Second Chance

Ellen's POV.

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I lie in bed, with every emotion possible tugging at my heart.

He has to leave I think to myself.

I can't let him stay here, not with Amelia here.

I continue my attempt to sort through what is happening, allowing sleep to take me just before dawn.

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I watch as Vance stumbles through the door. I can't tell if he's high, or drunk, or both.

"Where the fuck have you been?" he slurs, demanding this of me, as if I'm the one falling all over myself at three in the morning.

I go to explain that I've been here, waiting for him to get home.

But he doesn't listen.

Instead, he lunges toward me, punching me in my stomach.

I am on the floor, clutching my gut.

He kicks me, catching the side of my neck.

I cant do this anymore I think to myself.

I'm going to leave tomorrow. I won't stand for this anymore. I can't. I'm better than this. I deserve better than this.

But this is a motion that's been repeated countless times. And as always, I awake the next morning, and accept his apologies and promises of staying sober. Of never hurting me again.
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9:58am, the clock reads.

I get up, and go to check on Amelia. She's sitting up in her playpen, wide awake.

I lift her up, and dress her.

I love her so much, this sweet girl of mine.

But there's a hole in my heart that she has never been able to fill. The one Vance left behind the night he died. The one that the tears seemed to endlessly pour from each and every day following his death.

This man, who hurt me so bad, yet I loved so dearly. Because when you know that you're meant to love someone, that they are meant to love you, the flaws seem so small. Even when they're huge. Even when they are destroying your life. Destroying you.

I tear out a piece of paper from an empty notebook.

"Stay," I write, folding it, and placing Vance's name across the front.

I leave it on the kitchen table.