Take Your Ring!

"Give me your hand Claudine!"

"No! Stop it! You're going to break my finger and right in front of the kids!?!"

I pulled my hand away from him as he fought unrelentlessly to take hold of it.

"Get out of the car or I'm going to pull you out."

I thought for a second knowing that he could very well make good on his threat. But something inside of me told me that things would only get worse if I followed his command.

"Look, I'm not getting out of the car. Stop being irrational and I'm not giving you back the ring. We are married, I am your wife! What is going on with you?"

"What's going on with me?!? You the one walking around here with make up, lip gloss and tight a$$ pants on!"

"What?!? Are you serious? I'm out with you and my clothes are not tight! They are just not baggy, I'm not a man! If that's what you like then I can't help you!"

As you can imagine my careless choice of words did not help the situation. Almost immediately he reached into the car and pulled me half way out of the window. I tried with all of my strength to resist his pull but lost to his size and strength.

"Stop, stop! Please! You can have your stupid ring! You are scaring the kids and hurting me. It's not that serious."

My daughters whimpered in the back seat as they sat witness to their father's brutal treatment of me, but he had no regard for them and completely ignored the fact that they were even there. I fought with my now swollen finger to get the ring off, but it wouldn't budge. Shades of purple began mixing with a greenish blue to replace the natural brown tone of my ring finger. Finally, he grew tired of my failing attempts and grabbed my hand ripping the ring from my finger.


PAIN radiated down my entire hand and I pulled it close to my heart desperately trying to ameliorate the throbbing and sharp ache that had taken over.

I could only imagine what the neighbors were thinking as this entire scenario unfolded directly outside of one of the houses in my parent's neighborhood. But, at that point any pride that I had was replaced by agony and anger at my oversized bully of a husband.

"You have your ring, now leave!"

But of course to add insult to injury(literally) he took my ring, an alleged symbol of our love, and threw it clear across the field near the houses.

"There! Now go get your ring! Since you don't want to be my wife that's where it belongs. In the street just like you!

Almost instantly, I forgot about the pain in my hand replaced now by the pain in my heart. Without a word to him, I drove off. And I could hear him yelling...

"See! I knew you didn't care!

At a loss for words, I caught a glimpse of my girls in the rear view and tried hard to dispel thoughts of the damage being witness to that ordeal would cause. But, the reality of the matter was that they were once again the hardest hit...