Chapter 1
Glass shatters everywhere as I watch her reach for another glass to throw at me. "Damn it Maria, are you crazy, you've already caused enough damage"I say, "No Nick i'm not crazy, i'm not the one who walked in and found someone in bed with me, I didn't cause the damage"she replies. Suddenly I find her hands on my shoulders and because she has caught me by surprise forces me back onto the couch and then tries to kiss me. I scratch at her and then push her off of me and then go to the bathroom. I lock the door behind me and I stand with my hands on the sides of the bathroom sink. I finally feel myself start to shake but I know I need to pull it together for the sake of Zara and for myself. I hear her yelling at me still as I reach for my phone in my pocket and call 911. "911 what's your emergency" the operator asks, "I need help, my wife has gotten abusive, and she's gone off the deep end, she's already hurt me I don't want her to hurt my daughter" I say shakily, "I understand sir, I'm sending someone right now, can you give me a name and address" the operator asks, "yeah, Nick amaro, we live on 525 east eleventh street"I say, "OK is it safe for you to go to your daughter" she asks, "no my wife is outside of the bathroom door" I say, "k hang in there, help is on the way" the operator says.
Eventually I hear knocking on the front door and then footsteps as police come inside. I hear them arrest Maria for assault outside of the door, then a voice, a female one ask" Mr. Amaro can you unlock the door it's safe now", "OK" I say fumbling with the lock. I get the door unlocked and an officer is waiting on the other side, "is my daughter OK" I ask, "yeah she's fine, she's with an officer downstairs right now, we called your emergency contact, you need to go to the hospital and get checked out" the officer responds. "OK, what will happen now" I ask fearfully, "I will tell you this for right now , your wife will go to jail for assault and you'll have to decide whether or not you want to press charges, we'll go over that at the hospital" he says.
The officer leads me to some medics in the living room and then sits me down on a gurney, then leaves. A medic kneels down in front of me, "hey, Nick right, I'm Hannah is it OK if I look you over" she asks gently putting her hand on my good shoulder, "yeah that's fine" I say shakily. She checks me out and then helps me lie down on the gurney, "k Nick we're going to take you to the hospital alright, i'm worried about your shoulder" she says, "alright, ow"I say wincing slightly at the pain in my shoulder. Her partner comes and help her lift the gurney at the foot of it, and head down the stairs. We eventually get out into the brisk winter air and I see Liv holding Zara, "daddy" she says in her five year old voice, "can I see her for a second" i ask, "yeah" she says waving them over. They come over and Liv sits Zara on the gurney by me, I hug her tightly, "it's going to be OK baby, Daddy has to go to the hospital for a bit, Liv is going to take care of you until grandma can come alright" i say, "OK"she says, I kiss her on the forehead and let Liv take her back to her car. They load me inside the ambulance and we head off, at this point I realize I'm tired and I start close my eyes knowing that this is going to be a long night.