"Behind Closed Doors" Chapter 9
Not Pregnant.
She had two words to say about that : Thank God. Getting pregnant now would have been her worst nightmare. There was no way she would survive the consequences of bringing a baby into the hell she was currently living in. She threw away the test, hiding in under tissues just in case and went straight to bed. She was ready for this day to be over.
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Miranda woke up the next morning at six. She didn't have to work today, but she had always been an early riser. If she had her way, though, she would sleep through the entire day. She layed in bed and tried to think of things she could do to occupy her time so she wouldn't have to be home when Stephen arrived, but then she decided it would probably be in her best physical health interest to be here waiting for him.
She took her time getting out of bed and headed downstairs for a cup of coffee. Even at the crack of dawn when no one but her was ever up it still felt so much quieter with them gone. She couldn't stand the silence so she turned on a small radio that was built into the counter in the kitchen. She would have to go around the house and make sure that none of the girls had left anything laying around. Stephen would just kill her if he found out that they had been here while he was away.
Miranda showered and dressed and checked the family rooms for evidence of her daughters recent presence, but found none. She headed to her office to work; not because it necessarily needed done, but because she was bored. Runway was her life. It was what she did almost all the time and the only time she wasn't working was when she was with the twins. Without them now, she had all the time in the world to work and suddenly didn't want to.
As she sat staring at a fall themed layout, she realized that she had no idea what time to be expecting Stephen. He had called a few times while he was away, playing the part of the good husband and had told her what day he would be back, but not what time. She decided that she really didn't care, the longer he was away, the better, but God must have really had it in for her because at the moment she heard the faint sound of a car door closing outside the townhouse.
She hurried downstairs, getting into the loving and compliant wife role, to greet him. She opened the door for him and he carried in a few suitcases and set them on the ground by their feet.
"Stephen!", Miranda exclaimed, throwing her arms around his neck for a hug.
Stephen hugged back in ernest. "Did you miss me, darling? You seem to have had a change of heart since I last saw you", he said when they pulled apart.
"Yes, well, I just really missed you, that's all", she muttered, feeling that her pretenses were being seen through. Apparently they weren't though, because Stephen scooped her up in his arms and started up the stairs. "Let me show you how much I've missed you, Miranda", he said in her ear as he made his way upstairs.
He put her back on her feet once they entered the bedroom and kissed her lips hungrily, holding her face in his hands. Miranda just went with it and did her best to sound approving at all the right times, just so he wouldn't realized how much she really loathed him. And it must have been working because Stephen had all of his clothes and her shirt off in seconds, and he was laying on top of her on the bed, placing frantic kisses on her neck. "Wait", Miranda asked.
Stephen didn't stop. "What?", he mumbled between kisses and gropes.
"I have to use the bathroom", she said.
He stopped his ministrations and with an impatient sigh told her to hurry up.
She pulled out from under him and rushed into the bathroom. Stephen sat up and ran his hand through his hair, glancing around the room. That's when he saw it. A condom.
A used condom.
His blood started boiling; he could feel it. Miranda stepped out of the bathroom and stopped dead in her tracks when she saw his face. "Stephen?", she questioned him. He ignored her and slipped his hand under the bed skirt producing the object that had made him livid.
"What the FUCK is this?!", he yelled, making her jump. She stood there with her mouth hanging open, terrified to say anything. Her breathing speed up and her hands started shaking. She knew something bad was coming and she had no way to explain that condom to him.
He rose from the bed, still holding the used rubber in his hand and made his way towards her, strangly calm. When he got too close, Miranda started backing up slowly, holding up her hands in surrender.
"St-stephen...please....let me explain", she pleaded, even though she knew she had nothing to say. She just needed to stall him; keep him from killing her.
He had backed her up against the wall and she had no escape. "Let you explain?", he sneered in her face, "How about you cut the bullshit and tell who you were fucking while I was away, hmmm?"
"Stephen, I..."
"WHO?!", Stephen screamed at her, effectively cutting her off.
She scrambled her brain for something that would save her. She knew she could and would never say that it had been Robert. She cared about him too much to put him in danger like that and besides, her children needed someone to look after them right now. If Stephen knew that she had been with him he would hunt him down, no doubt in her mind. He was completely unstable, capable of anything.
So she went with the only option she could think of. "Irv", she whisphered.
His hands wrapped around her delicate throat. "You dirty, filthy, loathsome, WHORE!", he yelled as he squeezed, cutting off her oxygen.
He pulled her forward and banged her head back against the wall, before letting her go. But she would have preferred his hands on her neck as apposed to where they were now.
"Stop....I'm sorry....I- he made me....", Miranda rushed to defend herself, coughing as she tried to catch her breath at the same time.
Stephen's hands were on her thighs, groping and roaming. "Did he touch you like this? Huh? Did he?!"
