Hey guys, I'm back! So I hope you like the chapter and there is a new character and he's going to be in it for the next chapter or two. Do you remember the movie called "Fear" with Mark Wahlberg and Reese Witherspoon? Anyway, my character was based on Mark... he's very sexy lol. I will be posting up the next chapter sometimes this week or so. I'm sorry for taking so long... I struggled with the writer's block but now it's gone for while... I hope lol. So I hope you will like this and please please review to let me know if you like it or if you have any suggestions. Thank you guys!

oh by the way, I almost forgot. If you don't like violence and rape... you may want to skip it. It's in April 07' section.

A man is sitting in the chair in the dark and he reached to turn on the lamp. I grabbed my knife and the lamp was turned on.

I gasped in shock. The man sitting in my chair was the man from my past… my ex-husband.

"Mark?" I said, still holding on my knife. "How did you get in my apartment?"

He smiled creepily and uncrossed his leg. "I told your landlord that I was your brother and that we had a family emergency… that I couldn't reach you on the phone. Your stupid landlord believed me." He chuckled.

He stood up and walked slowly to me… causing me to walk backwards until the sink stopped me and I had no place to move anywhere.

"Stop! I have the knife, I'll cut you." I said, pointing my knife at him.

"Ohhh… I'm scared." He shakes his legs and laughed.

"I have a boyfriend who's a cop and he'll arrest your ass!"

"No, you don't… you see... I have been watching you for almost a month now… and I know that in fact that you broke up with him."

I whimpered in fear and I knew he was right.

He got closer to me and somehow managed to take away the knife before I could protest.

I stared into his dark eyes.

"We had a great relationship until you divorced me!" He slammed his fist against the counter, which made me flitch.

"I had to! You were abusive to me! That's why I divorced you and you need to get over it because it was two years ago!" I shouted and tried to walk away but Mark grabbed my hair and pulled me back.

"Listen to me, Bitch! And don't even try to walk away from me this time because I will hurt you more than this."

"Why are you here, Mark? Why?" I asked.

"Because I need you… It's been too long without you… I should have never let you go." He whispered, caressing my cheek.

"Mark… I'm sorry but we… I tried to make it work but you made our marriage very difficult… and ever since we got divorced… I am happy for the first time in a long time." I whispered.

Mark became angry and there was bitterness in his voice.
"Fine… but let me warn you this. I will watch you until you come back to me or else… I will hurt someone you love."

He moves back from me and walked out of my apartment.

I was shaking so bad that I made myself to sit down on the kitchen floor and tried to catch my breath.

"Oh god." I whispered, putting my hands to my face and sat still until I finally calm down.

I stood up and walked to my door, locking it up. I know that I am not going to be able to sleep tonight.

I fought with myself about whether I need to call Stella or not. Finally, I decided to call Stella.

The phone rings and I heard Stella picks up her home phone.

"Hello?"

"Stella." I choke out.

"What's wrong?" Stella became concerned.

"I need you to come to my apartment… because someone was here tonight." My voice broke at the last sentence.

She knew it was bad when I said that so she told me that she was on her way.

I hang up the phone and stood in the kitchen for while until the doorbell rang.

I ran to the door, unlocking the door and ran into Stella's arms.

"You're shaking, Isabella… are you okay? What happened?" She asked me as I let her in.

I started to choke up and walked away from her, putting my hands against the counter and leaned down for a second.

Stella puts her hand against my back and rubs my back while I struggle to tell her what had happened here tonight.

"Oh, Stella… my past has finally catches up with me now…"

Stella's eyebrows frowned and shook her head. "What do you mean? What are you talking about?"

I stood back up and looked out of the window.

"What I'm about to tell you… and you must promise me that you will not get angry or tell anyone… and Mac."

Stella sighs heavily and nodded. "I promise… now tell me."

"Okay… Do you remember the guy I was dating for five years?"

She nodded.

"Stella… I lied to you. I wasn't only dating him for five years… I was married to him for five years…until we got divorced two years ago."

