by Sara V. Zook
“He’s still got that stick up him?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Emry replied. “I don’t really care either. He can get over it. He’s not my boss.”
“So who is your boss exactly?” I asked.
He narrowed his eyes at me teasingly. “I guess you.”
“Really? Me?”
“At least I can let you think so.”
I giggled.
“I’m so glad you’re okay. You have no idea.” He sat on the edge of the bed and pushed my hair behind my ear. “And I’m sorry to say you’re stuck with me now. There’s no getting away from me at all anymore. I escort you everywhere.”
“Oh, no, whatever will I do?”
“You might get sick of me.”
“Guess I’ll have to start liking the fact that there’s no getting away from you now.”
He chuckled. “Guess so.”
I leaned my head back against the pillow and looked up at the ceiling.
“Tired?” he asked.
I nodded.
“Okay.” He walked over the wall and dimmed the lights. “Just go back to sleep then.”
“What about you? You need some sleep,” I whispered.
He gave me an assuring smile. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be right here waiting for you to wake up again. I’ll be right here by your side.”
I closed my eyes and felt his fingers wrap around mine. I knew that I would find no greater comfort in my life than Emry Logan.
FOURTEEN
“Now you give me a call and say you want to go dress shopping.” Carlin slammed the door shut of her house and gave me an irritated look. “I have left you message after message. Was your phone broke or what?”
I looked over toward Emry. “No,” I said. “I just didn’t get any service.”
“No service?” She eyed me as if she was trying to determine what I was hiding. “Were you on a different planet or something? Who doesn’t get service these days?”
I raised my eyebrows and saw Emry smirk out of the corner of my eye.
“And no offense to Emry, but why does he have to go along? You two that inseparable?” Carlin asked, opening up the driver’s side door to her black sports car and getting inside.
“Something like that,” I mumbled, watching Emry get in the back as I climbed into the passenger seat.
“Okay.” Carlin strapped on her seatbelt. “But he can’t see which dress we’re picking. You know the groom can’t see the bride’s dress before the wedding day.”
“I’ll close my eyes,” Emry promised.
“You’ll do better than that,” Carlin told him. “You’ll be waiting in the car.”
“Carlin,” I said. “At least let him in the building. He can wait at the door or something.”
She shrugged. “Whatever. I just wanted a girls day. I’ve been waiting on you to call me.”
I sighed. She was in a mood. “I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to call back. Can’t we just enjoy ourselves?”
Carlin rolled her eyes before placing a pair of large, round sunglasses on her face. “We have to make a stop first before heading to the stores.”
“Okay,” I said. “What kind of stop?”
She hesitated.
“Carlin …”
“One you won’t like,” she finally blurted out.
“What exactly does that mean?” I asked, anxious from the fleeting thoughts of what this stop would entail.
Carlin switched on the radio. She began scanning through the stations. “I just made a promise is all.”
“You’re being evasive,” I stated.
“Carlin, what do you have up your sleeve?” Emry asked from the backseat.
“Hey, you in the back,” Carlin said. “You’re just along for the ride. You’re not permitted to be a part of mine and my daughter’s conversation today.”
Emry chuckled but didn’t say anymore.
“Carlin, seriously,” I snapped. “Get out of your mood.”
“I’m not in a mood,” she snapped.
“You’re being mean to Emry.”
“He doesn’t care, do you, Emry?” She peered into her rearview mirror at him.
“No,” he replied. “Not at all.”
“See?” she said, putting her hand up in the air. “It’s like he kind of likes it even.”
I rolled my eyes this time. “You still haven’t told me what your pit stop is.”
“It’s probably better if I just show you.” She began driving toward the town part of Seneca. “It would be even better if you two just … closed your eyes, relax a little bit.”
“Not a chance.” I stared out at the open road before me. We should’ve been headed away from Seneca, not toward it.
The roads became familiar, yet it had seemed like ages since I had been on them. This is where I had grown up. The girl I had been back then was lost forever now that I’d been exposed to reality. I was grateful to not be her any longer. I had been living a sheltered life and even worse than that, I had been content with not knowing anything outside of this small town. If only Carlin knew where I had been when she tried to call me. If only she knew the confidence I had gained, the knowledge and strength I had earned from being thrown into a mystical world whose boundaries didn’t like being crossed by a human. I had suffered survival.
