5
He looked a few years older than me.
I called him Hunt.
He didn’t have any ID, nothing at all. He was a blank slate, like someone had wiped him clean on purpose.
I took him to the police. Called around to the
local departments.
Nothing.
It wasn’t a surprise.
We lived in the sticks. The people in charge
didn’t give a damn. Why would they try and
help someone they didn’t know.
They told us to wait for a call. We waited a
year.
The dumbass moved into my house.
I had my reasons.
My mom was sick and kept getting confused.
Later, in college, I learned it was Alzheimer’s.
No cure.
I was taking care of my mom, studying, and
working part–time.
With Hunter around, at least I didn’t have to
work.
He was young and strong, so he could handle
some physical labor.
But he was weird.
For a big guy, he was super delicate. At first, he couldn’t do anything right. Clumsy as hell, always complaining.
I was getting fed up.
.
“If you don’t pull your weight, I’m kicking you
out.”
Hunter freaked out. “Sierra, you can’t leave
- me. I’m your husband.”
Oh, yeah, I lied and told him that eating our
food meant he had to marry me.
It was a white lie.
That idiot was way too attractive, attracting a bunch of old biddies trying to marry me off to their grandkids.
That was the only way to shut them up.
<
Poor people marry young.
Where I grew up, getting engaged in your
teens was normal.
When I said I was going to kick him out,
Hunter looked lost.
He had this whole playboy thing going on, but
he looked at me like a scared puppy.
After that, Hunter worked his ass off, finally
earning his keep.
Then he started showing his other side.
One time, I got my period, and didn’t realize
L
I’d bled through my pants.
Walking out of school, the guys started
laughing at me.
Hunter was waiting for me to walk home.
Those guys said, “Look at Willow Sawyer’s
boyfriend, he ruined her ass and now she’s
bleeding.”
Hunter heard them, and he charged those
guys and beat them to the ground.
He hit hard, aiming for the kill, like a wild
animal.
I didn’t even recognize him.
I grabbed his arm. “Hunt! Stop it!”
He froze, letting me pull him away.
“If Willow says stop, I stop.”
The guys were covered in bruises, and their
parents came after us, demanding medical
bills.
4
Money that we did not have.
That night, Hunter seemed to know he
messed up. He sat in the corner of the room, looking miserable.
When I went to talk to him, I saw tears
running down his face.
“I’m sorry, Sierra. I know I messed up. I won’t
cause any more trouble. Don’t… don’t leave
me.”
He cried like a puppy.
My heart melted. “Okay, you have to be good.
I only want a husband who listens to me.”
“Okay.”
The next day, Hunter came home with a
bunch of money.
2
<
He sold his watch.
When I found him, he was wearing this
expensive–looking watch.
I freaked out. “Why would you sell that? You need that watch to find your family.”
He smiled. “You’re my family. I don’t need to
go anywhere. I’m staying with you.”
That dumbass probably got ripped off.
That watch had to be worth way more than that.
But Hunter didn’t care.
He was good, only listening to me.
After that, those guys had terrible luck.
Tacks in their shoes, bugs in their clothes,
rocks in their rice.
Their tires kept getting slashed, and one fell
into the river.
What a coincidence.
I looked at Hunter.
He just smiled back.