"What... I thought I heard you said that you were married to him." She chuckled.

"I was married, Stell. It's the truth."

"Oh… I think I need to sit down." She sat down and I opened a bottle of wine near me and gave her a glass of wine.

"I need one too." I whispered, pouring myself a glass of wine and sipped.

"Why you didn't tell me this, Bella?"

"I really don't know why I didn't… but I can tell you the whole story if you want me to." I sat down, facing her across the table.

"Yes… please."

"Well… okay… here is it." I started to tell her about everything and it brought back a lot of memories.

FLASHBACK

August 2002, at bookstore.

I was looking for my childhood education textbook for my class and I wasn't paying attention when I bumped into a guy, causing us to drop our textbooks.

"OH! I'm so sorry." I said, picking up my textbook and our hands touched at same time.

I looked up and we looked at each other's eyes.

I started to blush from embarrassment and he chuckled at me.

"Again, I'm sorry about bumping into you."

"No, don't apologize… I should be the one who apologizes because… you see… I wasn't paying attention because of your beauty."

I started to giggle and paid attention of his appearance.

He has brown eyes, brown spiky hair and I could tell he was quite built because his black t-shirt was showing off his strong biceps.

"I'm Mark McCall." He puts out his hand and we shook hands. "I'm Isabella Whitney."

"Nice to meet you… so what is your major?" Mark asked as we walked around slowly.

"I'm majoring in Education. What about you, Mark?"

He told me that he was majoring in Business and we went ahead to buy our textbooks.

Then we went to the café where we had our coffee and we talked there all day to get to know each other.

SIX MONTHS LATER: January 2003

Mark and I fell in love within the next month after we met and our college friends have always known us as the cutest couple.

We were celebrating our six-month anniversary at his apartment when Mark had a shocking and wonderful surprise for me.

"As we know, today is our six-month anniversary… and I know we both said no presents. But I want to do this for you and it's very special. So close your eyes."

"Come on, Mark." I start to giggle.

"Please, baby." He says, smiling at me.

"Okay." I closed my eyes and felt his fingers opening my left hand and putting something inside.

I heard him sigh nervously and tell me to open my eyes.

I opened my eyes and immediately look down to see what was in my hand.

It's a blue velvet box.

"Mark?" I said in confusion.

"Please open it for me."

I opened it and it was a platinum three diamond stones circlet ring. I gasp softly and Mark took the ring out of the box and put it on my left ring finger.

"Isabella Whitney… will you marry me?"

I wanted to take a pause and think about it but my heart was telling me to say yes.

"Yes… Yes!" I nodded with tears in my eyes and Mark picked me up and spun me around, kissing me with so much passion.

April 2003

I was working on my assignments so I wouldn't have to do them next week which was spring break! I was very excited to go on the beach with Mark and our couple of friends.

Mark came in and sat down next to me on my bed.

"Baby, I need to talk to you for a second." I looked up and took off my headphones.

"Sure, what?"

"Okay… I know that we were planning to get married after we finish college. But since our spring break is coming up soon… I was thinking that we could get married at the court house in Savannah, where we are staying for spring break."

I was taken aback by his wanting to get married after 3 months of engagement.

"Mark… that's great but... it's so fast... what about your family and friends? Won't they want to see us to get married?"

"I know, I know but… we can get married again… no one will know about it except our close friends. Look, think about it and let me know if my idea is good. I got to go to baseball practice now, babe. See ya." Mark kisses me goodbye and left the room.

I tried to attempt to finish my homework but I couldn't because I kept thinking about what Mark said earlier.

"If we do get married in Savannah… we would have to get our wedding license, wedding rings and something to wear." I said softly to myself.

I take a look down at my diamond ring and play around with it for while… thinking it over.

When Mark came back from his baseball practice, he sat down next to me and waited for me to say something.

"You know… I have thought about it for a long time and hard enough… Let's get married." I said, smiling at his reaction.

"Great! Now don't worry about the weddings rings and the wedding linsence, I will take care of them. Just worry about yourself. I love you."