Soon I knew all too well which road she was turning onto, which house she was headed toward.
“Oh, no,” I protested. “Carlin, turn the car around right now.”
Carlin bit her lip. “We don’t have to stay long, Anna.”
“Are you kidding me?” Emry said from the back, sitting straight up and holding onto the back of the driver’s seat headrest.
“Carlin ...” But before I could finish, it was too late. I stared up at the house I had grown up in, where I thought Helene and John were my real parents, where I thought the world was as good as it was ever going to get under their roof. I just sat there for a moment, entranced by the appearance of the house. Nothing had changed. It seemed like an eternity ago since I had stepped foot in this yard. “I don’t want to be here, Carlin. I have nothing to say to them.”
“They have been begging me to see you,” she emphasized. “All Helene ever does is ask questions about you.”
“They know I’m with Emry, don’t they?” I asked.
She nodded.
“So why would they want to see me?”
“Anna, they love you. They raised you, and you just … left.” Carlin removed her sunglasses and glanced up at the front door.
“They’re liars,” my voice choked. No, no, no. This is not what I had planned for today.
“How can you just abandon them like that? What about Matthew?” she argued.
She had done it again. The mention of my brother’s name sent a dagger straight into my heart. He was the one I missed and worried about. He was totally innocent in all of this.
Emry cleared his throat. “I don’t think this is a good idea. As soon as John sees me, he’s going to go crazy.”
“You weren’t supposed to be here,” Carlin reminded him.
The front door swung open and out came Helene followed by John behind her. They stood side by side on the front porch and stared down at the car in anticipation as if a ghost were coming back to life to see them. That ghost unwillingly was me. Helene raised her arm and gave a little wave.
I glared at Carlin. “I’m not happy about this.”
She sighed.
I got out of the car and slammed the door shut. I was so angry I was making my hands go into fists. I had left this part of my life behind for a reason, and now Carlin was butting in and slashing open old wounds. The feeling came back along with the ugly memory of when Carlin and I were just aunt and niece, and I loathed her presence. She was always thinking she could outsmart me, that she was better than me, and this was no different than then.
I took a few steps into the grass and stopped. I peered up at them. Helene looked like she was going to burst int
o tears at any given moment.
“Anna,” Helene said, hurrying down the porch stairs and hugging me tight to her chest. “Oh, Anna, I’ve missed you so very much.”
I stood there for a few seconds before my hands reached up to hug her back. My eyes moved to John who was still standing on the porch.
“Won’t you come in for a bit?” she asked, her tone one of desperation.
“I … can’t.” I looked back to the car to see Emry, but Carlin’s tinted windows prevented me from doing so.
“Why?” Helene wiped the tears away from her cheeks. “You have to come see Matthew. He asks about you every day.”
I highly doubted that was true.
“Where have you been? I’ve been worried sick. I’ve been just a mess,” she told me.
Carlin got out of the car. “She’s been spending some quality time with someone.”
Helene lowered her eyebrows. “With who?”
Carlin opened the back door to reveal Emry. He gave Carlin an uneasy look before climbing out and leaning against the side of the car, his eyes focused on John who had made his life a living hell here in Seneca.
“No, surely not.” Helene covered her mouth with her hand and gasped as if Emry were some sort of monster.
“You know we’re together,” I said.
She shook her head. “I didn’t think it would work. It can’t work.”
Unbelievable. After all this time, she still thought she had control over me. She still thought I would care about her opinions.
“We’re getting married,” I blurted out, raising my hand so she could see the ring.
Helene covered her ears. “No,” she cried. “I don’t believe such a thing. I won’t!”
John hurried over to his wife’s side and put his arm around her shoulders. He huffed in anger as he pointed a finger at Emry. “I don’t want him anywhere near my house. Carlin, do you hear?”
Carlin took a hit from her cigarette and let the smoke pour out of her nostrils. “He wasn’t supposed to be here,” she mumbled.
“What was your plan here, Carlin?” Emry asked.
“No plan,” she answered. “Helene is my sister. She just wanted to see Anna, that’s all.”
“Anna, please come home.” A whimper escaped her throat. “Come back where you belong.”
I glared at her. “No.”
Helene looked as if she were going to faint from my rebellion.
“I only belong one place, and that’s with Emry.” I looked from Helene to John. His face seemed hardened, his jaw clenching down tight. He had started to grow a beard, the whiskers coming in whitish gray. His eyes were bloodshot and wild.
