Norah Bao-Warner flinched when Hugh Warner slammed the door on his way out, Hugh never put his hands on Norah but he might as well have because he abuses her in other ways. So whenever he goes to work Norah gets a moment of peace, which is all she can get lately. Norah sighed and rubbed her hands over her pants smoothing them down before standing up.

She walked over to the mirror that was across from their dresser and Norah put her hair behind her ears, she turned to look at her stomach before letting out a groan of frustration before walking towards the kitchen. Considering Hugh was controlling it made sense for him to fat shame Norah as well, that's one that thing she didn't believe. She knew she was at a good weight and no matter how broken Hugh makes her, she will never believe him about that.

Norah grabbed a knife from the knife block and grabbed one of the apple's that was close to expiring, one of the things Hugh loved was getting lots of fruits and vegetables but he never ate them, not even when Norah would prepare something he would order pizza and drink some kind of alcohol that Norah didn't bother to try and pronounce. Which left Norah to eat it all, but that's one of the few things that Norah didn't mind doing.

Letting out a breath she puts her hand on top of her other hand that was gripping the knife and pushed down, the apple made a squelching noise as the juices came out of the cut apple. She placed the knife down and grabbed a bowl before putting a spoonful of peanut butter in the bowl placing the apples neatly around it. Norah walked towards the office and opened the door with a click, it was a shared office but mainly Hugh used it considering he doesn't let Norah work anymore.

The chair screeched against the floor as she pulled it away from the desk, carefully placing the bowl onto the table she logs into Facebook, she doesn't use Facebook mainly because Hugh doesn't know she has one but she only uses it to keep up with her Baba who lives back in Tawain, sighing Norah pushes the hair that had fallen back behind her ears as she scrolls through the posts that she missed from the last couple weeks.

Her lip wobbled as she saw pictures of him smiling with her cousins and relatives, Norah felt sad that she wasn't there but it was all Hugh's fault. He had told her that it would be for the best to stop talking to her family because it would only make her want to move back to Taiwan more which Norah thought it made sense at the time because he had said it when they had just been married for only a year. But that caused Norah to miss the funeral of her mother, but Norah couldn't tell anyone about the guilt let alone tell Hugh that she blames him because it would be bad for Norah.

She rubs her face and grabs a peanut butter-covered apple before biting into it, she leaned back against her desk chair and slams her computer shut. It was other making her feel worse about marrying her high school sweetheart and she felt enough of that when Hugh was home. Grabbing the bowl Norah stood up from the chair and walked back into the kitchen, she didn't feel like being in that room anymore.

Norah wanted to go out but she knew if she did that then Hugh would get mad at her, plus there's the fact that she has no friends whatsoever, which was also because of Hugh he thought it was best that the first couple of years as a married couple was spent with only each other so Norah agreed, now 12 years later. Norah still has no friends to hang out with and she doesn't know where to start.

She has good people skills, Hugh has her get the groceries, she goes shopping when he lets her but for the most part, Norah stays home. Norah places her now finished bowl in the sink and opens the dishwasher to unload it because she knew that Hugh could home anytime even though he hasn't been gone for that long but Norah knows if Hugh sees she hasn't done anything it won't be good for Norah.

Humming, she loads it with the few dishes that were waiting in the sink. Norah doesn't start it though because it doesn't have enough dishes to warrant it being started.  Before sitting down Norah grabs herself water from the fridge and goes to sit on the couch, in silence. Norah didn't feel like doing much of anything lately besides checking up on her Baba, she didn't know if it was her body breaking down from being with Hugh or if Norah was just done with it all.

Norah knew that this wasn't healthy, but she didn't want to leave him. Hugh was rich, he had a high-paying job so he could ruin Norah whether it was threats of deportation or threats to sue her for everything she owned which pretty much already belonged to Hugh anyway. She didn't think she loved Hugh anymore, but she always has hope that things will go back to the way they were before.

Before she could get too deep in her thoughts the phone rang, she jumped up walking towards the kitchen. She grabbed the house phone and hit answer without looking at who was calling. "He isn't here right now, can I take a message?" Norah smiles, but the smile fades when she hears what the person on the other side is saying. "Alright, I'll pass the message along." Norah presses her lips together as she ends the call.

Brushing her hands over her hair and walks back to the couch and covers her mouth in shock, they were broke. Norah knew she had to bring this up to Hugh but she didn't know how to start, she was being lied to.