

“Fine. If you want to throw everything away for this, I’m leaving,” he hissed.