“Strangling her is not an option,” Annie said, smiling at him, “although I have to admit it’s tempting at times.” In spite of her concerns about Katie, their dinner date was as enjoyable as the first one. They were getting to know each other better, and they laughed, talked endlessly, and seemed to enjoy many of the same things. He was a kindred spirit in many ways. And this time when he brought her home, he kissed her. It was a gentle lingering kiss that aroused feelings in her that she hadn’t felt in years. It was like being kissed awake by the handsome prince in Sleeping Beauty. She was beginning to feel like a woman again. Tom made her happy, and they had a great time together.

He invited her to the TV studio later that week and showed her around. It was fascinating. And she got to watch him do his show. She took him to one of her job sites with her on another day and explained what she was doing and showed him the plans. He was very impressed by the caliber of her work and how talented she was. And they cooked dinner together at her apartment the following weekend. Katie was out, and they had the place to themselves. This time they made out like kids on the living-room couch. Their desire for each other was mounting, but they both thought it was still too soon to give in. They were in no rush, and wanted to get to know each other better. They felt that if this was right, and meant for them, it could wait. They were waiting for their feelings for each other to ripen before they plucked them off the tree. They were in complete agreement about that.

The only thing that still concerned him was if she had room for him in her life. She was still so busy and preoccupied with her sister’s kids. And Katie wasn’t making life any easier these days, with her stubborn insistence on going to Iran. Annie talked about it all the time and was worried sick. At least half their time together was spent talking about the kids. And Annie hardly saw Ted these days. She was worried about that too. She could tell that he was hiding something. He had gone underground again.

The scene in Pattie’s apartment was now one of constant battles. When she wasn’t talking about the baby, she was pressuring Ted about marrying her before it was born. She accused him of thinking she wasn’t good enough for him, and of being castrated by his sisters and aunt. She had gotten abusive and insulting. She wheedled, she begged, she seduced, and then she accused. And Ted told her honestly that it wasn’t that he thought she wasn’t good enough for him to marry. It was that he felt too young.

“It’s too late for that!” Pattie shouted at him. “We’re having a kid!” They fought all the time now. And when they weren’t fighting, she wanted to make love. Sex was the only form of communication she knew. She used it for everything, reward, punishment, manipulation, bribery, emotional blackmail. Ted was feeling defeated and used and was seriously depressed about the situation. He knew he was trapped, whether he was married to her or not, and he realized that sooner or later he would marry her, probably right before the baby was born. But he was in no rush to tie that noose around his neck.

He was trying to call Annie more often, so she wouldn’t worry about him, but he hadn’t seen her. He was too afraid that if he did, she would guess what was going on. He had dark circles under his eyes and had lost weight. Pattie was keeping him up all night, either fighting with him or seducing him, and he was utterly exhausted. He felt like a zombie most of the time, and he was flunking nearly every class but hers. He was behind on his papers, and only Pattie was giving him straight A’s. He no longer cared. With a baby to support, and a wife, he had to drop out anyway—it no longer mattered to him if he failed. Pattie was winning on every front. If what she wanted was to destroy his life, she was doing a great job.

Her big battle with him now was getting him to marry her right away. She didn’t want to wait. She was afraid he would change his mind. And she argued with him about it now every night. He was holding out. He had agreed to marry her in August, but not before. The baby wasn’t due till September. She called him a bastard and a sadist for making her wait. And now she wanted him to tell his aunt about their child. She wanted victory on all fronts. Ted was trying to hold his ground. But Pattie had all the ammo. She had the baby on her side.

Tom and Annie were having dinner at La Grenouille one night, when her cell phone rang. She had forgotten to turn it off. And the people at the tables on either side of them looked at her in disapproval when it rang. She glanced down at her phone and saw that it was Ted. She ducked her head down close to her purse, and with a rapid apology to Tom, she took the call. She heard from Ted so seldom now that she didn’t want to miss it. She didn’t know when he’d call her again.

“Hi, baby, everything okay? I’m at dinner with Tom,” she whispered, nearly hiding under the table, as Tom watched. He wondered if she would ever do that for a call from him. He knew now that there was nothing she wouldn’t do for those kids. “Can I call you back?”

