(Tw: cursing, abuse)

"V I'm home!"

"Hey sweetie how was the meeting."

"Oh it was great! I think we're really making some progress on the writing and luckily we all agree on most on the things with the plot and stuff."

"That's great honey!"

"How is it going with the students?"

On top of being a scientist and a lawyer my wife was now teaching law at a university, I really don't know how i keep tricking this woman into loving me.

"Oh they're doing incredible, definitely clever kids."

As I put my coat away V spotted the coffee and pastries.

"Ohh Lin that looks good!"

"Yeah i thought I'd bring some lunch!"

As we all sat down at the dining table sebastian immediately started playing with his food.

"Sebastian don't play with your food like that." I gently chided him.

"Was sara behind the counter today?" Vanessa asked me. She was a lot closer with sara and I'm yet to understand why.

"Yeah she was, still a bit tense tho."

"Weird, she never acts like that when she's around me." Vanessa pointed out.

"Do you think it has to do with me"

"Probably not, you don't exactly come over very threatening ."

I scoffed mock offended. "Excuse me!"

"What I meant was that maybe she's just not a big fan of men in general."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I don't know too much about her but maybe she's had some bad experiences with men in her life, that can change you forever."

I suddenly felt guilt rush over me. What if I pressured her too much over the past month not even knowing why she was uncomfortable around me!

My wife must have seen it in my eyes because she grabbed my hand and told me softly: "you don't have to blame yourself for anything, just be kind to her and maybe she'll open up a bit more." I smiled at my wife but our little moment was soon interrupted by our youngest son frankie deciding he had enough of his food and throwing it on the ground. "Frankie no throwing food." I told him sternly before picking it up and placing it on my own plate, briefly thinking about when the last time was that the floor had been scrubbed. Deciding not to care I quickly put it in my mouth.

That evening, around 10 pm, V had decided I had been holed up in my room writing for too many hours now and advised me to take tobi out for a walk in the park. I grabbed my boots and my coat and headed out the door after giving V a kiss on the cheek.

As i walked through the park I couldn't quite get sara out of my head. "Maybe she's had some bad experiences with the men in her life." The words kept wandering through my mind. I also didn't understand why I cared so much. I don't mean that to sound like I don't have any empathy, but I barely know her. Still, I feel protective of her. Maybe it's her age too, she can't be older than 22. At this point I was out of the park and back on the street headed home.

As if on cue I saw sara in the distance. I was about to walk toward her to say hello when I saw a man standing with her. He seemed much older than her, he could be 35. With my wife's words still on my mind I decided to stand behind a big truck so that I could see them but they couldn't see me. My heart started beating faster when i realized he was yelling at her.

"YOU WHORE WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU DOING OUT SO LATE WITHOUT ME!"

"I told you I was out with a friend, I texted you but you didn't reply so I didn't think it would be a problem." She said with her head cast down and her eyes fearful.

The man continued yelling but I couldn't hear anything anymore. I just stood there frozen as I watched him scream and occasionally grab her way too rough by her upper arm or violently tilt her chin up forcing her to look at him. I wanted to do something. To run over to them and push the man away, but I couldn't I just stood there completely frozen, not being able to comprehend what was happening in front of me.

As soon as I snapped out of my trance I realized they were gone. "Shit!" I muttered. I started to panic, frantically looking around to where they might have gone. I didn't see anyone and the street was silent. With tears in my eyes I sprinted home.