Page 100 of Creed

“You’re coming to my house.”

“But I don’t want to.”

“It’s doesn’t matter. You’re coming.”

“Brian, stop!” I tried to pull his arm back, but he shoved me hard enough that I stumbled into the wall. “You can’t do this!”

Just thinking about the horror in my daughter’s eyes made my stomach turn. I never would’ve dreamed that he’d pull a stunt like this, but he was desperate, and desperate men do desperate things. It didn’t help matters that he’d been drinking. Booze had a way of turning him into an obstinate asshole. It certainly did tonight.

In a blink, we were in the driveway, and Brian was putting Chrissy in the backseat of his truck. Every instinct I had screamed at me to stop this and not let him take her, but nothing I was trying worked. He just kept going. “You can’t do this!”

“The hell I can’t,” he snarled, slamming the door. “She’s my daughter, and I am concerned for her well-being.”

“You know they are safe here.”

“They were until you started fucking that asshole. That’s on you.” He opened his door and got behind the wheel as he yelled, “They will be with me until you get your head straight.”

Panic clawed up my throat as he started the engine, and the headlights pierced through the dark. I saw the fear in Chrissy’s eyes as she looked back at me through the window. “Brian, please!”

When he didn’t stop, I did the only thing I could.

I stepped in front of the truck.

For a split second, I thought he would stop. I thought he would see me standing there and remember that I was hischildren’s mother, and that there was a time when he cared for me. I thought he’d see the tears and the panic on my face, and he would stop.

He didn’t.

He didn’t even slow down.

I let out one last cry, and then the world exploded in pain as the front of the truck hit me, knocking the air from my lungs, sending me sprawling backward onto the hard concrete. My head bounced, and then the sky tilted, the stars spun, and then everything went black.

I hoped the Ring camera caught everything, because if it did, Brian was toast. When we got to the hospital, they carried me straight back and started running tests. Other than my pounding headache and few aching muscles, I felt okay. But the constant beeping of all these machines had me on edge.

I tried to focus on breathing and keeping my eyes open, so I didn’t worry my mother. But everything hurt, and the bright lights were absolutely blinding. They took me for the CT scan, and I was waiting for the results. Mom was with me, but having her there did little to help with the knot in my stomach.

“You okay over there?”

“I’m trying to be.”

I wanted to see the kids and to see for myself that they were truly okay. It was the only way my nerves were going to settle. And Mom knew it. “The kids should be here soon.”

“How did we get here?”

“I don’t know, sweetheart, but I’m a firm believer in everything happens for a reason.”

“But the kids didn’t deserve this.”

“You didn’t either, but that didn’t stop it from happening.”

“I think Brian did some bad things, Mom.”

“What kind of bad things?”

“The kind that could put him behind bars.”

“Oh, Devin. Surely not.”

“It’s why he lost it. I confronted him about it, and…”