A Woman Scorned

The following is a story idea that I wish more LW authors would try to take on. Honestly, I believe that BTB stories where the cheating spouse being sent off to who knows where is kinda bleh. In fact, so much so that I genuinely think that this idea where the wronged spouse that masterminded these types of situations deals with the consequences. For those of you that know me mostly my Feb Sucks stories wherein I believe in the power of forgiveness, this story goes the other way in that I try to delve into the cycle of hatred.

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Laura Knox wouldn't say she woke up. She simply opened her eyes once more to the cruel reality of what her life had become. The scars on her wrists and ankles have numbed overtime, no doubt from the various materials that kept her bound to the bedspace.

She tried to reach for the glass of water beside her, only to find it empty. Something she should have expected, but who knew. Maybe her captors would show her some compassion for once. But after eleven escape attempts ending in failure, each ending in her body being branded, she found out she would be unable to try after the most recent beating. But she never gave up hope.

She could swear there was the sound of a door breaking down. She shrugged it off. Not sure if a customer had gotten rowdy with one of the girls again, or if she was still under the influence of whatever they pumped her with daily.

The commotion only grew from there. She figured she'd take advantage of whatever was happening to close her eyes again and have a few more fleeting moments to herself.

"Encontre otra, aqui." Strange, she hadn't heard those words before. She was used to perra, puta, sucia, etc. What she could only assume were aggressive words. But there was almost concern in the words behind her. She turned over to see a man in tactical gear. Fully armored and armed. She could make out a word that wasn't too difficult to translate that gave her the briefest of hope before she fainted.

Policía

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"Local authorities, having worked with the DHS and FBI, were able to put a stop to a human sex trafficking brothel. Over twenty women were rescued and taken in for emergency care due to their malnourished and abused conditions. Behind me are--"

The news reporter wasn't able to finish her sentence as Warren turned off his television. It had been just a day since the story broke out and it had quickly gained national attention. Everyone at work had been talking about it, and he would have otherwise not looked into it. But because of the nature of the crime, it put him at unease.

So he did research, and the more and more that was revealed, the more he panicked. You see, over seven years ago, he found out that his wife had been having an affair. And when that happened, he went ballistic.

Not in an animalistic manner, no. In a deceptively calculating way. Warren was a project manager for an engineering company. And as such, he did a lot of travel south of the border. Where he met, made, and worked with a lot of folks that were as moral as mud was clean.

They would hook him up with the occasional party drug, contraband, or stolen goods for cheap. But he always knew they were dangerous. So when he found out Laura was not only having an affair with an illegal, but was also planning on marrying him to give him citizenship, he knew exactly how to make them hurt.

He played them both. Using her phone to tell him where to meet up, and have him ambushed there and done away with, and then taking Laura against her will to a warehouse where he left nothing to the imagination as to what would be in store for her.

"Dad, is everything ok?" Stephanie, his fifteen year old daughter had gotten home and he didn't even hear her. It had all been for her. He'd be damned if he was going to lose her.

"Yes, bean. Everything's fine." He looked at her, and smiled. She had gone half of her life without much of him. After the discovery of his wife's infidelity, he lessened the amount of projects he went on to focus on his girl. "Are you ok?" He asked her. She was clearly shaken.

"I guess. We talked about that thing that happened at school." She pointed to his screen. "How can anyone do that?" He gulped and looked at his daughter. So much of her mother was in her. He tried to steel himself from regretting what he did. Actively pushed himself to believe what he did was the right thing. But the more she grew, it was like the ghost of his wife was haunting him.

"I don't know, Steph..." He wanted to say more, but struggled to find the words. "I'll never let anything happen to you." He promised. She nodded in understanding. He liked to believe he did a good job in making sure he was the 'favorite' parent ever since he became the only one.

Although she may have been a lying, and cheating bitch, Laura was her mom before he knew anything happened at all. Try as he may have to instill the idea that her mother had left them because she didn't love them, he always knew that Stephanie still missed her. Laura had left that much of an impact on her.

With little else to do or say, Stephanie left, leaving Warren to fear the worst.

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Laura woke up to a harsh light above her. It took her a while to realize she was in a hospital. When she moved her hand and felt something tug on her forearm, she began to panic. She looked at her wrist, and saw it was only an IV tube.

