Dawn and AJ were able to take the baby home a few days later. It was crazy adjusting to their new life. Denise was at the house a lot helping them out with the baby. She loved being a grandmother. AJ had to go out of town for a couple days and Denise volunteered to stay with Dawn while he was gone.
One evening, after Arianna was asleep, Dawn put a load of clothes in the washer, then she sat down on the couch to rest. She knew she had to go to the store, but she was exhausted. Denise came in and saw Dawn practically passed out on the couch.
“Why don’t you go lay down for awhile, hon,” she suggested, sitting down next to Dawn.
“Because, I have to still go to the store,” Dawn replied, her eyes fluttering open.
“Honey, you go rest, I’ll go to the store. Just let me know what you need,” Denise insisted.
Dawn felt bad having Denise do things for her, she felt like she should be able to do these simple chores. How was she supposed to be a good wife if she couldn’t even do the simple things to be a good mother? She decided, though, that she didn’t have the energy to argue with Denise, there was no way she could win, she was too tired.
She wrote down a list of things she needed from the store and Denise left. Dawn lay down on the couch. Before she knew it, she fell asleep.
She awoke to a loud pounding on the door. Half asleep, she went to the front door and cracked it open. Before she could do anything, the door flew open and Anthony was standing right in front of her with a look of rage in his eyes.
“Well, well, well. Thought you could hide from me, huh?”
“I wasn’t trying to hide from you, Anthony. We’ve gone over this already, I want nothing more to do with you,” Dawn said, adamently.
“I don’t care what you want. I want to know when you were planning on telling me that you and the cover boy were getting married,” he demanded, closing the door behind him.
“Anthony, you and I are through. I don’t have to tell you anything,” she said. She could her the fear in her own voice.
“Care to explain THIS,” he threw a magazine at her. The headlines read, ‘Backstreet Boy – Backstreet Daddy??’. There was a picture of Dawn and AJ shopping when she was still pregnant.
“What do you want me to explain?” She tried to sound forceful.
“I want you to tell me the truth about who the father is. It’s him, isn’t it? You were fucking him while we were together, weren’t you??” He raised his voice.
“Anthony, please, you’ll wake the baby,” Dawn pleaded.
“Tell me!” He yelled.
“No, I wasn’t fucking him, as you so eloquently put it, when I was with you!” She yelled back at him.
“You lying bitch!” He growled as he slapped her across the face. He hit her with such force that she fell to the ground.
“I’m not lying Anthony,” she cried putting her hand up to her face. “Please just leave”.
“Oh, I’m not leaving until you hear what I have to say,” he growled as he pulled her up by her arm.
“Let go of me Anthony, please,” she begged, trying to get away from him.
“Shut up!” He said and slapped her again, this time, harder. The pain was overwhelming. She didn’t know what he wanted from her, all she could think about was Arianna. She had to make sure he didn’t go anywhere near her.
She freed her arm from Anthony’s grasp and lunged for the phone. Before she could do anything, he yanked it from her hand, right out of the wall.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” He yelled. “Who did you think you were gonna call? Cover Boy??” He stood just inches from her.
She couldn’t answer him, all she could do was cry. “Aww, isn’t that sweet. The little TRAMP is shedding tears,” he growled, pinning her against the wall .
“What do you want from me?” She asked with tears streaming down her face.
“I just wanna show you what you’ve been missing...while your cover boy is off fucking all those cute little girls”.
She had heard him put down AJ one too many times. “Fuck you!!” She yelled, spitting in his face as she pushed him away from her.
Before she could get anywhere, he grabbed her by the hair and yanked her back to him.
"Bitch!!” He yelled.
He hit her again, this time with his fist. She hit the wall and fell to the ground again, this time, almost losing consciousness. She went completely numb, all she could feel was Anthony’s hand around her arm, dragging her somewhere. He dropped her on the cold floor.
“Damn it!” Get up!” He yelled, kicking her in the stomach.
She couldn’t see anything, she could barely feel anything. She heard Anthony walk away. As she lay on the floor, she looked over and saw blood on the floor that came out of her mouth as she tried to gasp for air.
“God, please don’t let him hurt my baby,” she prayed to herself.
She heard footsteps enter the room and looked up through the slits in her eyes that weren’t swollen shut. She saw Anthony standing over her holding the baby. “Anthony, please don’t hurt her,” she begged.
“Aww, look at Mommy begging,” he said as he kissed the sleeping baby’s forehead.
“Do you really think I’d hurt my own daughter?” He looked down at Dawn.
He walked around the house for a few minutes talking to the baby, then he disappeared. Dawn tried to pull herself up, but she couldn’t. She was too weak. Blood was pouring from her face. “Anthony!!” Dawn panicked, afraid that he would take the baby.
Suddenly, he appeared in front of her, the baby gone from his arms.
“Where is she, Anthony?” Dawn asked.
“Oh, shut the hell up!” He said as he kicked her in the stomach again. Dawn began to cry as she clutched her stomach in pain.
“Now, to do what I came here to do…” He answered, picking her up by the arm and dragging her across the floor again.
They reached the bedroom and he picked her up and threw her on the bed, then crawled on top of her. He pinned her wrists next to her head and started to kiss her roughly.
She couldn’t fight him, he was too strong. The pain going through her body at that moment was so excruciating, she thought she was going to die. She figured if she just lay there and let him do whatever he wanted, he wouldn’t hurt her anymore. She just wanted it all to be over soon. He ripped open her shirt and looked over her slowly.
“Mmmm, just like I remember. If I didn’t know any better, I wouldn’t believe you even had a baby”.
He unbuttoned her pants and pulled them down to her knees quickly. He got back on top of her as he unbuttoned his pants. That was the last thing Dawn remembered before she lost consciousness.

Denise approached the door and inserted her key in the door, noticing that it was open.
"That’s strange,” she said to herself, puzzled.
She pushed the door open and heard Arianna crying. It sounded like she had been crying for quite some time. She looked around the room, something looked out of place, she looked at the floor and noticed a trail of blood through the house.
“Oh my god,” she said, running to Dawn and AJ’s bedroom where Arianna was crying. She was horrified at what she saw. Dawn was lying unconscious on the floor in front of the basinett.
She knelt down and turned Dawn over, there was blood everywhere, her eyes were swollen shut, blood was dripping from her mouth. Her shirt was torn open and she had no pants on.
Denise picked up the crying baby and ran over, grabbing the phone off the nightstand, and dialed 911. She tried to quiet the baby as best she could, at the same time trying to find Dawn’s pulse. No matter how many different ways she tried, she couldn’t find one.
After talking w/the 911 operator, they told her an ambulance was on it’s way.
She sat stroking Dawn’s hair. She tried again, she still couldn’t find a pulse. The operator stayed on the line with her until the ambulance arrived. She tried her best to explain to the attendants what had happened, but since she really didn’t have much information, they pushed her out of the way to tend to Dawn. Arianna continued to cry.
“I know you’re hungry, jellybean. Let’s get you something to eat”.
She didn’t want to leave Dawn, but she had to. She got a bottle out of the refrigerator and warmed it up. As she fed Arianna, all she could think about was Dawn and who could have done this to her. Only one name came to mind: Anthony.
“How am I going to tell Alex about this?” She said to herself. Arianna started to fuss.
“I know, we need to call your daddy,” she paused for a minute. She had no idea what she was going to say to him.
She picked up the phone and dialed AJ’s cell number. He answered.
“Sweetie, you need to come home, NOW”, she said to him as tears started to fall from her eyes.


Chapter 42
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