Note: Well here is Chapter 3. It is written slightly differently and is the reason for the T rating. Warning: This chapter involves scenes of violence.

Updated 7/4/14 10/4/14

Big mistake

It was another two months before we saw Anna again, and by that time we were really starting to get worried. Rocco had been busy alot with work so we hadn't seen much of him either, but even he hadn't seen her recently. Although he had spoken to her, so at least we knew that she was alive. There was a distinct lack of pictures in the paper of Anna or her husband. In fact there hadn't been a single picture of her since the last time that we had seen her. So it was a little shocking after only meeting the girl twice to open our front door one day and find her sitting on one of the beds.

"Anna?"

Murphy asked as I closed the door. She was sitting with her hands in her lap in the same fur coat and hat that we had seen her in before, with the addition of a pair of over-sized sun glasses.

"Hi. The door was unlocked."

She was looking down at her hands refusing to look at us at all as she spoke.

"Is everything alright?"

I asked as my brother sat beside her on the bed, his bed. She shook her head and removed the hat and glasses, trying to make herself more comfortable while she was away from prying eyes. She placed them on her other side and we tried our hardest to keep the shock off of our faces. But that was incredibly difficult as no ammount of make-up could hide those bruises.

"No, not really"

She said looking up at me before turning to Murphy.

"You might need to change your number. He hasn't been calling you has he?"

I sat on the other bed, which was mine anyway, and watched my brother swallow nervously before talking.

"No, it's alright. He hasn't called."

She closed her eyes in relief, but the worry was still there. I knew what she was thinking and hastened to settle her fears, very glad that my brother had given her a mobile number and not our landline.

"It's a disposable anyway, right Murph? Completely untraceable. "

She nodded gratefully but didn't say anything.

"Can you tell us what happened?"

As he spoke I saw Murphy lift his hand as if to put it on her shoulder, but he stopped himself just in time. I wondered briefly what had stopped him. Was he worried about what bruises there were hidden by the coat, or was it too intimate of an action with a woman that we hardly knew? I didn't know, but put the thoughts aside as Anna started telling us her story.

Anna sighed happily as she pushed the door open. It was so good to go out and have some fun. She really didn't see her brother enough. And his friends were nice. Putting her hand in her pocket she found the number that Murphy had given her. She was touched that the brother's were concerned about her, but she was fine. Shrugging the coat from her shoulders she hung it up in the closet, but not before moving the number to her change purse just in case she ever needed it. Then she took off the hat and walked through to the bedroom to put it away in the wardrobe. When she reached the doorway however she stopped.

The lights were off, but the blinds were open so she could clearly see the outline of her husband standing by the window.

"Where have you been?"

He hadn't even turned away from the window as he spoke, just stood there a glass of scotch in his hand.

"I was out with David. How was your trip?"

She tried to brush it off, moving towards the walk in wardrobe without turning on the light.

"Don't change the subject."

Taking a deep breath and plastering a fake smile on her face Anna moved back through to the bedroom. To think just a moment ago she hadn't had to pretend, she had actually been happy.

"So, where did your 'brother' take you?"

He asked, putting extra venom on the word brother. Anna ignored it and tried to sound cheerful.

"I don't remember what it was called. Some dive on the south side."

She busied herself getting ready for bed as she talked, deliberately being vague, she didn't want to get anyone into trouble. But still she didn't move to turn on the light. If Lorenzo wanted the light on he would have done it himself and she didn't want to provoke him. To be honest she hadn't been expecting him home so soon. He was supposed to be out of town. That was why she had suggested to her brother that they go out. Yes it had been her suggestion this time, rather than his. She had really enjoyed herself last time, despite her foolishness. She loved spending time with her brother, and with his friends as well, even though she knew that her husband wouldn't have liked the idea.

"That's twice in one month you've been out with him. Is there something you have to tell me?"

Lorenzo slammed his glass down on the small table beside him as he turned quickly. Anna forced the smile to stay on her face even though fear was corsing through her. How did he know she had gone out a few weeks ago?

"No, of course not. It's just with you out of town I thought I would spend some time with him."

Even though she had been dreading it, the moment her husband forced her against the wall by her shoulders took her by surprise. His iron grip digging into the bruises that were still there from a couple of days ago.

"Don't lie to me princess!"

She tried to keep herself calm, as he dug his thumbs into the soft flesh between her shoulder and collar bone. Getting upset or crying out would only make things worse.

"I promise Lorenzo, I was just out with David. He heard that you were out of town, and he suggested we go out so that he could keep an eye on me."

Anna tried her best not to flinch as the slap connected, but it stung. He sneered at her before leaning over to whisper in her ear.

"How can I trust you when even your worthless brother thinks you need 'kept an eye on'."

With that he pushed her to the floor and stood over her.

"If I ever catch you sneaking out again Anna, I will beat you within an inch of your life."

The kick that accompanied that last point got her square in the stomach knocking the wind out of her. As he left relief flooded through Anna. It could have been much worse, and probably would have been if he had had any more to drink before she had gotten home.

