Chapter 119 The Past (One)

• Sam had gone on his usual drinking and drug usage craze, refusing to take his meds, no matter how much Sandra pleaded. Now, he was home and was clearly not himself. She could count on her fingers the number of times that he was sober. Their finances were running very low because all Sam cared about nowadays was his booze and being high. Since she wasn’t on good terms with her parents, she had had to turn to Sam's parents for help feeding Amy and herself, but Sam had run through that money too, so she had no choice but to turn to Dan for financial help, even though she was embarrassed that he now knew things were not as rosy as she portrayed them to be.
• As always, Dan came through for her, and this time around, she was wise and experienced enough not to let Sam know about the money that her brother gave her. Somehow, Sam continued to get his supply of booze and drugs, but now, he was more hot-tempered than ever. Sandra also got two jobs so she wouldn’t have to turn herself into a beggar to feed them. For once, Sam did not stop her from getting a job, and soon, she found out that he was stealing from her. All her efforts to get him to seek help proved abortive, so she just gave up.
• Then the beatings started again. It was always for flimsy reasons. She didn’t do the dishes immediately after they finished eating - she came back late from work and left him with that crying brat, the crying brat being their two-year-old daughter, Amy - the salt was too much in his food and she knew he didn’t like too much salt, and so on. Sandra knew that she was being the world’s biggest fool staying with him, but she was scared of him and even worse than that, she loved him. He played on her intelligence and threatened to kill her, Amy, and everyone she loved if she ever thought of leaving him.