Chapter 20

"LUTHER!" AMANDA BELLOWED, almost tripping on her gown as she rushed to his side and fell to her feet "What happened?!" She blurted, yelling at the maids that had gathered around, and then, her eyes zeroed in on Dawn who couldn't stop fidgeting.

"What did you do to my husband you slime!" She cursed, her voice deadly and shaking with rage.

"I-i don't know. We - we were t-talking and -"

"Call the paramedics you imbecile!" She barked and Dawn offered no disagreement.

She ran to the nearest phone booth and dialed the emergency number. At this point, David was nowhere to be found and she was slowly losing it. She paced around and chewed on her fingers until the ambulance arrived and took Luther Into the family sanitarium where he was thankfully stabilized and placed in the close observation room.

Dawn allowed herself to lean against the sanitarium wall and breathe out a sigh. The harsh smell of hospital disinfectant was the least of her worries. She bit on her lip hard and tried to silence her tapping heels.

It all occurred so fast that it was mildly impossible to process what had happened. One minute they were talking, and the next, he was having a heart attack. It was quite unbelievable.

After minutes, Amanda walked out of the room and Dawn stood up straight with her head to the ground.

She swallowed a lump in her throat. "I'm sorry Amanda. If I had known the orchids were that much of a problem I wouldn't have added them" she apologized with all sincerity but Amanda was far too enraged to care.

She stumped forward and curved her fists. "You must be disappointed right? Now I see that you're not only a gold digger but a desperate hag as well" She bit off, her voice shaking with fury.

Dawn looked up, surprise in her eyes. "I beg your pardon?"

Amanda stepped forward, close enough that Dawn was forced to retreat. "What else are you going to take away from me? first my son and now my husband?!"

"Mrs. Amanda?" She called cautiously, knowing very well to tread carefully with a woman in a temper. "You need to calm down"

"Did you try to poison him because he didn't fall for your seductive sultry! Did you?!"

"This is ridiculous. I would never -"

"Don't you have no shame, where are your morals! did your mother teach you to go around seducing men or is it a hobby you picked up in the street you unlawful nonentity!" she lashed.

Dawn groaned, holding on to her temper. "Mrs. Amanda, I know you are not in a good state of mind right now but I think you are taking this a little too far"

Amanda felt her skin grow even hotter. She scoffed and tightened her hand. "Taking it too far? But this is only the beginning. You are a gold digger Dawn, a beggar, a family of harlots, no wonder your father ran off. Only God knows how many men your mother slept with before conceiving you!"

"That's it!" She fumed and she probably should have heeded her warnings on self-preservation but something - definitely something pushed her off the edge. "I've outright had it with your endless shrieking like a banshee, Amanda. You can come at me all you want but I will not stand here and watch you disrespect my mother!"

"Oh save me the drama!" Amanda shot back "isn't that what you all are? sluts, beggars, gold diggers, parasites looking for where to feed off!"

The nerve! Dawn held herself, trying to soothe her rushing blood and not heed the desire to smack that woman like she outrightly deserved. She was the sort who usually walked away from conflicts but really, this was too much. "Honestly I have tried my very best to tolerate you but I'm done with it. I take back apology!"

"Oh now her true colors show!" She spoke with utmost sarcasm and anger.

"You know what, for so long, I thought you couldn't accept me because of my standards, I thought you needed to get to know me better to understand and acknowledge me but that's all bullshit. I think it's you who has the problem here, you're scared of me, do I make you itch that much?!" She retorted with all the irritability she could find.

Amanda twitched. Every word that flowed from her lips angered her more and her body boiled with rage.

"You are nothing Dawn. You do not scare me and you will never scare me. Look around you! You have nothing!"

"You're wrong. I have David, he chose me and loves me and no matter how hard you try, you can't ignore the fact forever"

"David doesn't love you, he is just blinded, imprisoned by your spell. He can't possibly love a nonentity !" She scoffed "never!"

Dawn rolled her fists and bit hard on her tongue. "I'm not like you Amanda! You see, we are different, I didn't get married to a widower and claim his child as my own. I don't sit home all day pretending to be useful when in reality I'm not, I don't go around clinging to a husband and son that's not even mine! I do-"

"Why you!" Amanda struck her with a sound rippling like a cracking of a bullwhip and her words stumbled back, forcing her to choke as her eyes widened to the reality of what had just happened.

"Who the hell do you think you are!" She fumed, raising back her hand and whipping it across her face one more time - the crack of skin-contacting skin echoing off the walls.

Dawn winced and rotated her head as the vibrations of pain spread across her cheeks like wildfire. She lifted her hand and cradled her cheek, staring in growing horror as hot tears burned her eyes.

"Next time know your place!" Amanda bit off, walking away and leaving Dawn with an aching face and more than pricked pride.

***

BY EVENING, WHEN THE NIGHT WAS AGLOW and the pale crescent moon shone like a silvery claw, David whistled to himself as he walked his way through the hallway and towards the stairs - partially relieved and inordinately pleased that he got to have a time alone with his wife.

Ah,

She must miss him, or is it that he missed her?

He'd spent the better part of the afternoon attending to guests and trying to pull his drunken uncle out of the water Fountain and to that particular thought, he groaned, stepping off the final stair and turning east to where his bedroom was.

