Finding Hope

Finding Hope by K Broas Page B

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Authors: K Broas
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naked skin. Pulling Hope to the couch he started to rub her breasts, pushing her bra aside.
    “Mika no! Not now!” Hope cried out as the savage man snarled in ecstasy. Hope stood up throwing Mika off balance sending him to the floor with a thud.
    “Hope, you’re my wife,” Mika shouted as he tried to grab her arm but ended up with a section of her hair. He pulled her hard as she screamed in pain.
    “Ouch… Mika! That hurts!”
    Mika remained focused on Hope, enveloped by desire. Hope reached up and slapped Mika right in the face hoping the attack would end. Mika eyes darkened as his face deformed in anger.
    “Hope , shut up!” Mika screamed as he struck her on the side of her head. He pealed her pants down and ripped off her underwear. “I’m your husband. I’m not some stranger Hope!” Mika yelled as he roughly pushed himself inside her. Hope’s body collapsed on the couch unable or unwilling to fight as Mika violated their marriage.
    The following weeks blurred for Hope, filled with apologies and justifications. She felt like she was lost in a dream. Hope couldn’t forget the power Mika asserted as he demanded her body. Her love for Mika disappeared. Having nowhere else to go, Hope continued to go through the motions of normal life, her spirit broken. She focused on work and the business she’d built knowing the people of the town needed her. She had agreed to make a dress for Joy, and that become her single obsession. With so much ugliness in her life, she was determined to make the most perfect wedding gown for Joy’s big day.
    “Don’t worry so much Joy. I t’ll be ready,” Hope said trying to assure the young girl.
    “I know it will. I just want everything to be perfect. I’ve been dreaming about this forever,” Joy said with a clinched stressful jaw. “Nothing else is the way I thought it would be… but the dress, the dress I can control, and it has to be perfect.”
    Hope quietly hemmed the luxurious fabric, expertly hiding her stitches, focused deeply on the perfection of her work. Suddenly, Hope was aware that Joy was softly weeping.
    “This is all wrong. I don’t even love him. I keep telling people that, but they push me anyway,” Joy said. “Why don’t I have a choice?”
    Hope stood to her feet and looked into Joy’s eyes. “Sweetie, why are you marrying Alec then?” Hope said ignorant of the situation.
    “Mr. Begich told me it was all taken care of and that someday I will love him. The town sets these things up sometimes. It’s their tradition – part of the Law,” Joy explained with panic and fear in her eyes. “But I don’t love him.”
    Hope understood the town Law and knew tha t some marriages are arranged, but to actually see it now broke her heart. She felt terrible and knew she couldn’t leave her best friend in her time of need.
    “What can we do?” Hope asked knowing there was no way to fight the Law.
    “There’s nothing to do. I just don’t love him,” Joy said feeling defeated.
    “There is something. You could run,” Hope said in a panicked and hushed voice. “Run far from here.”
    Joy looked at Hope as if she had lost her mind. “Where am I going to go? You’re the only family I have,” Joy said drying her eyes. “I don’t even have money.”
    “Gather up your things and meet me at the tracks at eleven o’clock tomorrow morning. You can catch the morning train out,” Hope whispered believing her plan was the best thing for her young friend. “Just meet me at eleven.”
    Eleven o’clock came and went as Hope stood in the busy train station. She knew that at eleven fifteen the last train to St. Louis leaves the station for the day. Standing alone, she studied the people of New Providence living their lives as they ignored the dangers of the society they had built. Then a small tap on Hope’s shoulder electrified her spine making her jump.
    “You came!” Hope said as she shuffled Joy off to the side of the station ’s lobby.
    “I’m

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