"Dear God, what happened?" Amelia Smith whispered and placed a hand on her daughter's cheek.
"He really exaggerated this time," Anna said and swallowed hard. She knew she couldn't lie to her mother. "He took a vase and crashed it into my face."
"Go to the police," Amelia urged. "He's been hitting you for years."
"Where is the evidence?" Anna asked quietly. "No one will believe me."
"Look at your face, it is evidence enough."
"I told everyone I ran against an open cupboard," Anna sighed. "No one will believe me."
Amelia looked at her daughter, deeply sad. "I can't force you to go to the police. But please don't go back to him, Anna. Stay here, stay as long as you want to. And ignore his calls this time, please."
Anna nodded.
Months ago they had stayed with Amelia already, but Oliver had called and called until Anna had finally picked up. He had cried, told her how much he loved her and begged for her forgiveness. Told her he missed her and needed her. And Anna had returned to him.
At first he had been sweet, he had taken her out, paid the dinner, showered her with compliments. He had laughed with her, made her feel like before they had married. For weeks he had bought her chocolate almost every day, as Anna loved chocolate. He had told her he loved her over and over and had given her the space she insisted to have. He had not asked her to join her back in the bedroom until Anna had offered it herself.
And after that night everything had turned back to normal.
To the bad form of normal.
Oliver would go out with his friends every night, returning drunk and horny for Anna. He would crawl into bed and have his way with her, no matter how tired she was. If she was sleeping already, he just woke her up. And if Anna said no, he ignored her.
Then, last Friday, Anna had finally found the courage to confront him. She wanted to talk to him, not fight. She had put Lauren to bed and walked downstairs, asking him for a word. Then she had told him that she would leave him if he didn't change his behaviour towards her.
And instead of apologising over and promising to change, as she had expected, he had started to shout. He had called her the worst things, accused her of sleeping with all her male colleagues as well as with the boss and had slapped her hard across the face.
It had made Anna angry. She had shouted back, asking him with how many of his female colleagues he had been sleeping with, whereon Oliver had pushed her back. Anna had fallen down and Oliver had kicked her stomach. Anna had gasped and cried but not stopped. She knew she should have stopped. Breathing hard she had looked at him and asked him about what was going on with his assistant Samantha.
That had been enough for Oliver. He had taken the vase next to him, bent over her and told her to shut up. He had told her he would hit her with the vase if she didn't shut up.
And Anna had looked at him.
"What would Samantha do in my situation?" she had whispered and then the vase had knocked her out.
As she had woken up, Oliver was gone. And Anna had grabbed Lauren and brought her to a hotel. Of course the lady at the reception had seen her face. Of course she had known what had happened to the beautiful, sad woman with the sleeping child in her arms. But she had said nothing.
No one ever said anything.
She looked a bit better the next day.
And during lunch break, she finally smiled at him again. John smiled back, as he usually did. Her smiles made his days. And this one seemed honest.
He continued watching her during the next days and it seemed she had finally freed herself from whoever was hurting her. He did not want to make any assumptions but he did suspect that Anna's husband had something to do with it.
One day his curiosity overtook and he walked up to Robert's office. He told Gwen, who was Robert's secretary, that the boss was expecting him and knocked at his friend's office door. Without waiting for an answer he entered, after all he was one of Robert's closest friends.
"Hello, John!" Robert called.
"I hope you're not all too busy," John said. "I wanted to talk to you."
"Oh no, you aren't quitting are you?"
"No," John chuckled and sat down. "I wanted to talk to you about ... about Anna."
"Anna," Robert said in surprise. "Don't tell me she is giving you a hard time?"
"She? No, never."
"Thank God. Anna is a sweet girl and Mary's best friend. She has been with us for almost ten years."
"So you know her very well?"
"Indeed."
"You know about her husband then?"
"Oliver? Of course, he has been at a few Christmas parties with her." Robert looked at him. "Why, do you know him?"
"Not at all," John replied, "but since you do ... do you think he could ... lay a hand on her?"
Short silence. Robert sat down slowly. "You think he's hitting her?"
"Yes. And I'm sure I'm not the only one. I've been watching everyone during the last months and I think I can tell you almost everything about everyone by now. And I am sure your daughter suspects something."
"You think Mary knows something about it?"
John nodded. "I've been wanting to talk to Anna for a while but she's always surrounded by her friends ... and I don't think Thomas likes me very much."
"Thomas likes no one but himself," Robert huffed. "But if you want to talk to her, I'll give you a project to work on and ask Anna to join. You'll have to talk then."
John smiled. "Thank you. For everything, really."
"No worries. It is good to see that you are better now." Robert smiled at his friend.
Crawley's nutrients was a sales and distribution company for dietary supplements sold in drugstores and pharmacies. Robert's idea of a project for John and Anna was designing the label for a new supplement.
And only a day after Robert had told John he would pair him and Anna up, Anna was really entering the office that John shared with Tom and Matthew.
"Hey, guys," she said to the younger men, then carefully approached John.
"Hi, Anna," Tom replied, while Matthew nodded at her. He was currently on the phone.
John looked at Anna, not believing it had worked. She was here. "Hello, John," she said and smiled.
"Hello, Anna," John replied, his throat suddenly dry. She took a chair and pulled it to John's desk, sitting down next to him. And John had no idea how to react. She had never sat next to him. She had never been so close. He had never been able to smell her until now. And he had definitely never seen how blue her eyes were exactly. "So," he broke the awkward silence, "Robert told you about our project?"
"Yes and it came quite as a surprise. A sexist surprise, in fact."
"What do you mean?"
