Author's Note: Ugh! Life has been so crazy. Sorry I haven't been able to update lately. Please keep commenting and voting though. I love hearing your thoughts and any predictions you may have. All of you mean so much to me. Thanks for the support!

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Tommy made me sit with him at the table as he ate. My stomach was growling, but I didn’t want to get up and go get something out of the fridge. I knew that there was that slice of toast Jimmy had left for me before Jimmy left with Charles to go into town. I was just going to wait it out, but I had no clue how long Tommy was going to make me sit here awkwardly. He always like to watch me whenever I feel uncomfortable.

He was shovelling the food into his mouth and as soon as he finished he pushed his empty plate across the table towards me. His chair screeched across the floor as he stood up. He didn’t say anything to me, but he winked at me before he turned around and headed towards the stairs.

I stood up on my shaky knees as soon as Tommy turned his back to me. I grabbed his plate and ran it over to the sink. I scrubbed the plate and frying pan as hard as I could to make sure that nothing was left behind. I wasn’t supposed to be cooking, so I was just praying that none of them noticed that I had. I opened up the fridge and freezer and started moving everything around to make it look like none of the meat was taken.

I was conflicted about whether or not I wanted to go upstairs. I felt vulnerable being out in the open of the kitchen and craved the coziness of our room. But going up to my room meant that I would be closer to Tommy.

I had to get up there though. Jimmy told me I wasn’t allowed to leave our room. It’s one of the many rules I broke today.

Breaking one more rule wouldn’t be too bad. I went over to the door and grabbed the handle. If I had Buster with me then going upstairs wouldn’t be so bad. I didn’t ask to bring Buster inside, but I didn’t really care at the moment.

It was locked though. Of course it was. Jimmy may sometimes leave the door unlocked, but Charles would definitely never would. He doesn’t trust me the same way that Jimmy does. That’s why I love Jimmy so much.

I made my way over to the stairs and carefully cradled my stomach. I kept a tight grip on the railing as I slowly made my way up. I can’t believe that just an hour ago Tommy was trying to push me down these. The stairs creaked under each of my slow, cautious steps, and it caused a shiver to run up my spine. Once my feet were firmly on the faded wood floors, I took off running to our room. I closed the door behind me and collapsed onto the floor.

Shuffling back across the floor, I pressed my back up against the door. There was no lock anymore and this was the best I could do to keep myself safe. I was too weak to move any furniture to try and barricade the door.

My heart felt like it was beating out of my chest as each minute slowly ticked by as I was waiting for Jimmy. I rubbed my belly and thought about that house down the street he always talks about it.

I want it.

I want my family.

I want my safety.

--

I let out a quick cry as I began to fall backwards. My eyes sprung open and my heart jumped in my chest. Two cold hands came out and grabbed my arms. I looked up to see I had fallen back into Jimmy’s legs. I must have fell asleep while waiting for him.

“Whoa, Julie,” he said. He sounded just as shocked as I felt. “Why are you on the floor?”

“I must have fallen asleep,” I admitted.

I rubbed my eyes with the back of my hand. Jimmy leaned down and picked me up off of the ground. He lifted me up in his arms and I curled myself into his body. He still had his jacket on, he must have come up here as soon as he came home. He was worried about me. He wanted to make sure I was okay as soon as he possibly could.

“Why were you on the floor though, sweetie?” he asked me.

“Maybe I was sleep walking,” I mumbled.

Jimmy started to lightly put me down on the bed, but I continued to cling to his jacket. I didn’t want him to leave me yet. He reached up and carefully pried my fingers off of him.

“You’ve got to be careful, Julie,” he warned me. “You could have hurt the baby.”

If he only knew what Tommy wanted to do.

“I’m sorry,” I apologized. “I’ve never done that before.”

“Well, I’ll keep an eye out for you while you’re sleeping,” Jimmy said chuckling.

My lips curled into a smile. I watched him strip off of his jacket and throw it over the back of the rocking chair. He stretched his arms up over his back and then turned around to face me.

“Tommy didn’t bother you, did he?” he asked.

“No,” I forced the word off of my lips.

I couldn’t tell Jimmy the truth. If I did Tommy would kill our baby for sure. I can’t let him do that. I couldn’t. I don’t know what I would do if I lost our son.

“That’s good,” Jimmy said with a smile. “Are you hungry?”

“A bit,” I told him.

“Let’s go and get something then. We got food, but I couldn’t convince Dad to buy any meat. Don’t worry, it won’t be long until someone comes around.”

My stomach twisted when he said the word meat. I bit down on my cheeks so that Jimmy wouldn’t notice me panicking. I swung my legs off of the bed and walked towards Jimmy. If I acted like nothing was wrong then nobody would notice.

I got up on my toes and kissed Jimmy. He wrapped his arms around my back and pulled me in closer to him. He gave me one tight squeeze before letting me go.

“I missed you so much today,” he told me softly.

“I missed you too,” I told him, letting my lips curl into an even bigger smile.

He leaned down for one last kiss before he laced his fingers through mine and guiding me out of the room. We walked down the stairs and I could hear Tommy and Charles talking.

Tommy stood at the counter emptying bags and handing the items over to Charles so that he could put it into the fridge. Tommy would open up the odd cupboard whenever he pulled out a can. I couldn’t understand what they were saying, but I could hear soft murmurs and then Tommy let out a laugh.

“You’re obviously feeling better,” Jimmy told him as we walked into the kitchen.

Subconsciously, I squeezed Jimmy’s hand tightly. Being around Tommy made me nervous. Even if Jimmy was here to protect me I knew I was never safe from his sickening smirks. I know exactly what he’s thinking when he flashes it.

“Yeah,” Tommy said not turning around. “It must have been one of those things where I just needed to sleep it off.”

“Good to hear,” Charles said. “We have lots of work to do tomorrow.”

“I’ll be in shape for it,” Tommy said as he started to flatten the empty bags.

“Any of you kids hungry?” Charles asked as he got up off of his knees and closed the fridge door.

“Depends,” Tommy said. “Are we going to get some meat?”

Like you haven’t had enough already?

I wanted to scream, but it was useless. Charles shot Tommy a look before he turned around to put away the bags. Charles opened up the door again and looked at the now full refrigerator. He shuffled the items around again in the fridge and I could see the chunk of meat that I cut up today.

Easily half of it was gone. Charles’s hand hovered over everything on the top shelf and my heart would pound harder whenever he got close to it. I watched as his face quickly dropped and his eyebrows scrunch together.

The bile was rising in my throat as he reached out and grabbed it.

“Julie, I have a question.”