I smile and kissed him. "I love you too." I whisper.

The next week arrived and we got married. I wore my dress with blue heels and Mark wore his old prom suit. We spent our honeymoon in Savannah.

April 2007

Our marriage was so wonderful and I was happy until the year of 2007 came. Mark started to work more and more every night at his business company.

I started to worry about him because I noticed that he was very stressed out and started to drink every night.

Tonight was our 5th anniversary so I made dinner and everything. I even wore my dress that I got married in.

I waited for him for hours. Finally, I looked at the clock and it was midnight. I got pissed off so I took the food I made and threw them in trash.

I blew out the candles and went to bed.

The next morning, I came downstairs to get my cup of coffee and discovered Mark on the couch, passed out. There was an empty bottle on the table next to him.

I walked to the bottle quickly and grabbed it, throwing it against the wall and it shattered all over the place.

Mark jumped up from the couch and looked around quickly before looking at me.

Mark moaned and rubbed his head. "What was that?"

I scoffed at his question."I threw the damn bottle against the wall because you didn't come home last night!"

"So?"

"SO? Last night was our 5th wedding anniversary! I made the damn dinner and I waited for you for hours! And now you're home having a freaking hangover and all you can say is SO!"

Mark stood up and walked around the table to me.

"I'm sorry but I was working. I was working on my project! So I hope you can understand that my project is more important than anniversaries!"

I gasped and he walked away from me but I stopped him with:

"FINE! You're an Asshole and a Coward who can't stop drinking!"

He turned around and he had the darkest look in his eyes I have never seen before.

"What did you say, bitch?"

"You heard me, Mark."

He stormed towards to me and grabbed at the back of my neck, squeezing it so hard that it hurts.

"Mark, stop it!" I tried to get his fingers off of my neck but he squeezes my neck some more and dragged me to our bedroom.

"Mark, stop it!" I tried to get his hand off again but it didn't work.

He pushed my back towards to our bed and I collapsed on it.

"Mark, what are you doing?" He takes off his belt and started to hit me with it. I started to move quickly as he hit me with the belt but he caught my foot and pulled me back and kept hitting my back and the back of my legs.

I screamed in pain and then, he stopped and took off his jeans.

He flipped me over and torn my pajamas off. He got on the top of me and I struggled to push him off but he was too strong.

He went inside of me and started to rape me.

"Mark! Stop! Please!" I pleaded and started to cry.

He kept going until he was done and got off me.

"Now, next time you call me names, I will do it again, understand? UNDERSTAND!"

I nodded, sobbing hysterically.

"Good. I'm going back to work." He got dressed and left me alone on bed, all bruised up and crying alone.

This day was the day of our marriage failed.

Few days after what he did to me, I went to my parents' old lawyer's office and filed for divorce.

Flashback ends

"Our divorce was finalized in December 2007 and he kept the house we brought and I still have my engagement ring and the wedding ring. I tried to give them back to Mark but he wouldn't take them. He told me to keep them."

"Oh god, Isabella. I'm so sorry that I wasn't there when that happened to you." Stella takes my hand and held it.

"Stella, it wasn't your fault… I mean you didn't even know I was married until now. I'm sorry for not telling you so soon."

"No… don't be sorry. Isabella, you are one of the strongest women I have known… You got out of that marriage fast enough. Women in their marriages like yours... or women in an abusive relationship… they don't get out until it's too late."

"Thank you… when Mark was here… I thought that he was getting help because the last time I heard about him was that he was getting help for his anger management but he still has some anger issues. Stella, the reason he was here was because he wants me back… he wants to start over and he knows about Mac."

"Wait, how did he know about Mac?"

"Um… apparently Mark has been in New York for about a month… watching me and following me. He's been stalking me for while and I didn't even know until tonight."

"Well, do you know where he is staying at?"

I shook my head.

"All he said was that he'll be watching me and that if I don't come back to him… he'll hurt someone I love… Stella, he could hurt Mac. I must stay away from Mac in order to protect him."

