CHAPTER ONE-IN THE SUN
Andrea Blake looked out the window, staring at the sun. This is as close as you will ever get, she tells herself.
She feels trapped in her own home. In a marriage to a control freak, who wouldn't allow her to leave. She could go. Honestly, what he could he do to stop her?
He could take their daughter, she reminds herself. He had threaten as much anytime she brought up divorcee.
"I'll make sure you will only see Reese through plate glass if you go. I know people around here. Don't forget that. You have no income, no car, no anything," he reminded her.
That was always enough to keep her there. Scare her into staying.
Still, she wondered what made him change. When they first were together, he had been so loving and warm toward her. She had lost her sister in a terrible car accident, Philip had lost his wife and daughter.
So obviously, when they happened to meet at her therapist's office the two had plenty to discuss.
He told her everything about his wife Sarah, and daughter Penny.
How he was afraid he never move on. That he couldn't sleep at night without his wife beside him in the bed. And how if he still forget his daughter was not there to put on the school bus in the morning.
In exchange, she told him about Amy.
She talked about how she missed almost every birthday party her sister had. She was too selfish to make time for the person who loved her the most. Now she could not get that time back and she should have been there for her sister.
The two formed a quick friendship that instantly turned into something more.
And all too quickly they rushed to the courthouse to get married. Once they were married, Philip no longer had to sleep alone and she felt like she had someone to belong to. Still their marriage happened quickly, and she was young.
Perhaps too young.
So being young, she of course messed up.
Working as a lawyer required long hours at the office. She was always career focus and being married wouldn't slow her down. So this caused her new husband to be more than a little aggravated. He beg her to quit. His job could support the two of them.
A job she had helped him to get, she often reminded him.
Still she promised over and over to cut back her hours or take a vacation. However, the timing was never right for her career. There was always one imperative case after another, and she work spending countless hours with her partner Grey.
The two worked well together, Grey unlike her husband appreciated her work ethic.
Grey was fun, caring, and warm like Philip used to be.
Unintentionally Andrea found herself attracted to another man. She started dressing up on purpose for work, in hopes that Grey would notice. Before she knew it, Andrea was having a full pledge affair. One she didn't tell Philip about.
He saw them out together. Hell, part of her must have wanted to be caught. Wanted out of the marriage to Philip.
Why else she went have gone out with Grey to a damn college football game where anyone could see them together?
She was kissing him in public, where her husband saw her. This when she first saw sweet, charming, and attractive Philip changed into someone she did not recognize.
He forcefully pulled Grey of her, with no words dragging her to his vehicle. Her lover did nothing to stop Philip, from taking her away. Andrea wasn't surprised that Grey was non-responsive.
She knew that their relationship was purely physical for Grey. They weren't in love. However, she couldn't believe Philip's reaction. Who did he think he was treating her like a rag doll? Cheating or not, he shouldn't be abusive toward her.
"How could you do this to me? You've lied to me over and over, Andrea," she remembered him saying.
"I don't know. I think maybe we rushed into this marriage."
"You think so? You are right. I can't believe I trusted you. You've made a fool of me," he hissed.
"I think I want a divorcee," Andrea said, her voice barely audible.
"No absolutely not! I will never sign any papers. You made promises to me, and you are going to keep those promises," he had said forcefully.
The affair caused Philip to change. Made him not trust Andrea. She should have went through with the divorcee. But her unexpected pregnancy had changed everything. Made her want to work things out with her husband for the sake of their child. Still she didn't know her marriage would become like this.
Her isolated from the world. Not even being able to walk out into the sun.