Sealed In Lies by Kelly Abell

stained face. Her green eyes were dull and swollen from crying. The French knot she had worked on so carefully before the party was now a rat’s nest of tangles. Not to mention the deep purple bruise that was spreading across her cheek bone.
    Looking more closely into the mirror, she gasped. Her neck had five dark bruises, one on the right side where Warren’s thumb was, and four on the left where the rest of his fingers had closed in the choke hold he’d had on her. Her lower lip was split and blood had dried on her chin and on the swollen area on her jaw. Turning around, Caroline’s eyes filled with tears when she saw the angry red marks Warren had made with the belt.
    She sat down on the stool in front of the mirror and covered her face with her hands. How could she have let herself get in this situation? She was a privileged college educated woman, not some misfortunate soul who didn’t know any better and had lived their entire life in a circle of abuse. She was never mistreated as a child and she had sworn to all her girlfriends growing up that she would never let a man hit her. But look at her now. She had let a man hit her and what was worse she continued to let him. This wasn’t the first time and Caroline knew in her heart that it would not be the last. What scared her to the very marrow of her bones was, would the next one be the last time for her? His attacks were becoming more viscous and cruel. He was behaving more irrationally and it was taking less and less to set him off.
    Caroline rose and ran some water in the deep garden tub. She added some Epsom salts to help ease the aching of her injuries and sore muscles and turned to lock the door. She could not face a single soul this morning, after what Warren had done to her. The maid would be in soon and she would see the blood on the carpet and the sheets. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to know what had happened in there last night.
    Caroline sank into the warm soothing water. It stung her open wounds but that soon subsided and she closed her eyes and sighed. How was she ever going to get out of this disaster of a marriage? Better yet, how was she going to get out of this alive? She knew if any of this got out, Warren would kill her. He had already told her that. If she wanted to live, she had to find a way out without taking what was happening to her public.
    When the aching in her body subsided some, her mind began working on what she was going to do about her situation. How was she going to deal with this mess she was in? She couldn’t even ask anyone for help. Who would believe her? A fine upstanding Senator like Warren abuses his wife? Never. It was unthinkable. She would get no help from anyone in her circle of friends. Her situation had scandal written all over it.
    Tears sprang to her eyes again. She was filled with feelings of hopelessness and despair. Gradually, her life had become a nightmare. Warren had seen to it. It had started slowly at first, a slap here, and a pinch there. He was careful though. Nothing could show to the outside world.
    This was her private hell and he made sure it stayed that way. He isolated her from all her college friends. He told her that she was above all that now and needed to act like a senator’s wife. And, like an idiot, she believed him. With no one else to turn to, she began to lean on him for everything, which was exactly what he wanted.
    Again, she thanked God that her parents had died before the abuse had begun in earnest. She suspected her mother had begun to sense something was wrong but they had never spoken of it. With them dead and no friends to speak of, like the spider’s prey, she was trapped. She had to find a way out, but Warren would not make it easy for her. He had such a tight control on her movements that his goons knew where she was every minute of every day. They could probably see her in the bathtub right now. She shivered at the thought.
    They even had a code name for her: Sparrow.