A/N: My favorite comments on the previous chapter: "Wow!" OMG!" and "Oh, shit. I did not see that coming."

Read on.

xxxxxx

Chitty-Chitty, Bang-Bang Chic

One day earlier

I love the city in winter, dusted in snow like a powdered sugar doughnut. I'm the jelly filling; the weakling who thinks I'm the shit. I'm nothing.

Edward returned to his war and I returned to mine. His is sand and guns and bombs, and mine cameras and smiles and fake kisses before crowds of people. The fact is that I remain at odds with the gods of providence.

The campaign is nearly over, though I don't understand how Jake thinks he'll win as a republican in New York. He trusts his money and connections will win this for him, and I believed it too before I saw the latest numbers.

There's been a beautiful reprieve of his regime with nearly every moment spent trying to manipulate the people of this state to vote for him. What's kept him away has provided me a breath of freedom, allowing me room to plan a route to freedom.

Yesterday, Dad and I spoke for the first time in nine years. His voice, cracking and broken and aged through the phone and thousands of miles, brought a wellspring of tears coursing up from the darkest parts of my soul. He doesn't know the details for my escape yet, hopefully he never will, but he believes enough in me to trust when I say I need to leave my husband. He's offered a place to stay for me and the kids; a way out.

Charlie will be here tomorrow morning, driving all the way from Washington like any loving father whose child calls to for help would do. The timing couldn't be better: Jake will be making his final campaign stop in Buffalo before coming back to the city for Election Day, so he'll be half a state away when we leave the house.

I've sent an email to Edward, telling him where to find me and the kids, and what to say if he's asked. I only pray he gets out of there. Fast. I don't know if I can remain in Washington long without Jake putting two and two together.

Fuck. I don't know if I can even remain in the States. My husband's money and power are far stretching. Shit. Fuck. Shit. Shit. Shit. Maybe I didn't think this through. When Edward and I talked about this after yelling and screaming before Reny and I left North Carolina, it seemed simple enough ... but nothing is simple. Nothing.

The day fades to night, and I pack a single bag for the children and another for myself. We must travel light and quick, and too much baggage will weigh down the movement. This is proverbial to my life and the way I've conducted myself in the past decade. I've stayed sedentary while the world grew and changed around me.

I cannot sleep during the night, and hope my racing mind will calm when I'm beside my dad and on the way to Nowhereville, Washington. Nowhereville is exactly where I need to be. I'll tell him everything, I promise myself, but not before I get out of this house. The walls here are filled with lies; angry, painful memories stare at me throughout the early morning hours, threatening to spill all my secrets.

The alarm clock beeps at four, telling me it's time. Time for a breaking dawn and breaking free. I wish I could set it all on fire, and if I'd put more thought into it, perhaps I could've faked our deaths or something more dramatic to put Jake off our trail, but there's no time.

One hours and seventeen minutes later, I wish I had burnt it all to the ground. The trigger is pulled, the powder explodes, the hammer blows the bullet through shattering skull fragments, and blood and brain matter from my husband splatters on the façade walls of our life.

xxxxxxxxxx

A/N: And the plot thickens. We aren't done yet, folks. I don't have a final chapter count since I write as I go, but we aren't there yet.