"It is a nutrient supplement for pregnant women," Anna explained, "and Robert wrote that I, as a woman, should help you designing the label, as I, as a woman, have a better eye for pregnancy stuff."
"I'm sure he didn't mean it like that," John said.
"And I'm sure he did," Anna said. "Later he even wrote something like, 'you surely remember what you liked and disliked during your pregnancy. Use it on the label!' ... as if every pregnant woman was the same."
"You have a kid?" John asked, ignoring the rest of her sentence. All he had heard was that she had been pregnant.
"Oh yes." Anna smiled and John tried not to get lost in her blue eyes. "A daughter. She was quite an unwanted surprise." She chuckled. "Let me see what you have already."
Anna leaned forward, placing her elbows on the desk to support herself. She made her fingertips touch as she concentrated and John's gaze fell on her left hand, which was empty. He didn't say a word but his heart jumped.
If she was married, where was her ring?
Anna had taken off the ring the very night she had checked into the hotel. She still carried it around as a reminder of what she had survived, but she didn't wear it on her finger anymore.
Mary had realised first thing in the morning, as if she was checking Anna's hand every day.
"We're separated," Anna had explained and that was it. The truth was, they weren't officially separated. Anna had just left him. She had simply grabbed Lauren and ran away. Oliver had called her fifty times a day ever since, but Anna had finally switched her phone off completely.
They were about to throw a birthday party for Lauren at Amelia's place and according to the girl, her friends were very disappointed that "Lauren's funny dad" wouldn't be there.
If Oliver wasn't only so close to their daughter, everything would have been much more different. She would have left already. Years ago. The first time Oliver had hurt her, back when Lauren had been a few weeks old and Anna had been too tired and exhausted for sex.
It had been the first night he had came home drunk, pushed her down on the bed and demanded to fuck her.
"I'm exhausted," Anna had sighed. "And still sore. Please, love, you must understand that."
"And you must understand that I have needs," Oliver had slurred and started to grab his wife.
"You're drunk. Go to bed," Anna had scolded him and earned a slap. It hadn't been hard but it had made her shut up in surprise. And then she had let Oliver do what he had wanted to do. And Oliver had realised that obviously slapping her got him what he wanted.
Long before that, when Anna had found out about her pregnancy almost six years ago, she had only been married to Oliver for two months. She had been upset and called her doctor to set an appointment for an abortion immediately. She had never wanted children, especially not with Oliver.
She had married him at the age of twenty-two. It had been an imprudent reaction to her father's death. After the funeral she had crawled into her boyfriend's bed, telling him that she wanted to marry him to forget about her father's death.
And the next day they had went to the registration office.
Two months later her pregnancy test had been positive.
She had already been there, at the doctor's. Had signed everything.
She had waited for her appointment, leaning her head back, closing her eyes.
And then she had pictured herself with a little boy. She had called him Edward, after her father. Edward Smith. In her mind, her mother had started crying as she had introduced the baby boy to her. And then she had imagined herself with a little girl. Her little angel. Lauren. A name she had always loved. Edward or Lauren, there was no question.
Anna had stood up and walked out with another word.
She had kept quiet for a whole month until she had started to show. And when she had told Oliver, he had been so happy. He had cried. He had always wanted a baby and thought of Anna being pregnant the best thing that could happen.
Anna was twenty-eight now and still didn't want to have kids. But it had happened and Lauren was there now. And she was her everything.
Anna was walking downstairs after her shift, ready to pick up her princess from kindergarten. Only that it wasn't necessary, as she soon noticed.
"Mummy! We are here!"
Anna almost dropped her purse as she spotted Oliver and their daughter standing next to his black car. She completely froze on the spot. "What are you doing here?" she whispered.
Oliver approached her. "You can't just disappear," he said calmly. "Not with our kid."
"Oh yes, I can," Anna said, a bit louder now. He came closer and Anna jumped back. "Stay away from me!" Now she was screaming. "Don't take any step further!"
"Anna, calm down," Oliver said gently. "I want to talk to you."
"No!" Anna shouted. "Stay - stay where you are!"
"Anna, baby, what's wrong?" Oliver asked. "You can't just run away and take our daughter with you. I deserve an explanation."
"I told you I would leave you if you didn't change!" Anna screeched. "You didn't listen! No, you - you know what you did! Of course I had to take Lauren!"
"You can't do that, Anna. She is my daughter as well. I could have called the police, you know?" He sighed. "Calm down, love, and let's talk."
"Don't you dare calling me that!" Anna gasped. "Love and ... and baby ... you are only that nice when we are out of the house!"
"What is wrong with you?" Oliver asked. "Are you having a psychosis?"
"Don't you dare calling me crazy!" Anna screamed. "You have no right to speak to me and you have no right to see Lauren! No right! Not after all you've done!"
"What are you talking about?" Oliver asked and suddenly turned away from Anna. "Can I help you?" he asked.
"I was about to ask the same question to Anna," a soft voice replied and Anna turned around.
"John," she said puzzled. "Thank you, I'm fine. That's Oliver, my ex -"
"Your husband, Anna," Oliver said. "I am your husband."
Anna held her breath for a while. Then she nodded. "Yes. You are still my husband." She turned to John. "Was I loud?"
"No. Only the whole company is at the window, watching the show."
"Shit," Anna mumbled.
"So, is Lauren coming with me now?" Oliver interrupted them.
"No," Anna said immediately. "I can't leave her alone with you."
"So come with me. Let's talk. Please." Oliver looked like a puppy and John wanted to vomit. He looked at Anna and realised that her anger had faded. She was giving in.
"Anna," he whispered quietly, feeling the need to protect her. "Don't."
But Anna didn't seem to hear him. "Fine," she sighed. "Let's have a talk."