"With this ring I wed thee,
All my worldly goods with thee I share....
...For better and for worse..." Grace said her vows smilingly to Peter, the man of her dreams.
She had always had a crush on Peter since the first time she bumped into him in a rush to get to the lecture theatre for her 2pm class... Peter fit into the perfect description of 'Tall, Dark and Handsome' His sense of style was superb.... She came to soon know that he was described as "Peter the Slayer" on campus...
Turning on her girly charms, Grace had shamelessly flirted with Peter and succeeded in exchanging contacts with him....
"I have my demons. Demons I try hard to fight. I can't saddle you with them.. You are to pure too be tainted.. Gracy, I'm not good for you. I really am not" Peter had often times warned Grace when they were dating...
She blew it off... We all have our demons she'd always tell him..
Peter tended to get jealous though. Being such a sight to behold, Grace never failed to catch the eyes of the male gender, sometimes the female gender too... And Peter would always complain and sulk. She found it cute and flattering that he was jealous.. This was interpreted to mean he was really in love with her...
"I'm getting married!!!" She announced with glee to her elder sister...
Sarah dropped the novel she was reading and sat up straight to listen to her sister...
"You are getting married?" She repeated slowly "To who?"
Grace explained everything to her sister, although she left out a very vital detail.. A detail that would have prevented a huge mistake...
"Grace, you are just twenty years. You are not even done with your Bachelors degree and you want to get married to a guy you met four months ago?" Sarah tried to get Grace to see reasons....
Grace chalked everything up to jealousy and even went as far as insulting her for being bitter because she was thirty and single.
It was as if a switch was turned on in Peter immediately after the wedding... He became more bitter and was always angry... He always seemed to find fault in whatever she did, what she wore, what she prepared, the friends she kept, where she went. He had complaints for everything that concerned her...
He had beat her again. This time her left hip bone had suffered more. After the 'first two times' he had slapped her when they were dating, he had not touched her, oh, except that 'mild' shove that had her tumbling. He had apologized, bought gifts upon gifts, chalked it up to the "work of the devil." He had promised.. He had even sworn on the grave of his mother no to touch her again.. She believed him. She told nobody about it, not even her sister or Ruth, her best friend knew.......
"Peter, I'm leaving you. I can't do this anymore. I've seen enough movies and heard enough stories to know how this would end. You'll end up beating me to death. You'll end up killing me... And I sure as hell won't wait for it to happen. I refuse to be a cliché"
Clinging tightly to her, he sobbed... He kept making the promise he had been making for a year and eight months now.. It won't happen again blah blah blah...
"Grace, you promised. You promised to help me fight my demons.. Remember baby, 'For better and for worse' Don't leave"
Oh no!!! He can't bullshit her anymore... She refused to fall for these lines again... She had enough scars to show for her foolishness and her faith that he might actually change.. She was not sticking around.. Not a day longer..
"You are your own demon Peter. Scratch that, you are a devil... And yes I did promise for better and for worse, I've stayed for better and I've stayed for worse, but this is the worst, and that, I did not sign up for.* Taking the ring off her finger, she laid it on the floor. With this ring she had been snared, and now without the ring, she was freed!!!
With that, she turned and made her way for the front door, holding her duffel bag, not turning back for a second to see the broken Peter on his knees.... Her dream had become her worst nightmare
