Chapter 3 - It Had Never Been Just One Night
Lauren told me the first incident happened five months earlier.
Dustin grabbed her wrist during an argument because she tried to leave his apartment.
The next morning he apologized.
Then bought flowers.
Then cried.
Lauren believed him.
Two months later, he shoved her into a wall.
Again:
Apology.
Promise.
Explanation.
He was stressed from training.
Cutting weight.
Preparing for a fight.
She had “pushed the wrong button.”
Lauren hated herself for repeating those excuses aloud.
I stopped her.
“They’re his excuses, not yours.”
She looked at me.
Then continued.
Dustin became controlling in ways that did not initially look like violence.
He wanted her location.
Wanted to know who she spoke with.
Complained when she visited me without telling him.
Criticized her clothes before social events.
Then afterward called himself protective.
The night she went to the hospital, Lauren told him the relationship was over.
Dustin laughed.
She started packing.
He blocked the door.
When she pushed past him, he grabbed her.
She fell against the edge of a table.
Then he struck her once after she screamed at him.
That was enough.
She managed to get outside.
A neighbor called an ambulance.
“What did Dustin say when you left?” I asked.
Lauren stared at her blanket.
“He said nobody would believe me.”
“Why?”
“Because he knows how to fight.”
I didn’t understand.
Then she explained.
Dustin had told her:
“I know exactly how to hurt somebody and make it look like an accident.”
That was when I decided I needed to see him.
Not to fight him.
To see whether arrogance would make him reckless in front of witnesses.
May you like
It did.
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