The next few days blurred together as Anna was forced to stay inside. The slap had left a mark on her cheek and she couldn't be seen outside just yet. Lorenzo had been working, so it hadn't been much of a problem. Except at night. He had been working late, and as a result he had been drinking more than usual.

Every night for the next two weeks Anna spent trying not to react to the blows her husband greeted her with. She still couldn't let anyone see her because Lorenzo took less care about where he hit her when he had been drinking. But she dealt with it, and during her weekly calls to her brother she did her best to remain cheerful. Luckily for her she was the only one at home when she actually called David because she couldn't help asking how the MacManus brothers were doing. She really did like them and considered them friends even though she had only met them a couple of times.

Once Lorenzo was at home more often however, things quickly got worse. Anna had been in the kitchen cooking breakfast one day when he had stormed in slamming something down on the kitchen table. Anna flinched, but forced herself to stay calm and continued cooking the eggs and bacon he had requested.

"What is this!"

He demanded and her heart stopped. She turned around slowly and tried to hide her relief when she saw the receipt on the table. For a moment she had been expecting Murphy's number to be sitting there. But she couldn't let that show.

"What do you mean?"

She asked doing her best to keep her breathing in check. She was glad that she had taken the precaution of moving the scrap of paper into her change purse. She knew that sometimes Lorenzo liked to go through her pockets, and obviously that's exactly what he had been doing that morning.

"Don't play stupid with me. This is a receipt from when you were out with your brother last month!"

Anna braced herself but the hit knocked her off centre, forcing her to lean heavily against the counter. He had a belt around one fist and had smacked her in the ribs with the buckle.

"And do you know what it says?"

She knew from experience not to answer that question, but it was punctuated with another hit as she gripped the counter tightly to stop herself from falling.

"It says that you were lying to me Anna. It says that there were four people out that night."

Anna concentrated on breathing through the pain debating whether to suggest that she and Rocco had been buying double rounds to save time, but she kept quiet knowing that he wouldn't believe her. If she waited long enough and didn't call out in pain it would be over soon.

"Four people Anna, not two."

She didn't hear very much after that because the blows came faster until suddenly they stopped. She had fallen to the floor while Lorenzo stood over her with the frying pan she had left on the hob. For the first time in a long time Anna wondered if he would actually stop this time. But she didn't have long to think on it before he grabbed her arm and tilted the pan. The bacon and eggs fell to the floor frgotten as the hot oil ate through her skin.

When Anna woke up some time later, she was lying in bed surrounded by pillows. She couldn't move, everything hurt. She groaned a little as she tried to sit up but she couldn't. Her wounds had been bandaged, but she could see that Lorenzo had done it himself rather than call a doctor. She would have to re-do them herself soon, especially the oil burns. She knew from experience that they needed more attention to heal.

"How are you feeling?"

She tried not to flinch at the sound of his voice by the door. All that the concern in his voice did was make her heart-rate pick up and panic flash through her. She tried to speak, but she couldn't. Lorenzo however, didn't seem to notice.

"You know if you just did what I said, this wouldn't happen."

He was sitting beside her on the bed now petting her head.

"You just rest up and I will check on you in a bit."

She did her best to ignore the bile rising in her throat as he leant down to kiss her on the forehead. Then he stood up moving towards the door, before he stopped to say something else.

"Oh, your brother called. I told him that you weren't feeling well so he is going to call back in a couple of days."

Anna closed her eyes and drifted back into unconsciousness.

It took another couple of weeks, but as soon as she was able to move about on her own again Anna started looking for her change purse. She had to be careful about it. She didn't want to tip Lorenzo off to the fact that there was something to find. But after three days she was starting to worry. He had been worse than she had expected from just finding the receipt. How would he react if he found the number scrawled onto half of a similar receipt hidden with her loose change. She went through the pockets of her fur coat again, and then went back to searching through her handbag.

"Looking for something?"

Anna froze, debating whether to lie, whether to claim she had lost her lipstick, when he made the decision for her.

"Maybe, this is what you were looking for."

The change purse landed with a thunk on the coffee table between them. Anna swallowed.

"Thank you. I was thinking of ordering in tonight. Pizza?"

She moved towards the kitchen with the purse, but he grabbed her before she could pass him. He leant down to whisper in her ear, his grip tightening impossibly as he did so.

"Who's M?"

He asked and Anna's mind flashed to the number she had hidden. He had found it, he had actually found it! She should have thrown it away, or burned it or something. But she had liked having that lifeline, liked having friends other than her brother, or her husbands work contacts. It was nice to have the option to talk to someone about her life, even if she never used it. She tried to think of something, anything that could save her. Then inspiration hit her.

"Michelle Wilson, she's an old school friend. I must have forgotten to mention it to you. I ran into her and her cousin Linda when I was out with David. She gave me her number so that we could catch up."

She tried to smile, but she couldn't breathe. In truth she hadn't seen Michelle since she left school, and even then they hadn't been friends. But it was the only M that she could think of that wasn't Murphy.

"You're lying to me again princess."

The only thing that she got a chance to think before the pain blotted everything out, was that she really should have seen this coming. What was she thinking wanting friends of her own, what had she expected? The whole thing had been a big mistake and she knew it.