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Chapter 2

Lucy turned and reluctantly shut off the shower. She sighed as the hot water stopped sliding down her body. How nice it was to have a hot shower, after sleeping from yesterday after noon until late this morning, she knew that she was already behind in her day.

She stepped out of the shower and grabbed the towel that hung on the hook next to it. After wringing out the long blond hair that fell to the middle of her back, she wrapped the towel around her and walked over to the sink.

She ran a hand across the steamy mirror and stared at her reflection. It shouldn't have surprised her, she knew it was there, and it certainly wasn't the first, but somehow it always shocked her when she saw the marks that were left over from his fist, or the TV remote or the living room vase, or whatever else was handy. This was a gash on her cheek that had bruised and swelled up. Of course, now more than three days later, it didn't bleed, the bruise was fading and it wasn't nearly as swollen as it once was.

She reached up and touched it and immediately flinched. She hadn't picked up his dry cleaning, without his suits he wouldn't have anything to wear at Monday's conference. She had, of course apologized, countless times, she was busy that day, she worked late and got home to make sure that dinner was on the table. It wasn't of course, and that made him even madder. He had picked up a knife and she begged for him to put it down. She swore it wouldn't happen again, he just smiled like he usually did, with that twisted smirk that equaled danger and he put the knife down.

'Don't flatter yourself Lucy, you're not even worth the pain that I could give you with this', he had told her with a sneer. 'Now, I don't want this to happen again, you hear me?' He had asked calmly and she nodded. 'I said, did you hear me!?' he shouted at her and Lucy back up into the corner of the kitchen counter. He grabbed her wrist and squeezed tight.

'Yes, Peter,' she gulped. 'I heard you.'

'I don't think you did,' he bared his teeth at her and she nodded again. He picked up a glass coaster that was on the kitchen table and threw it at her. It hit her left cheek and then crashed on the floor. He raised an eyebrow when she whimpered and then scowled. 'Looks like you made a mess.'

She looked at the shattered glass on the floor.

'Clean it up, bitch,' he smiled again and then turned to walk out. The oven timer went off and he looked back at her. 'My dinners ready, make sure it's on the table in 5 minutes, I'm going to change.' Then he walked out.

Lucy let out a cry and sank to the floor. She touched her face, it felt like it was on fire, she pulled her hand down and looked at the blood on her fingers, and she had to get out.

And she did, that night when he was in the shower she packed her bags and got out, once she had got into the car she didn't stop until she reached the city. Now she was safe, she hoped and he couldn't find her here.

She lifted the brush that was by the bathroom sink and started to brush her hair; she caught a glimpse of her wrist and pulled it back to study it. There was a hand print still there but the bruise was finally fading. Lucy sighed, she just needed to start over, things could be different now.

And she wished that she could believe it, several hours later as she went from apartment ad to apartment add looking for a cheap place to stay. Of course, since this was New York, there was no cheap place to stay, so she pressed her luck and tried to find something reasonable. Finally she spotted a place where rent was only $300 a month. She could barely afford that but she didn't have any other options. She looked at the living requirements and saw that she would be renting out a small room in an apartment and she would be sharing the apartment with the owner. Oh well, this was her only hope.

So she grabbed a cab to 5th and 78th street.