1 Goodbye San Diego

When I was little, my father used to tell me I was a spitfire, I had a mouth and one day that mouth was going to get me into some serious trouble. He wasn't wrong, not in the slightest. Finally, that day came when my mouth got me into a situation that I couldn't exactly talk my way out of, and that is why I had to leave. I didn't particularly want to uproot myself from my life in San Diego. I didn't want to be away from my family or my friends. This place was my home and now it felt like I was being forced to run, like an escaped convict who managed to break out of prison. 

Unfortunately, moving to the small town of Shepherds-town in West Virginia was all that was left for me. It was my last resort , a Hail Mary if you will. Jachson would never think to look for me here, not in a small remote town with no nightlife to speak of.  That is exactly what I wanted, and the longer I could keep him guessing where I was, the sooner he'd get bored and move on. A girl could hope anyways. I knew in my heart of hearts that Jachson was not going to give up hunting me until he's captured me, and forces me back to a life of misery, hell and the most fucked up psychological abuse one could imagine.

Once upon a time ago I was naive, I was young and apparently was going through some type of rebellious streak. My parents had always warned me that when things are too good to be true, they usually are. I had met Jachson on my twenty-first birthday. My friends and I had gone to a nightclub to ring in the last member of our circle becoming a legal adult. That is where the beginning of my downfall took place. You see, the thing I haven't mentioned yet is I was part of the San Diego elite. My family was well known through the socialite circles which made it nearly impossible to keep anything about our lives secret. Jachson, Jachson on the other hand, was twenty eight years old and was known as the shark within those who managed business accounts. He was ruthless during takeovers, and usually got the outcome for his clients every time. Regardless of how he did it. Most people who knew him believed he had no soul, no conscience and no remorse. I can officially testify that all of those statements are one hundred percent true.

I couldn't help myself when it came to Jachson, he was intoxicating and addicting and everything I should never have wanted. It wasn't like I was trying to get back at my family or like I was pitching a fit over not getting my way. No, that wasn't it, not it at all. Jachson was a charmer, he was smooth and knew all the right things to say to make anyone and everyone bend to his every whim.  Once he locked his sights on the chosen target there was nothing they could do but compile. My family always suspected there was more to Jachson than he let people believe. They never truly trusted him and because of that, a wedge developed between them and I for a long time. It's not like they could have woken me from the trance I was in, and once someone spoke poorly of Jachson and he found out; that was it. He didn't believe in second chances, they were cut off from our world, it didn't matter who it was.

I wasn't an only child, but I was the baby of the family. I had two older brothers, Kayden and Ryan. They were extremely protective of me and that never sat well with Jachson. He wanted to always control the narrative and with them in the way, it was much more difficult for him to do that. I was the princess, the daddy's girl and I know when I ex-communicated them from my life, it broke my father's heart. My mom passed away when I was fourteen years old. She became very anemic after I was born. Eventually, my mom went into complete heart failure. Her body always seemed to reject the blood she was being given to replenish what she had been losing.

Dad was a wreck for a very long time. When I turned sixteen he seemed to snap out of the depressional state we all knew he was in but was never out right spoken about. Kayden, Ryan and I were good kids, while we ran in highly publicized circles that usually had many paparazzi run-ins, we were never in the spotlight. At least not until Jachson came into our lives. Then I was  the center of San Diego's gossip circles. I don't know how or when it exactly happened, but Jachson started to become more paranoid and controlling. At the same time, he became more prone to fits or outbursts of anger and aggression. It was my final straw, it's what finally opened my eyes and made me see that the last four years of my life had been one big joke and nothing the man I thought I loved said would ever make up for his purely vile actions.

I remember, on my twenty-fifth birthday, how angry he was when I visited my brother Kayden's house. Kayden and his wife Nicole had gotten married last year, and now they were days away from delivering their first child. My niece or nephew. I couldn't continue not talking to my brothers, not when I missed Kayden's wedding already and the opening of Ryan's nightclub. I couldn't miss being involved in this little wonder's life too. I had spent the day at Kayden and Nicole's house laughing and reminiscing of times when things seemed slightly less confusing. Kayden asked me to be their child's Godmother and it was then I realized Kayden had forgiven me. 

When I got home that night Jachson had apparently cracked into a bottle of Whiskey and was on a warpath of destruction. There was glass shattered all over the hallway of our apartment. Pictures of him and I over the years smashed all over the place. I can't say I wasn't terrified of what the outcome of us coming face to face would be. I had my brother Ryan's number set on my speed dial just in case recently. I quickly initiated the call and left my phone in my pocket. Jachson came stumbling out of the living room and when we locked eyes that was it. I saw the flames of rage in his sunken eyes. He had never been this angry before. I remember him screaming at me, I remember him storming down the hall and lunging at me. Then I remember screaming and blacking out gasping for air as my lungs burned. 

Ryan found me lying motionless in the hallway of my apartment, bloody, bruised and beaten. Jachson apparently was nowhere in sight. Ryan has told me a few times about what happened after he found me, and honestly I couldn't make heads or tails of it. Jachson was questioned by police, but throwing his money and status around convinced the investigators he was not at fault and that I had been a victim of a robbery gone wrong. I spent a week and a half recovering in the hospital from the attack. Well, physically recovering to the doctor's liking. Mentally, I had nightmares, I woke up screaming and it was like what Jachson did was playing on a loop in my brain. 

The hospital prescribed me a variety of antidepressants and antipsychotics  along with a pill to pull me out of full blown panic attacks whenever they happened. Lately, that was basically every time anyone got close to me. Before I was released from the watch of my diligently attentive team of doctors, Ryan, Kayden and my father had come up with an escape plan. They had come up with a plan to keep me safe and they knew that staying in San Diego couldn't do that. Dad found a small apartment for me, somewhere no one would think to look. He set everything up for me, had it furnished and a plane ticket bought before I could blink, and it's not like I didn't know it was for the best, but I didn't realize just how far Jachson was going to go, and my family didn't want to chance anything when it came to protecting me from this psychologically diluted lunatic.

Dad refused to lose someone else, and my brothers, well my brothers swore on our mothers grave Jachson would pay for everything, they would make sure of it.