“He’s mine!” she shouts, her high-pitched tone sounding like a child who just got their favorite toy taken away from them.

She comes at me with full force, her face grimacing with as much animosity toward me as I feel for her. The impact knocks us both to the ground, with her landing on top of me. The crack of her open hand hitting my cheek echoes over the noise of the hooting and hollering.

“Please, is that the best you’ve got?” I goad her.

In a wrestler-like move I flip us over. My skirt rips, exposing half of my panty-less ass. She is now on her back and I let the bitch have it. My hands strike her in the face and chest; anywhere I can land a blow. No tears, no screams. No sound comes from me at all except my heavy breathing as I pummel the living shit out of her. She howls like a wild animal under attack.

“You rotten bitch!” I finally scream as I dig my nails in the side of her head. It’s not until I am hoisted up and off of her that she gets in her best shot. Her foot catches me in the stomach, causing me to gasp for air as the wind is nearly knocked out of me.

Strong arms circle around me. Although these aren’t the arms of the man I would have expected to comfort me, they are soothing nonetheless.

I continue to kick at Emerald, her ramblings about the things she and Cain have done together hitting me dead center. She’s poking tiny holes in my heart as she continues to throw her darts at me, the tip penetrating right through the surface. I hate them all.

Cain snatches her up viciously. Her face is a bloody mess and her mouth is shouting profanities I have never heard before. Classy.

Her muffled cries dissipate as Cain drags her off into the darkness somewhere. I’m shaking, sweat dripping down my face, and I still want to fight. The pent up fury of years towards that woman has finally been unleashed and all I want to do is cut her snarly tongue out of her mouth for claiming Cain as hers. For throwing spiteful, hurtful information about the two of them at me. She doesn’t strike me as a woman who will easily walk away. She’ll be back. Please, God. Let me be gone by the time she decides to come back. If not, I’ll be calling up a lawyer of my own. Next time I might kill her.

“You can let go of me now, Manny,” I say calmly.

“You sure? I mean, you’re not going to go running after them and attack her even more? Because woman, I have to tell you, that was some badass shit right there.”

“Yeah, well, the dumb slut deserved it. She deserved it six years ago. That was just a tiny fraction of what I could do to her. I’ve never hated anyone as much as I hate that bitch. I hope she goes home and a thousand red hot fire ants crawl up her crotch.”

Manny releases me. I turn around and we both bust out laughing.

“Oh, my God. I can’t believe I said something like that. That’s nasty,” I say while still laughing.

“No, it’s not. It’s the fucking truth. She’s bad news. Never liked the bitch.”

She may have not wanted to have her face all bruised and bloodied; I hope she regrets it when she looks at herself in the mirror. But she got the reaction out of me she was looking for. Emerald thinks I want her man. If only I could convince my own damn self that her intuition weren’t entirely correct.

“He can clean her up. She’s his after all.” Jerking my thumb in the direction they took off to. I admit to myself it hurts, worse than I imagined. I turn around taking off running. Escaping from this tiresome day. Cain, Emerald, Manny. All of it.

I wrap my arms around myself, my legs carrying me as fast as they will go in bare feet. Not knowing where I’m going, I slow down to a walk on a small dirt path. I hear Emerald’s wails in the background overlaid by Cain’s loud rumbling. I want it gone, all of it, out of my aching head, which is throbbing from where she hit me.

The bottoms of my feet land on several sharp stones; I feel small trickles of blood where they break through the skin. I don’t care. I keep moving forward, not knowing where the hell I am or how I would even try to get back. My guess is I’ve been walking for ten or fifteen minutes before I hear my name being called from behind me.

“Calla! Wait!”

It’s Manny. Of course, it would be. I won’t deny the fact that it wounds me Cain isn’t the one coming after me. He’s more than likely comforting his woman right now. I continue to walk, hearing Manny approach me.

“Come on, Calla. Stop.”

I don’t know what makes me stop, but I do. I feel myself crumple to the dirt on my knees. I bow my head and I begin to cry. My gaze travels up somewhere into the distant black night. Welled up tears from deep inside travel down my face.

“Why, Manny? What did I ever do to anyone to have to suffer like this? I… I just want to go home. This isn’t for me. The longer I stay here, the more he’s going to hurt me. And her... Jesus, she’s a whack job!”

I let loose a paroxysm of choking and sobbing cries, not even realizing Manny has lifted me up and placed me on his lap until I feel the dampness from my tears on his shirt.

“I should have never come here. If I would have known I’d be coming back to any of this, I would have stayed away forever.”

“Like fucking hell, you would have. And God damn it, Manny, get your fucking filthy hands off of her.”

The reverberation of Cain’s voice draws up my spine. My crying fit turns into laughter at his absurdity.

“You have a lot of nerve, do you know that?”

Observing his beautiful face in the moonlight, I feel contempt towards him, even though he has the most intense blue eyes I have seen and a body that makes me want to oil it down and slip and slide all over it.

“My nerves are gone, sweetheart. Now get up. You’re coming home with me.”

My anger increases in its intensity. I’m not going anywhere with him. No way am I going back to a house that has haunted me for years. Ignoring him completely, my attention shoots to Manny.

“I would much rather stay with you,” I say sweetly.

“Hell, no,” Cain sputters out crazily.

“And why not?” I retort, tilting my head to one side. “If I have to be here, I would much rather stay with someone who treats me like a human, not someone who leaves me in a room like a captive.”

The minute those words fall out of my mouth I know I shouldn’t have said them. I’m not full of malice and humiliation like he is.

“You want me to show you what it’s like to be held captive?”

At that, Manny stands up on his feet, bringing me right along with him. He places me gently on the ground, his crazy eyes watching Cain’s.

“What the fuck is wrong with you, man? Get your goddamned shit together. She’s your fucking wife, you asshole. Now, she isn’t going with me, because she belongs with you. I love you like a brother, dude, but treat her like your damn wife and not like you treat every other asshole around you. Christ, Cain! Sometimes I think I don’t even fucking know you anymore. And fucking tell her the goddamned truth.”

Cain sucks in a deep breath. I feel like shit for putting Manny in the middle like this by suggesting I stay with him. Stepping in between the two men, I place a hand on each of their chests, directing my attention to Manny first.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said what I did. I’m feeling helpless, ripped apart layer by layer. Thank you for being a friend. I’ll be fine.”

I whirl in Cain’s direction.

“And you! I’m not staying in that house. If you want me to stay with you, then fine, but have the damned decency to take me somewhere else. Preferably with a spare room, because I sure as shit will not be sleeping with you. Leave me there. Lock me up while you tend to your little club whore. Do whatever it is you have to do, and do it fast, because I want the hell out of here.”

“I’m fucking gone,” Manny states before he turns back in the direction we came from, leaving me standing in the dark facing a man who I don’t know anymore. And if I were to be honest with myself, I’m afraid of this stranger standing before me.