As he got closer to the door, he couldn't help but smile to himself and enjoy the memory that washed his mind. Heavens! He needed to stop thinking about his dear wife.

With the way his body tightened, he was certainly not going to go easy on her, at least, not without leaving her aching.

However,

By the time he walked into the room, he was almost convinced that his reason for happiness wasn't going to be fulfilled that night.

He took off his shoes and walked in further. Certainly, it was still too early to have the curtains down and the lights dimmed.

"Dawn?" He called softly, taking off his blazer and laying it to rest on the armchair.

Dawn released a hum, not bothering to look up or move from her position on her side of the bed.

Perhaps, if she didn't awake, the light burn and visible fingerprints on her face would be gone before the morrow, thus taking that pain with it, but, something told her that David wanted more than just sleep.

He wasted no time in discarding his clothes and changing into his track pants, and then, he settled beside her, tossing his hand to rest on her waist.

When she didn't so much as protest, he tugged her towards him, swallowing the little space she had put between them and breathing in the scent of her hair.

Dawn gulped hard, burying her face deeper into her pillow and squirming slightly as she felt him nuzzle her neck and gently kiss her exposed shoulders.

"You smell so nice tonight. I wonder how you'll smell after I'm done" he mumbled, his words coming out thick and hot against her skin and maybe, just maybe, Dawn would've enjoyed his touch if it was in an entirely different circumstance, but it wasn't and she just wanted to be alone.

"David" she bellowed, but David was far too gone to take note of the seriousness in her voice. For all he knew, it was just one of her inaudible moans.

He didn't pause or display any gentleman gesture to implicitly ask for permission, rather, he continued his exploitation, showering her skin with unwanted kisses as well as settling his hand between the hotness of her legs, and when she couldn't take any more of his sexual pressure, she fumed.

"David, stop!" She cried out, inching away.

David sat up and looked at her, blinking in confusion for a mere minute as he tried processing what had just happened.

"I'm sorry but I'm just not in the mood" she quickly added.

First, it was the darkroom, and now this. He might be a horny lot but he definitely wasn't stupid.

"What's wrong Dawn?" He asked, reaching to touch her but she shifted slightly. "Did I perhaps do something wrong?" He continued, his voice low and eager.

"I'm just not in the mood David" she mumbled, drawing her blanket over her shoulder.

"Why?"

"Because I'm just not" she sighed.

"Well, I find that hard to believe" he persisted and Dawn thinned her lips, slightly irritated by his cockiness.

"Well believe it"

"How can you just not be in the mood?" He said, adding just a touch of sarcasm to his protest.

"Because this marriage isn't all about having meaningless sex, David" she bit off, regretting her words the second they came out of her mouth.

"Meaningless sex?" David quirked his brows, affronted by her uncut statement.

"Yes," Dawn muttered, not bothering to mince her words or look him in the face.

"Well I'm sorry if I enjoy making love to my wife that much, I didn't realize it was immature and meaningless to express my love in more ways than one"

When she did nothing but keep him silent for more than a minute, David scoffed and shook his head. "Who am I kidding?" He muttered, pulling out of the bed and walking to switch on the lights.

"No David wait-"

But he had already pressed the switch and what he saw next made his immediate anger morph into that of surprise.

"Dawn...?" He walked back to the bed and sat by her side. "What happened, who did this to you?"

Dawn held his gaze before sliding it down to her hands. Of course, she knew exactly what had happened but she didn't want to get Amanda in trouble, at least not now that she had caused a lot of trouble herself.

"I fell," she said simply but David found her claims hard to believe.

He gently touched her cheeks and scowled when she winced in response. "Don't lie to me Dawn, who the hell did this to you?"

Dawn sucked in her breath and shook her head. "I fell David," she said, even though her lie was quite obvious.

Infuriated and somewhat confused, he tightened his fists into a but - the mere sight of her face and the thought that she might be protecting the bastard who did it made his body boil.

"I'm only going to ask this once, and if you don't tell me, I swear to God, I'll -"

"It was Amanda" she spat out, not wanting to prolong the conversation.

"Mother did this to you?" At this point, he didn't seem aware that his knuckles had begun to turn white.

"I deserved it, If I didn't put - "

"Answer me straight Dawn, did she do this to your face?" His fury grew and only intensified when she nodded softly to his question.

He must have been foolish to think that his mother would put down her pride and get along for his sake. How absurd! now his wife was hurt and it was his fault.

David got up and Dawn watched as he tossed a shirt over his head.

"David" she called, trying to coax him back to the bed. "It's not her fault, I was the one who-"

"She hurt you" he cut in sharply, "I can and will not forgive it"

"I'm sure she didn't mean to strike me David" Dawn defended, not sure of why she did it.

"But she did!" He snapped and turned, trying hard not to lash out more than he already did, for a fact, he saved all the lashing for when he'd see his mother. "Don't you get how important you are to me? I don't care if she's my mother or not, no one touches my wife and gets away with it"

"David..."

"I'll send a maid with an ice bag. In the meantime, you are not to step out of this room until I return. Is that clear?" he ordered, still too angry for his voice to be anything but gruff.

Dawn released a sigh and didn't further her protest, rather, she watched him make haste out of the room and slam the door.

This night was definitely going to be a long one.