Miranda tried to remove his touch, but he kept it up, his hands moving to fast for her to keep up. Her head was pounding from hitting the wall and she was running on adrenaline.
Suddenly he pulled her from the wall and smacked her so hard that she fell to the ground. She scrambled to get up, but he was on her in a second, strangling her again. She was loosing the fight, she couldn't breathe and her vision was fuzzy. Stephen sat above her, his face beet red. He looked delirious. Miranda was sure this was the end, he was going to literally kill her. Her hands frantically gripped at his hold around her throat.
"Wa-wa..it....", she barely got out.
He loosened his hands just a bit and snarled "Last words, my sweet little slut?"
"I--I'm....preg---pregnant", she uttered.
Stephen's hands left her neck.
"It's yours"
He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her to him as if he were desperate for her.
"Oh my God. Miranda, I'm so sorry. Please forgive me. Please", he begged her, hugging her tight.
She wrapped her arms around him, thankful to have stopped him, even if it was by lying. The both of them sat on the floor, wrapped in each others' arms; Miranda breathing heavily from the recent physical exertion and Stephen rocking her in his arms, muttering "I'm sorry"s in her ear. She had to take a minute to collect herself. She was just nearly killed by the same man that was now confessing his love to her repeatedly and had become "pregnant" all in less than ten minutes.
How she was going to deal with this tangled web of lies she had weaved she had no idea.
Stephen had helped her to clean up, waiting on her hand and foot when Miranda would have much rather spent the rest of the night far far away from him. She climbed into her large king bed and Stephen followed suit, cuddling up next to her. She was glad she had taken that large dose of muscle relaxer when she was alone in the bathroom because her eyelids closed heavily and she passed out minutes after her head hit the pillow.
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The next morning Stephen was acting like a different man. If she didn't know any better she would have thought he was the man she once new; the Stephen she married. He was caring and attentive and affectionate. All the things that had vanished long ago. She smiled and played along; the good wife, but on the inside; she was panicking.
He would eventually want to know more details about the pregnancy and she wasn't going to be hopeful enough to think that he would completely drop the whole "sleeping with Irv" thing. And she was sure as hell right when they sat at the kitchen table before work, Stephen said "I'm going to kill him"
She looked up from her grapefruit. "What?"
Stephen was staring serenly out the window. "I'm going to kill him. I would probably have killed you too, but a baby changes things", he said turning back to her.
Miranda held her poker face. "Stephen, you know that's not the right thing to do. Besides, you would never survive in prison"
"Prison?", he asked, "What makes you think I would end up in prison?"
Miranda was now finding it harder not to look so damn confused. "Because most murderers are caught", she answered factually.
"I won't be. Because you're going to help me", Stephen said, taking a sip of his coffee.
"Help you? I'm not going to do any such thing, Stephen. I won't jeopardize my career for something so foolish"
Stephen looked up at her from the table. "Well, it's the least you could do after spreading your legs the minute I left town", he pointed out.
Miranda thought for a moment. Since she was already lying about everything else, she might as well induce him to shut him up now. "What did you have in mind?"
"We're going to frame him. Make it look like I killed him out of self defense"
"Self defense? Why would he attack you?", she asked.
"Because you are going to put on a show and make it look like rape. Shouldn't be too hard, the man is revulting. Why you would fuck around with him of all people I'll never know", Stephen simply said.
"I told you, Stephen. It wasn't like that. He's blackmailing me. I had no way to get around it", Miranda tried to explain.
"Oh, bullshit. He probably just has a huge dick. Am I right?", he asked, cocking an eyebrow.
Miranda decided to change tactics. He may have been acting completely different this morning, but that wasn't guarenteed to last and he was already getting an attitude with her. She didn't see herself convincing him anytime soon.
"Why would I want him when I've got you? You're much bigger", Miranda admitted the truth through gritted teeth.
That put a smile on Stephen's face. He rose from the table and bent down to pull her up to stand. "Tell me how much bigger", he said.
"2 inches, at least", Miranda pulled out of her ass.
He bent down and captured her mouth, hungrily. "Am I better?", he asked when he pulled away.
Miranda kept up the charade. "Of course"
Stephen kissed her again. "Good. Now you better be home tonight at a decent hour, since you had to go screwing up my plans for us last night. And I'll have someone watching you at work from now on. If I find out that you were ever near that son-of-a-bitch, you'll regret it" He gave her one last kiss and walked out of the room.
Miranda knew she had some huge potential problems developing and she couldn't get rid of the sick feeling lingering in her stomach.
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Sorry I took so long to update for those of you still reading. And sorry it's kinda short. I'll be getting back to it soon, just been busy lately. And lots more drama coming up! Also, just ignore the dumb font size, i couldnt get the dang thing to all look the same i have no clue what happened lol