“I … uh … I’m in the hospital,” he said, sounding dazed, and suddenly Annie’s eyes were filled with fear, and she glanced at Tom.

“Where are you?”

“I’m at NYU Hospital … I had a little problem with Pattie,” he said, and Annie thought he sounded half asleep.

“What happened?”

“She stabbed me in the hand with a steak knife. I’m okay. They just stitched it up. I thought maybe I’d come home.”

“I’ll come and get you right away,” she said, and snapped her phone shut, as she sat up and looked at Tom. “That lunatic stabbed him in the hand with a steak knife. He says he’s okay.” Annie looked shocked.

“Oh my God, that’s insane.” He looked as horrified as she was and signaled immediately for the check. They had only gotten their first course, but there was no way Annie could have eaten dinner now.

“No, she’s insane,” Annie corrected him, grateful that he was willing to leave with her. They talked about it all the way downtown in the cab. “I don’t know what happened, but she’s obviously gone nuts.”

“I had no idea she was this crazy,” Tom said, looking worried. “Next time she might kill him.”

They both thought Ted looked terrible when they got to the hospital. He was shaking and deathly pale. The doctor said he had lost very little blood, and he had ten stitches in his hand. It was heavily bandaged, and she had narrowly missed cutting a ligament and a nerve.

“What happened?” Annie asked him as the three of them rode back to her apartment.

Ted couldn’t hide it from her any longer. He had to tell her the truth. “She’s pregnant. She wants me to marry her. I said I would in August. She wants me to do it now. I don’t want to. The baby’s not due till September.” Annie looked grim as she listened. This was hardly the way to start a marriage, with a baby on the way, and a woman who was willing to stab him if he didn’t do what she said. “We were arguing about it tonight while we were eating dinner, and she just lost it.”

“You can’t marry someone like that,” Annie said with a dark look at Tom, and he nodded. He totally agreed, and he was just as worried about Ted. He looked emotionally abused, and he had been. And now she had injured him physically too, not just his heart and his mind. It was frightening.

“She says she’ll commit suicide if I don’t,” Ted said grimly.

“Let her,” Annie said harshly, as Tom paid for the cab, and they took him upstairs. He looked like he was in shock. And Annie put a blanket around him as he lay down on his old bed in his room. The room was intact and always ready for him, although he seldom used it. But this was still their home. “She’s not going to kill herself, Ted,” Annie reassured him. “She’s just trying to control you,” but she already had.

“I don’t know what to do,” Ted said, as tears rolled down his cheeks. “I want to do the right thing. But I never wanted a kid. Not yet. And I don’t want to marry her. But I have no other choice.” Tom was standing in the doorway, devasted by the look on Annie’s face, and he felt desperately sorry for the boy.

“All you have to do is support the baby,” Annie said quietly, sitting on his bed. “You don’t have to marry Pattie if you don’t want to.”

“I don’t. She freaks me out.” There was good reason for that, as the episode that night had proved.

“I want to tell you something, Ted. That woman is psychotic,” Annie said, looking straight at him. “She’s an abuser, and she’s going to make what happened tonight your fault. That’s what abusers do. She’s going to tell you that you made her angry, and that you hurt her terribly by what you said, so it justifies her stabbing you. By tomorrow, she’ll paint herself as the victim, and you’ll be the bad guy. Mark my words, she won’t even apologize for what she did to you tonight. She’ll blame you. And nothing about this is your fault. You got her pregnant, which was stupid and careless of you, but you’re not the one abusing her. And she’s going to do everything she can to convince you it’s your fault. I want you to stay away from her. I think she’s dangerous for you.”

The enormous bandage on his hand illustrated her point. Ted thanked her then for her support, and he glanced at Tom with an embarrassed look. Annie lowered the lights, and put another blanket over him, and they left him alone for a while to rest, while she and Tom went out to the kitchen to get something to eat. They were both starving since they had never finished dinner, and she offered to make him an omelette or a sandwich. Tom thanked her but said he was too upset to even want food. They settled for ice cream instead, while they discussed what had happened. These were the things that terrified Annie now. The foolish things they did, believing that they were grown up. Katie’s trip to Tehran with Paul, and Ted involved with this lunatic who had stabbed him. It didn’t get much worse or more dangerous than that.