Gently she relaxed and that was when a medical worker passed by her room and hurried to get a doctor and agent to her immediately. Shortly thereafter, a doctor and DHS agent approached her. Both women with their own questions concerning her health and experience.

"We're interviewing all the victims of the trafficking ring you were a part of." The Agent said. Laura nodded, it was as if a fog was clearing from her mind. She would come to learn that doctors had a lot of work to do to bring her body back down from all the drugs that she'd been forced to take over the years, at least as best they could have.

"Who are you?" Laura was asked, and she gulped. She may have felt better, but that did not mean she was at ease. For all she knew this could get back to Warren. And that terrified her above everything else. Sensing her fear, the doctor held Laura's hand. "You're safe now. Whatever happens from here on out, you're protected." Laura nodded in understanding.

Her lip quivered, her eyes got watery, and she sobbed as she let out a cry of pain. Everything came out all at once. Pain, sorrow, regret, and relief. She was safe, but even if she wasn't aware how long she'd been gone, she knew it was a long time.

"My name is Laura...Laura Knox..." The Agent was quick to take notes. "And I would love to see my daughter."

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Warren had been waiting outside Stephanie's school. It was just around dismissal time. The fear he'd felt all week had not gone away, but his sense of fatherhood superseded that.

As the students were walking out of the school, he, along with the other waiting parents, turned when they heard sirens. Panic was starting to set in, and as Warren looked for an exit, he saw that the police had blocked every street.

Everybody stopped. Warren looked behind him to see at the end of the street Laura had come out running and his worst fears came true. As he saw which direction she'd been running, he saw she was making a beeline for Stephanie. He soon gave chase too, and tried to reach his daughter before her.

Stephanie, for her part, saw her mom and ran towards her both out of instinct and surprise. Once having reached her, Laura cried as she pulled her child close to her. Both of them cried and cried for a few seconds, before they both heard Warren. Cops chasing after him.

Even with fear in her heart, Laura put herself between him and Stephanie and gave the most savage look she could muster. Even if the father of her child was running at them like a raging bull. The closer he neared, and with the gap that there was between him and the officers, Laura instinctively kicked forward with anger that had been pent up over the years. Right on Warren's groin. As he fell to his knees, she threw the hardest punch she could to his nose with two sickening cracks.

"Bastard!" Laura shouted, before almost falling down, but remained standing.

With him stopped temporarily, the officers pulled him up with handcuffs.

"Stephanie, baby, don't believe a word they say about me!" He said desperately.

"What..?" Was all she could say.

"Listen to me." He struggled against the officers' strength. "Whatever they tell you is a lie, I did it all for you!" The officers ultimately won as Laura shielded Stephanie from her father. It was all so much, but Agents quickly showed up to escort both of them away. There was a lot that needed to be explained.

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The trial was cut and dry. Warren did his best to fight it legally, but with Lauren's testament, along with the other's victim's, dots were connected. There was no doubt that he played a very integral role in her disappearance as well as her lover's murder. With that, he was facing approximately 18 years in prison.

The story took the nation by storm, and Lauren could not care less about the publicity around her. Good or bad. All that mattered was that she had a chance to be with her daughter again. Since Warren had never remarried or filed for divorce, Laura had grounds to sue him for all her previous possessions as well as his. That, along with some sympathetic donations, Lauren had a good opportunity to start over.

But Laura wasn't satisfied. She made sure to go visit Warren one and one time only. Warren wanted to do the manly thing and ignore her, but desperately wanted to know about Stephanie. Once both of them were on opposite ends of the glass, they each picked up the phone. There was silence for a few minutes. Lauren was the first to speak up.

"This is far better than you deserve." She said through gritted teeth. She came dressed in clothes he'd never seen her wear before. She was much more covered than when they were married. Once she was proud to show skin, but now, one could say she dressed rather prudishly. She wanted to inform him that because of all the branding done to her body that this was why she dressed, but refused to give him the satisfaction.

"Please tell me Stephanie is ok." He pleaded. Not caring about himself. She wanted to deny him that, but couldn't bring herself to.

