Chapter Text
“He’s abusing me”
The thought rang through her head.
It felt foreign in her thoughts, echoing through her head as she tried to make sense of it.
It started out subtle.
Grabbing her arms a little rougher, yelling at her over little things. Things their children wouldn’t notice.
It slowly escalated into her becoming his human punching bag.
Her kids still didn’t notice.
She had to stay strong, if not for her, for them.
He never apologized for it, it was always her fault, anyways. She made him mad.
She hadn’t cooked dinner early enough.
She’d worn too revealing of clothes.
She hadn’t cooked what he’d wanted for dinner.
She wasn’t pretty enough.
She’d styled her hair offensively.
She enabled Mike to disrespect him.
She let Nancy “sleep around”.
The list went on.
Tonight was different, though. He’d hurt her.
She went to the pool earlier today, but she didn’t ask permission.
Ted wasn’t happy about that.
After taking a shower, fixing her hair, going through her skincare routine, and brushing her teeth, Karen changed into her night clothes and walked into her and Ted’s bedroom to read a book and go to bed.
“Damn it, Karen, how many times do I have to tell you, I don’t want you walking around in a swimsuit! You’re just waiting for a man to hit on you!”
“I didn’t think it was that big of a deal to you.” She muttered, annoyance evident in her voice.”
Thump
She barely got a breath in as he slammed her into a wall.
”Ted-“
He punched her hard in the stomach, and she doubled over, gasping in pain.
”Ted please, I-I’m sorry-”
He grabbed her roughly by the shoulders, and pinned her against the wall.
He had sweat running down his face, and he was breathing hard.
She shook under his large hands pinning her to the wall. She was much, much smaller than him.
Staring her dead in the eyes, he kneed her in the chest, right below her sternum. She yelped in shock, loud enough that it brought Nancy to their bedroom door.
The knock on their door made Karen flinch.
“Mom? Mom are you okay?” Nancy shouted from the other side.
Ted shoved her back into the wall, and walked away muttering “go tell Nancy that you’re fine.”
Complying, she walked over and opened the door.
“Yes, I’m fine. I just tripped in the bathroom.” She responded with a small smile.
Nancy didn’t look convinced. “Are you sure, you look like you’ve been crying!” Nancy was worried now, scanning her mother’s figure to see if she could find anything wrong.
”I’m just tired. And I bet you are, too. Why don’t you head off to bed?” She whispered, brushing a lock of hair behind Nancy’s ear.
Nancy wrapped her arms around Karen, engulfing her in a hug. Sucking in a sharp, pained breath, she returned the hug.
”I love you, mom.” Nancy’s muffled voice rang through the air. “I love you too, Nance.” Karen returned, kissing her atop the head. “Now go back to bed, I don’t want you to be tired in the morning.”
After closing the door to their room, Ted yanked her backwards and turned her around to face him.
“Don’t you ever speak like that to me again, understand me?” He growled into her ear.
“Yes, dear.” She whispered back, trembling.
He shoved her towards the bed, got in on the other side, and fell asleep quickly, leaving Karen to reflect on what had just happened.
It hadn’t surprised her, really. Ted had been quite angry lately.
She’d been okay with it, he didn’t mean it of course. He loved her, right?
“Mom?”
Karen snapped back to reality. She was sitting on a park bench next to Joyce. Holly was on the monkey bars, Nancy and Jonathan sitting on the swings, and Will was sitting in the sand waiting for Mike.
Mike was staring down at her. “Are you okay?” He asked. It was an innocent question, but Karen didn’t have an innocent answer. “I’m fine, honey. Just a little tired. Why?”
She subconsciously wrapped her arms around her bruised torso, hidden under a white and blue striped dress shirt and baby blue overcoat.
“No reason, you just looked off.” He responded.
Karen was nervous. Mike barely payed attention to her, she wondered what made him change his mind.
”I’m fine honey, now go play with Will before we have to leave.” Karen responded with a smile.
Mike seemed satisfied with her response, and ran back to play with Will.
”Hey, what’s wrong?” Joyce prodded.
She couldn’t hide this from Joyce, Lonnie had abused her, and there was no doubt she knew the symptoms of an abusive relationship.
“Do you remember when Lonnie was abusing you?”
The question caught Joyce off-guard.
Her breath hitched in her throat, and she swallowed before answering.
”Karen, where is this going?”
She could hear the uncertainty in Joyce’s voice, the slight tremble that joined her tone hence her having to think about Lonnie beating the shit out of her.
“Joyce, I don’t-”
She couldn’t finish, her voice choking up as the unspilled tears that lined her eyeline spilled out onto her cheeks.
“Karen, you’re not serious, Ted?”
There was disbelief in her voice now, as Joyce took in the thought that Ted, who always came off as a undisturbed, care-free man, would even think of laying a finger on Karen.
“Karen answer me!”
“Joyce.”
”Karen, tell me that what your saying isn’t what I’m thinking.”
Karen bit her lip. Taking a shaky breath in, her brown eyes glistening in the bright summer sun.
”Karen, you’re talking about Ted, right? Like, the one you’ve been married to for the past 15 years? Not some random guy you met?”
“Joyce, please!”
“Karen, I want you to tell me. Is Ted hurting you? Like, Lonnie hurting you?”
Karen sunk as far as she physically could into the park bench, wrapping her arms protectively around her midsection.
“Can we talk about this over lunch?”