1. Haylee

Staring out at the playground full of kids screaming and playing, Haylee wondered when the last time was that she had felt that light and carefree. She wondered when the last time was that she had even smiled. She couldn't remember. There hadn't been anything to smile about for several months. Sure, she had kept a fake smile on her face so no one would know anything was wrong. But the smiles of the kids on the playground were real and genuine as they played with their friends, smiling and laughing as though they didn't have a care in the world. What she wouldn't give to be able to play like that.

As she wrapped her arms around herself to keep warm in the cool spring air, her mind spun with more questions than answers. How was she going to get out of the situation she was in? What would he do? Where would she work? Where would she live? She had none of the answers that she needed, but she knew she couldn't go on with her life the way it had been going. She wouldn't survive. Her stomach turned at the thought, but she knew the truth of it. He would eventually kill her if she didn't get away from him.

Tim Parker had been a dream when she'd first met him. He was clean-cut, sophisticated, and said all the right things that made her melt at his feet. They met while she was attending UCLA and interning at Newsday Newspaper in San Bernardino as an assistant editor. Tim was the editor-in-chief, and he seemed to take to her as soon as they met. By the end of her first week, he'd asked her to dinner, and she was so excited to be asked out by someone successful and smart that she didn't notice any red flags in the beginning. It turned out he was just really good at keeping them hidden until he had her living under his roof.

In the beginning, he was attentive and loving, constantly giving her compliments and bringing her flowers. When she graduated from college, she got a full-time job at the newspaper, and he asked her to move in with him, telling her that since she had to move out of her dorm anyway, there was no point in getting her own place when they were together all the time already. She agreed without hesitation and moved into his house.

Things changed slowly. It began with comments about how she should change her appearance and style. Instead of complimenting her when she got dressed up to go out with him, he would tell her that he didn't like her hair the way it was or that she wasn't dressed "sexy" enough. She tried to please him, tried to adapt to his wants and needs, but it was never good enough for him. He found something negative to say about everything. Her cooking was too bland, her clothes were boring, she didn't clean the house spotlessly enough, she was too needy, too immature, too much of something or not enough of something else.

Over time, the fun they'd had once was only a memory, and she felt as though she couldn't do anything without being criticized. He ignored her when they were at work, except when he was sending her emails criticizing work that in the beginning of their relationship, he would have praised.

Then the hitting began. The first time it happened, he slapped her across the face because she had forgotten to pull his clothes from the dryer and fold them. She cried, and he apologized immediately, telling her he would never hit her again and that he was overly stressed from work. She believed him, and he became the sweet man he'd been when they first met again… at least for a few weeks before he went back to being critical and cold.

The next time he had hit her, he had pushed her up against a wall and slapped her several times for embarrassing him at a gala. She didn't even know what she had done to embarrass him. He had been drinking and the next day apologized and blamed it on the liquor.

She didn't really know why she had continued to accept his apologies. The only answer, she told herself, was that she loved him and that it was probably her own fault that he acted that way. She made excuses for his behavior repeatedly. But as time went on, he hit her more and more often. Usually just slapping her across the face and pushing her around. He never left visible bruises on her face, so to the rest of the world, they were the happy couple, deeply in love. The bruises on her arms, from times he grabbed or pushed her, were kept hidden under long-sleeved shirts and sweaters, which were met with complaints from him that she dressed like a frumpy old lady.

A playful scream brought Haylee's attention back to the playground. Tears threatened to spill over. The ache in her arms from his grasp from the previous evening reminded her of how fucked-up her life was. What was she supposed to do? He was her boss, and she lived with him. If she left him, she would be homeless and jobless.

She could always move to Florida and live with her mom and her mom's new husband, but she didn't want to intrude. Her mom had finally found a man who loved her and treated her well, and they were basically still newlyweds. She also didn't know a single person in Florida besides her mom and stepdad. She hated the idea of having to make new friends again.

Moving back to Pinebrook, Oregon, appealed to her. Her best friend, Ally, still lived there, and she would have loved it if Haylee moved home. The town she grew up in was so small that she knew most of the people. At least she had before she had moved to California to attend college. Ally had told her that a lot of the people they were friends with when they were in high school had moved away. Haylee had been one of those people. Living in a small town, you knew everyone, and everyone knew you and all of your personal business. The looks of pity she saw in the faces of the people after her dad had abandoned her and her mom had been enough to make her want to move as far away as she could for college. UCLA was as far as she got.

Moving home sounded better than anything she'd heard in a very long time. But where would she live? She knew Ally had just moved in with her new boyfriend, Luke, who was the sheriff of Pinebrook. She couldn't ask to stay with them and impose on their new relationship. Maybe she could rent a room from someone she knew there until she got a job and could afford a place of her own.

Tim had controlled her finances from the moment she moved in, and all her direct deposits went into a joint account, which she didn't have access to. He'd told her when she moved in that he would take care of everything for her so she would never have to worry about money. He gave her a small amount of cash each week and handled the bills for both of them, which he complained about as things got worse, telling her she needed to be woman enough to "take care of her own shit." When she offered to have her direct deposit placed into an account of her own so she could pay her own bills and just pay him an amount for rent, he had slapped her and told her not to be so stupid.

She had squirreled away a small amount of cash each week, trying to ensure she had some money in case of an emergency. Unfortunately, he gave her such a small amount that she'd only been able to save a little over ninety dollars, which she had hidden in the pocket of her old winter coat that hung in their walk-in closet. She supposed that if she drove all day, she could make it to her hometown on ninety dollars. It was about a thirteen-hour drive, but she could do it. She could always pull over and nap on the side of the road if she had to.

Ally had told her that the diner where she worked was hiring because after she had moved in with Luke, she went down to only working three days a week. Haylee knew the owner of the diner, Mr. Roberts. He was a kind old man, and she used to walk his dog when she was in high school, so she knew he would hire her on the spot if she needed a job. If she drove there and started working right away, it would probably only take her a few days before she could afford to pay to rent a room from someone. He might even have a room above the diner that she could use.

Running a trembling hand over her face to wipe the tears that rolled down her cheek, Haylee told herself that everything would be okay. She just needed to go to Tim's while he was still at work, pack up the small amount of stuff she owned, and leave before he got home. She knew he would go ballistic if she tried to leave while he was there, and she didn't want to be on the receiving end of that. Although, she wondered if he would actually be thrilled that she was finally leaving him. Maybe his plan all along had been to treat her that way so she would leave him.

She hadn't told Ally anything that had happened between her and Tim. She knew her friend would worry about her if she had, and she didn't want that. She would just go home and tell Ally everything once she got there. Ally would be thrilled to have her home, and Haylee couldn't wait to see her again. They had been attached at the hip in high school, and Haylee always felt guilty for not being there for her when Ally's parents had died in a tragic accident. But Ally had told her not to come home when she had offered. Even though they hadn't seen each other since Haylee left for college, they stayed in constant touch and sent birthday gifts to each other every year. She still considered Ally her very best friend.

Bringing her attention back to the playground, she watched longingly as kids swung high in the air on the swings, kicking their feet freely. She wanted to fly freely through the air on the swings. Maybe one day. She remembered the park back home that she'd loved as a kid. She decided she would visit that park once she made it back there. First, she needed to get off the park bench she was sitting on and go get all her belongings packed into her car and drive away from the monster she had thought was her prince. A small smile crossed her lips as she thought about being free from him. It was the first genuine smile she'd had in far too long.