"She is. She hates you, you know? She says she can't believe having lived with a human trafficker." She was waiting to call him that, to his face. His reaction was everything she hoped it would be. Anger, quick to justify himself.

"I should have fucking killed your skank ass!" The guard behind him whacked the wall to warn him. Laura was not phased by his threat.

"Yes, you should have." Was all she managed to say. "I know there will be a day when you'll get out. And when you do, I will be ready." There were plenty of advantages with the thick clothes she was wearing. She could stay armed and keep her weapons concealed if she wished.

"I won't stop her from seeing you, but she definitely won't. What with you being a killer too."

"You were going to take her from me." He clenched his fist.

"I would have shared custody with you!" She stopped herself from giving him more emotion than he deserved. "I would have left you. Yes. But I wouldn't have kept her from you." Warren scoffed at her. "It's true." She scoffed back at him, with a forlorn smile. He glared daggers at her. She figured she would say her piece. "You know, I stopped loving you after a while. I could handle you being gone. But Steph couldn't. She always asked where you were."

"So you fucking replaced me?" He accused her.

"No. Marcos wasn't that initially. He really was just a friend. I guess I fell weak to my own needs as a woman. So yes, he was there, but I came on to him. I was doing us both a favor by seeking divorce." She explained. "You would have gotten time with her whenever you were available. That was the plan at least." Warren frowned. "She told me how you cut back at work when I was gone. I have to say, I'm impressed you were able to do that." She looked at him with what seemed like respect, but that was quickly dashed when she looked at him emptily. "You were always capable of it." Was all she said. Letting the what if linger in the air.

"What was he like?" Warren couldn't explain what came over him as he asked that.

"What was he like?" Laura's eyes watered at the memories. He was loving. Gentle. Patient. He was very adamant and respectful to the fact that she was married. But he too fell to his emotions for her. He was wonderful, everything a woman could hope for in a man. He helped fix things around the house and got along great with little Stephanie.

In fact, it was him that suggested leaving because it hurt that he couldn't be with her. At that point, no longer as someone's wife, but as a mother. He hurt knowing that he could not have children with her. To be a family. In that regard, even respecting Warren to an extent.

The fact that he was not a citizen hurt her more. So every decision henceforth seemed like the most logical one for everyone involved. Laura would be with someone that made her happy, Marcos would get a family, Steph would get a father figure, and Warren could get to do what he loved to do, and keep his daughter. Everyone would have won.

Now he was gone. And with him, any chance for Laura to have found love ever again. All she had now was her daughter.

It was the sensation of her tear falling down her cheek that snapped her back to reality. Now in front of her was the man who was responsible for all the pain she'd suffered. The brands, the bruises, the scars, the diseases. All the things that he caused indirectly that would follow her for the rest of her life. She sniffled and composed herself.

"It doesn't matter, does it? You got your pound of flesh." The look she had in her eyes before saying that Warren could only equate it to the last of her humanity for him ceasing to exist. The way she looked at him like he was a thing unsettled him. "But I have yet to get mine. You know I looked up prison statistics ever since they sentenced you." His brow furrowed.

"And?"

"Statistically speaking, you're bound to be someone's bitch. I'm glad you took good care of yourself all these years. Because there's someone bound to be in there that will do to you what has been done to me." She recalled the saying that survivors of traumatic experiences would say that they wouldn't wish it on their worst enemy. She held no such qualms. She wanted him to suffer. "So when you are in there, stuffed from every one of your holes against your will, being pulled on, spit on, and degraded, know that I am actively praying for it to happen to you. Every time you're bleeding and someone's finished inside you only to be filled up relentlessly, know that I am willing it from out here."

"You're lucky you have a doctor in there, because if it were up to me, I'd let you go untreated for years and let whatever is growing inside you kill you before you could get out." With that she stood up. "Stephanie will be my priority from here on out. But you're a close second. She should be living her own life somewhere else by the time you get out. But the minute you do, you're mine. Forget employment, forget life outside this place, and forget about connecting with her. You won't get that chance."

She wanted to get an acknowledgement from him that he understood, but figured it did not matter. Her capacity to love and live her life was matched by her wrath and hatred for him. What more could a scorned woman want?