Elaine

  Elaine hummed to herself as she flipped the pan over, avoiding the utensils that would no doubt make clanging sounds and wake the entire family. Eden had been occupied recently with trying to find a good job and while he never spoke of his troubles to Elaine, she knew it bothered him a lot. The constant sneering and mistreatment from her family was beginning to wear him down.

   It had taken her pleas and cries to even get him to move in with the family and that might have been the biggest mistake ever.

  The least she could do was make him a hot meal. He’d come back so tired, he fell asleep before his head hit the pillow. She sighed and started to lift the plate off the counter, but it slipped from her oily hands and crashed into the tiled floor, shattering to bits.

   Her eyes widened and she fell to the floor, gathering the broken shards of glass. Shit, shit, shit! They couldn’t find her in here. They couldn’t find herhere. . .

    The sound of slamming doors and shuffling feet filled the air and Elaine’s lips quivered as fear filled her. She recognized the light, steady steps her grandmother usually walked in and when she raised her head to look at the door, Grandma Mia was observing her with disdain.

   “What, pray tell, are you doing there, scraping the floors like a scullery maid? Has your useless husband put you up to this?”

   Elaine bit down on her lower lip to avoid retorting and yelling that Eden wasn’t useless, but she knew it wouldn’t end well. The last time she did that, they had accused Eden of brainwashing her and they had made him sleep outside, in the snow, just to punish her. So she said, “I—I was hungry. I thought I’d make a toast. . .”

   Annabel, Derek’s wife, appeared in the door way, peering over Grandma Mia’s shoulder at the mess and she scrunched up her nose in disgust. “She’s lying. She already had dinner. Must be the lazy fool’s dinner.”

    Elaine shot to her feet, ignoring the fact that her brothers were now in the kitchen. She could take it from her family. She could take the insults from them, but not from Annabel. Not from an outsider who knew nothing about Eden and the things he went through, just to be with her. Gold digger, they called him, among other vile things. They hit him, starved him, tortured him, threatened to kill him every single day. Still, he stayed for her.

   So, for the first time in a while, she stood up to them.

  But she should have known better.

             *****************

     The sound of shattering glass jarred him away.His hands instinctively dove for the left side of themakeshift bed where El favored, but it was cold and empty. He instantly knew that she had gone to the kitchen, and from the sound of shuffled feet and muffled tones, he could tell they were at it again.

   His in-laws.

   He sighed and rolled off the bed, kicking off his shoes and pushing his feet into the flip-flops. He hated this house, and if El hadn’t been so persistent, he would have preferred living in his one room apartment with her. He would work and ensure he could feed her and they would be happy.

  But El would not have it. He understood why she had been persistent. Had he taken her with him, they would subject his life to a living hell and make sure he didn’t get a job anywhere else.

    Well, his life was already just that. A living hell with only a brief moment of reprieve. El was his moment of rest and reprieve and from the looks of it,his wife was being insulted again.

   It was unusual to hear her voice raised. El was usually calm. But he could hear her yelling at someone from where he stood and he rushed down the stairs and across the vast hall.

  “You do not take Eden’s name! You do not insult him. I do not bloody care that Derek is my brother.The next time you insult my husband is the day you wake up to a knife in your gut!”

    Eden stopped by the door of the kitchen and peered over the teeming crowd of antagonistic family members and something gave in his chest when he gazed upon El. Her chartreuse green eyes were bright with fury and her chest rose and fell rapidly as she pointed at Annabel with a deathly glare. He shivered slightly. He had not seen this side to El in a while. Not since they had taken everything from her—her car keys, her private residence, her paychecks she had worked hard for and finally, her job—for getting married to him. He had forgotten how scary his wife could be when she gave in to her fury.

     Annabel shifted uncomfortably, gravitating toward her husband for protection.

    “Elaine!” Derek loud voice boomed across the kitchen and he moved, raising his hand to hit Elaine.

    But Eden was faster. The broken glass pieces on the floor tore through his flip-flops and he ignored the pain that seared through him as glass broke skin. He hand was instantly there, intercepting what would have been a blow to his wife’s face.

    “Don’t touch her!” he bellowed.

     Derek blinked, and his green eyes that were very much like Elaine’s widened. Eden glimpsed the fear that flashed in them for a split second. Derek was a coward, and he knew he could only bully Eden because he had a weakness. They could take Elaine from him whenever they wished it, and they would go to any lengths to keep her away from him, even if it meant locking her up in a caregiver home. Her grandmother had told him that when he had beaten Derek up the first day he had set foot into the house.

    He couldn’t act out. For his wife, he would bear it.He had to.

   Derek yanked his hand from Eden’s grip and pain exploded in Eden’s jaw as Derek punched him, hard enough that he fell over, atop the glass shards. His vision blurred and as he struggled to get out of the daze, Derek sent a kick into his belly. Eden groaned, curling into a ball to dull the effect of Derek’s kicks.

   “You seem to have forgotten where you stand!” Derek yelled, and his foot met with Eden’s jaw.Another blow to his stomach had the taste of blood filling his mouth.

  He heard the sound of Elaine’s pained sobs as she begged them to stop. He heard her scream when her brother’s joined Derek in battery his body with kicks and blows that had him rolling into more glass shards. It hurt everywhere. It hurt terribly.

    And then, there was water trickling down on him, falling on his cuts and his wound. He cracked an eye open for long enough to see Annabel standing above him, pouring a jar of salted water on him, and by God, it hurt so much that he cried out.

   “You are a nobody! A bloody gold digger, Eden ‘Maguire’(Insert preferred last name),” Daniel grunted, landing another blow in Eden’s face.

   “I think that’s enough,” he heard Laurel say.

    Gregor laughed maniacally. “Shut up, Laurel, and go to bed if you won’t help us put the fool in his place.”

   “Eden—stop it Derek! Please! You’ll kill him—he’s bleeding! Please—Eden!” Elaine cried, diving for him and placing herself over him. Not wanting her to get hurt, Eden pushed her from him lightly, before Derek or her brothers would hit her.

    “If he dies, good riddance. He doesn’t deserve to be in this family anyway. We’ll do the world a favor by wiping him off the surface of the earth,” Daniel said to Elaine.

    Eden could barely hear them above the thundering of his heart and the excruciating pain coursing his body. Blood seeped from his lips and from cuts everywhere on his body. His head throbbed terribly and he felt his consciousness begin to slip from him. He’d seen worse. They’d done worse things to him. He could withstand and persevere. He had no other choice.

   “Derek, Daniel, Gregor, that’s enough now,” Grandma Mia said, granting Eden release from his tormentors. As one, they stopped, turning to face their grandmother. Daniel snickered before stepping over him and exiting the kitchen with the rest of the family.

  Derek lingered, the last among them to leave.“Touch me with your filthy hands again and I will kill you and make sure no one finds your body.”

  He stomped out and Elaine was instantly by his side, taking his face in her hands. She was crying and he hated seeing her cry. He could hardly form words, so he muttered, “Don’t.”

   But she didn’t. She cradled his face to her chest and began to sob profusely.