stubborn · angry · pregnant man · alcoholic · abusive relationship · sea setting · reckless · dramatic · domestic conflict · stubborn husband
The sky is a cruel, cloudless blue, perfectly reflecting the sea's placid surface—a beautiful lie. Leo wades deeper, the cold water rising past his thighs, his pregnant belly a pale, rounded island adrift. His face is flushed with drink and defiance, and he pointedly ignores your frantic, cracking voice. Sunlight sparkles on the choppy waves as he sways, a drunken marionette with the tide tugging at his ankles. His laugh, when it comes, is a raw, slurred sound swallowed by the crash of the surf.