The Bar

The Bar
Laurel

I sat ramrod straight in the chair next to Carl. If I was honest, I was afraid to move. The more I watched him breathe, the angrier I got. He was completely relaxed on the table, and even though I knew it was because he had been knocked out by the team of bodyguards so he could be transported here, it didn’t help. What gave him the right to dream sweetly when I hadn’t slept peacefully since I was 16? Why did he get to move through life without having to worry about anything? What made him so deserving of living a life without consequences?

He had taken everything from me. My hope. My dreams. And eventually the love of my life. Even though the latter was more my fault for letting this piece of shit man get into my head. If he hadn’t treated me as poorly as he had, I would have never walked away from Mason. Had this bastard not attacked and hurt Mason, I wouldn’t have felt it necessary to leave in an effort to protect him. Not only that, but he had threatened Maddie. I could tell that Joey was livid about Carl calling her a bitch, but he had agreed to let me have first dibs on the coward.

When he started to shift on the table, I straightened up, almost a little scared over the strength of excitement that raced through my body. I never thought that I would be so eager to hurt someone as I was to finally get to take out all of my pain on the very man that caused it.

A few minutes later, Carl was fully alert and was peering around at all of us in various spots around him. There weren’t many, but it was very clear from the atmosphere in the room that he was in some serious danger. He started asking questions, and tried to tug at his restraints, but he was not answered. By anyone. Every last man in the room was watching me, waiting for me to decide what we were going to do. It felt good to have so much control. It felt good to finally hold all the power.

Carl was going to see that as of today, I did not belong to him. I was not his slave, and he was not my master. I was not property. His or anyone else’s. Not anymore. I was Laurel. I was strong. I was my own boss. And there wasn’t anything he could do about it. Even if he could, I wasn’t going to let him. I waited until Carl shut his mouth and met my eyes with his own on fire before I slowly stood up. I knew that I wasn’t terrifying in any way, but I relished the way his eyes immediately filled with fear as he watched me pick up the roll of toilet paper before I moved to stand over him with a sinister smile on my face.

“Hello, Carl,” I said pleasantly.

He swallowed hard, tugging at his restraints again. “Hello, Laurel. What’s going on?”

“Oh, nothing. Nothing at all! Everything is okay. You’re okay. But hey, listen to me. I wanted to talk to you about a few things,” I told him as I began to tear the toilet paper up. “Do you remember when I made you an amazing dinner for our 6 month anniversary? I made you steak with sauteed mushrooms and caramelized onions. I paired it with homemade mashed potatoes, gravy, and I painstakingly grilled asparagus for you. Do you remember that?”

He eyed me closely as he nodded. “Yes. What about it?”

“Do you remember what you said when you got home?” I asked him.

“N-no. I’m sure I thanked you and we enjoyed an amazing night,” he replied quietly, his voice wavering with fear.

I tossed my head back, laughing almost hysterically for a moment before it suddenly stopped as my head straightened back up so that I was glaring at him.

“Not even close! You picked up the plates I had spent thirty minutes on making sure looked absolutely stunning for you and you threw them on the floor before you did the same thing to me, when I started crying and asking you what I had done wrong. I had just wanted to share a nice dinner with you. I don’t know why that was so funny to you, but it was. You finally stopped laughing at me and went to the bathroom to get a roll of toilet paper. When you came back to the kitchen, you threw it at me. I remember what you said to me. You called me fat, and told me that my food tasted worse than used toilet paper. You then proceeded to sit down in front of me with your leg over your knee, and said if I wanted to share a meal with you, then we would eat together. I was not allowed to get up until I had eaten the entire roll.” I paused to meet his eyes. “You didn’t care when I begged or cried for mercy. You didn’t care when I couldn’t eat any more. You crouched in front of me, and stuffed it into my mouth.”

“I-I’m sorry I did that to you, Laurel. I don’t know what was wrong with me. I need help. I swear if you give me another chance, I can take care of you like you deserve to be taken care of. I’ll never hurt you again,” he begged.

I gave him an annoyed look. “You think this is about getting you to change? You think this is what? An intervention? Oh no! I just wanted you to know why you’re in this place. I want you to understand why I won’t have mercy on you. I want you to understand that you have earned every single last second of pain you are going to get. My entire adult life has been horrible because of you. You’ve made it hard for me to move on. You made it hard for me to accept the love of an amazing man, who really truly just does want to take care of me. I want you to understand why you will never walk out of here alive. Every day I look over my shoulder, waiting to see you creeping up behind me. Every single fucking day! And I’m tired, Carl. But even more than that, I’m done!

I’m done letting you control my narrative. I’m done letting your words hold me back and make me doubt everything that Mason says. I’m done letting your opinion of me make me think that I don’t deserve good things. And more than anything, I’m done letting you control me in any way. You are the one that’s nothing! You are the one that’s not worth anything. I wanted kids, you know. I wanted a family. I wanted a man that would love and protect me like I was the most precious thing in his life, and for a while I thought that man was going to be you. But it wasn’t. As soon as you sank your claws into me, it was over for me. You started treating me like I was no better than a dog.

I was nothing more than a good, obedient bitch who was expected to listen to every one of your commands. The only difference between me and a dog was that dogs usually got some type of affection. You made it clear that I was only alive because you allowed me to be. Every morning when I woke up, I would wonder if that day was the day my life was going to be over. When I divorced you, I thought it was all over. I thought I was safe, but you wouldn’t let me go. You stalked me. You kidnapped me. You hurt me. And Mason. Let’s not forget that you attacked him too.”

I paused to put my hand on my stomach, wishing that I was already far enough along that I could feel my baby moving around. Sometimes I really needed to reassure myself that mine and Mason’s baby was okay. I closed my eyes for a moment, ignoring Carl’s apologies as I took a few deep breaths to calm myself down. When I opened them, I had managed to beat down all of my anxiety again. Now I was ready to finish what I was saying. I wanted to get it all out before I started on why I had actually come to the bar.

“You attacked him from behind. You were too much of a pussy to face him head on. You didn’t even hesitate. All because he wanted to love me.” I swallowed hard as emotions threatened to overwhelm me. “I deserve to be loved. And more than that, I deserve to be loved by Mason. I will be loved by Mason. Your control ends here. Right now.” I turned to look at some of the bikers. “I’m ready to begin. Can you help me?”

Cobra and his father, Rhino immediately moved forward to assist me. “Of course! What can we do?”

I met Carl’s eyes. “Open his mouth…”