"No, that's stupid. Why don't you file restraining order? That will prevent him to come to your apartment."

"Stella, I can't because I don't know where he lives. Remember?"

"That's right, of course. Well, do you want me to stay with you tonight? Just in case that he tries to come back again."

"Yes, please. I'll take out the blanket and pillow so you can sleep on the couch. Do you want to borrow my pajamas?"

"Sure. That would be nice. Now… you're tired and I am exhausted from the work today… let's go to bed now."

I nodded and went to get the blanket, pillow and pajamas for Stella.

I gave them to her and we bade good nights to each other.

I felt Stella shaking me awake and I opened my eyes.

"Huh? What?" I said half-asleep.

"I got to go to work now so will you be okay?" Stella asked me.

"Yeah… what time is it?"

Stella looks at my alarm clock and responded to my question. "It's 6:00 in the morning. Mac called me and apparently there was a murder at the park."

"Oh, okay. Did you tell him that you were here?"

Stella shook her head. "No, your secret is safe. Alright, I'm leaving now. See you later."

I roll over to my side and mumble to say good bye to Stella.

Stella's POV

"Hey Mac!" I shouted to him as I walked under the "Do not Cross" line to the park.

"Hey, Stella." Mac was bending down over the body.

"So, what's going on with the victim?" I asked, looking at the victim's bloody face.

Mac stood up and sighed heavily. "No ID but it looks like he has been beaten up over fifty times… he probably died of internal bleeding."

"Tsk. Someone who beat him up must have so much rage inside of him… We need to find this guy."

Mac nodded. They put his body into body bag and took him to the Morgue where Sid will determine his cause of death.

"Hey, do you want get coffee?" Mac asked.

"Yeah, I didn't get any chance to get one this morning… I was in a hurry."

We walked across the road to the coffee shop and brought our coffee.

I was stirring my coffee when Mac came back from getting a second cup of coffee and he decided to ask me a question which I was hoping to avoid.

"Why didn't you pick up your phone at your apartment?"

"Oh, I was doing something and I didn't reach the phone in time." I was praying that Mac doesn't catch me in lying.

"I think you're lying."

"Mac! No, I'm not. I'm telling you the truth."

Mac shook his head. "Bull… I know you so well, Stella. If you had to lie, you lie through your teeth."

I covered my mouth. "Well, I'm not lying!" I avoided his eyes.

"Stella, tell me what's going on and no lying this time, please."

I look up at the sky and shook my head. "Oh boy, Isabella will kill me… I'll just say that I was with her but I won't tell him about Mark."

"Okay, fine. I was at Isabella's apartment last night and she asked me to spend the night. That's all I'm going to say."

Mac looks confused. "Why did you spend the night at her home? Is something going on?"

"Mac… something is going on but I cannot tell you since she made me promised that I won't tell anyone or you. Plus you guys need to work it out. I heard the fight yesterday."

Mac groaned. "Great… the whole world knows about our fight. I'll stop by at her apartment now. Thanks Stella."

"But Mac…" Mac walked away and got into his car.

"Oh man! He's going to her apartment. I better call her."

Isabella's POV

I was already dressed and was getting ready to leave to go to bank when my phone rang. I got annoyed and walked to the phone.

"Hello?"

"Hey Bella! Um… Mac is on the way to your apartment."

"What? Did you tell him, Stella!"

"No, I didn't! Look, he kept asking me questions about why I was at your apartment so I didn't answer them and Mac decided to go to find out."

I sigh in annoyance. "Well, Stella. He's not going to see me because I am leaving to go to the bank. Look, I got to go. I'll call you when I come back. Bye."

I hang up and left the apartment. I took the cab on the way to the Bank of America.

When I got there, I went inside and waited in a line.

All of the sudden, two men in masks came barging in with guns and started shouting

"GET DOWN ON THE GROUND!" One of the men shouted in southern accent. Then the gunshots went off and that's when all hell broke out.

Everybody started to scream and we all went down on the ground.

Damn... another trouble again. Post Reviews please! Love you guys!