Chapter 36: After Two Martinis And A Shot Of Vodka

Taylor

My scream punctures the silence of the dark house; I sit up, gasping for breath. My hands feel around my neck repetitively.

My bedroom light flicks on as Jackson darts to my side. He climbs in bed right next to me. His muscular arms wrap around me tightly. “It was a dream, only a nightmare,” he whispers into my hair while rocking me back and forth. “Just breath-in and out, in and out.”

Kennedy appears moments later, climbing in on the other side of me. Tears fall from my eyes and down my cheeks.

When will this end?

Out of my life for three months now, John still torments me. He was violent when mad, always verbally and emotionally abusive, but he was never physical. In my nightmares, he escalates to the next level.

I do not know what time it is. We fall to the pillows, no one speaks. Jackson holding me, the three of us fall back asleep.

At six a.m. my alarm cuts into the silence. Today The Beastie Boys alert me it is time to be a model patient. As Jackson and Kennedy try to mak