Chapter Four

 

 

 

Chapter Four

 

            Shortly afterwards Rosa appeared and took Emmy and the puppy, which had became named; Justin, upstairs for a night of board games and movies. James went to his room to change and give Trisha time to cook. He knew that she hated the kitchen being crowded while she cooked and since he was in a good mood he gave her some space.

            As she cut the carrots and potatoes she thought about what she was going to do in this situation. She knew that James wasn’t a man of divorce. He didn’t believe in it and he knew that it would devastate his reputation as a good upstanding Christian man, even though he hadn’t been in church besides Christmas and Easter in the last ten years.

            If she stayed with him he was bound to kill her eventually. He had been getting steadily worse as the years rolled on. The spaces in time between his out burst were getting less frequent and shorter. He might dote on Amelia now but what will happen as she gets older? Will he eventually raise his hand to her as well?

            The thought made the hair on her arms stand on end. She will kill him before it gets to that point. As she finished cutting the vegetables she threw them into the pan around the roast and threw it all into the oven. With her preparations complete she only needed one more thing done before her plan could go underway.

            At that moment she heard James start up the shower. Now would be the best chance she had. As she wiped her hands on her apron she took a deep breath and headed up stairs. She could hear Emmy laughing from her room and she felt a small pang of guilt. Amelia was very close to her father and would be hurt over his death. She was born into a world of luxury. A world that Trisha knew nothing about till late in her life and it would probably take Emmy a while to adjust to the life that Trisha would be able to provide for her.

            Trisha sighed and for a moment she considered going back down stairs and forgetting this whole ordeal. Letting James off the hook would be easy, after all she had done it hundreds of times before.

            No, she couldn’t let him get away with it this time. He had gone too far this time and Amelia was better off without him anyway.

            With her back straight in resignation she slowly opened the door and crept inside wordlessly.

            The bedroom was dark except for a thin line of light that shone out of the slightly ajar bathroom door. Steam swirled out of the crack in an ominous way. Trisha could hear James humming to himself inside the shower and knew that she only had a short time to get in and out. James was known for his record breaking short showers. He didn’t like wasting water, time, or money.

            She stepped lightly across the room, her feet silent on the soft carpet. Her hands were shaking slightly as she reached her bed side table. There it was just like any other night, the small pill bottle with the tiny blue capsules inside of it. Her saving grace, the only thing that has ever helped her sleep that closely to James, and now it was going to help her get rid of him permanently.

            With a slow deep breath to help calm her nerves she quickly grabbed the bottle and made a hasty retreat out of the room just as James turned off the water to the shower.

            Thanking God for her good timing she silently went back down stairs to finish getting dinner on the table for her celebratory dinner with her soon to be late husband.

Reviews

[T. Logan]

The last sentence of this is really powerful!

[KAOlmsted]

"Shortly afterwards Rosa appeared and took Emmy and the puppy, which had became named; Justin, upstairs for a night of board games and movies."
--I suppose in Monopoly, Justin was the doggie? *wink* Assuming the puppy did not participate in the board games, I would suggest trying this again. And 'had became named; Justin' should be 'had become named Justin' or, better yet, just 'named Justin'.

"even though he hadn’t been in church besides Christmas and Easter in the last ten years."
--with everything I know about James, and politicians in general, especially politicians who are trying to keep up appearances, this didn't really ring true to me. Seems to me he'd go to church every Sunday, and insist his doting wife and cute little child sit right there beside him. If you went that route, it would be a great time for Trisha to show how much of a hypocrite her husband is. The more she shows what a cad this guy is, the better your readers will understand why she wants him out of her life.

You are slipping into past and present tense throughout this chapter and it's distracting, because I have to go over the sentences twice and supply the proper tense. It might seem like a small thing to comment on, but it's really not; and it's such an easy fix, a little extra editing time and you'll be golden.

I guess I like that she is finally thinking of Amelia's loss, but it's a little paranoid. It makes Trisha's thoughts on the subject seem a little crazy. Only because you've given us absolutely no sound reasoning behind her believing James will harm his daughter. From what I've seen, the only thing that calms him down is Amelia. Amelia is Trisha's saving grace at this point, and would probably continue to be so, as James does not want his daughter to see him in that bad light. *shrug*

I still don't know why this guy has to die. But. Trisha is determined to kill him, so I'll keep an open mind.

your friend (I swear, I really am!) *laugh*
-kimmer

[Craig2591]

Very suspenseful! Good description. It's easy to picture the scene.

[Olivia Marie]

I like the full exploration of her thoughts here. It shows just enough to be completely interesting, but not over done. Excellent :)