“Anna,” Helene began in that annoying I know what’s best voice that came out so soft, you just wanted to shake her and demand she scream. “Just listen to your father and I for a moment.”
“He’s not my father, and you’re not my mother,” I snapped.
She held her hand to her heart as if I had just stabbed it.
No one said a word. We all just stared at each other.
I looked back to see Emry still near the car. He was no longer leaning against it. His stance was one as if ready to leap at me at any given moment and take us both back to Evadere, but we couldn’t just vanish into thin air in front of everyone.
I felt betrayed by Carlin. This was supposed to have been a fun day. Now it was ruined. I just wanted to go back to the castle and forget this part of my past even existed.
Helene put her arm in front of John as if holding him back. “How about we all just go inside and talk this through?”
“What’s there to talk through?” I asked.
“Helene, you said you just wanted to see her,” Carlin remarked.
“There’s plenty to talk about. We want you back home.” Helene didn’t even look Carlin’s way.
I rolled my eyes. Unbelievable. I had been gone all this time and the moment I return, they wanted to lock me away in that bedroom upstairs, hide me away from the rest of the world and most definitely keep me from seeing Emry Logan ever again.
“I’m not going in that house,” I told her, fiddling with the ring on my finger.
“He’s not coming in my house,” John said, glaring at Emry.
Carlin crossed her arms. “Okay. I think it’s time to go. This was obviously a mistake.”
“Best idea you’ve had all day, Carlin,” Emry said, his voice calm but forced to remain so.
“No one’s going anywhere,” John stated.
“I’ve tried to stay out of this,” Emry said. “But I’ve had enough of these little games. You ready, Anna?”
I nodded, feeling as though my legs were frozen in place. I reached for him to come get me. I had always been so weak around Helene and John, their past influence over me substantial. It was sad that I knew this was going to be our final goodbye, but I truly didn’t want anything to do with them anymore. They didn’t accept Emry and never would. They would spend their time attempting to brainwash me into hating him, so any time spent with them in the future was an utter waste of time. If they wanted this to end on a bad note, that was their fault. They could say goodbye, or Emry would pry me out of their hands. Either way, I was leaving.
Emry took a few steps toward me.
“You’ll want to stop right there,” John said, his tone threatening.
Emry hesitated for a moment before stopping, his hair falling in his eyes which were now locked on John. “She wants to leave.”
“She doesn’t know what she wants,” John replied.
“I want to leave,” I stressed.
“This is ridiculous, John.” Carlin walked over and grabbed my arm. “Let’s go, Anna.”
“Carlin,” John hollered. “Let her be.”
“What’s the matter with you?” Carlin asked, also hesitating because of the madness screaming from John’s eyes.
My stomach was doing flip-flops. This was a repeat of John’s behavior when I had been caught with Emry at the prison. The animal inside him came out. I couldn’t believe how much it bothered John to see me with him, to have Emry actually stepping foot in his yard. Emry wanted to crush him, but he wouldn’t out of respect for me.
“This whole entire thing is a giant mistake, Anna,” John stated. “Your meeting Emry Logan, a mistake. You think you’re in love, but you have no idea what he’s capable of. There’s evil inside him.”
“He was proven innocent,” Carlin snapped.
“That’s not what I’m talking about,” John continued. “He needs to be locked up for other reasons.”
Carlin glanced back at Emry, confused.
If only he knew what I knew about Emry. If only I could tell them, explain to them how things really were, but of course, I couldn’t. It was a moot cause.
“I’m a grown woman, and I’m sick and tired of you trying to tell me what I do and do not want. It’s the whole reason I’ve been away from you this whole time, and I’m not coming back. You’re going to have to accept it,” I yelled.
“I’m sorry I brought you here,” Carlin mumbled.
“Shut up, Carlin!” John yelled out. “You gave her to us to raise. You didn’t want her, remember?”
Carlin bit her lip. Tears swelled in her eyes.
“You don’t know anything about being a parent. You don’t know anything about Anna at all,” Helene remarked.
“This conversation or whatever it is, is done.” Emry started walking toward me.
“Stop right there!” John screamed.
Emry kept coming, his eyes still locked on John though.
“I said stop!” John pulled out a handgun from behind his back and aimed it straight at Emry’s chest. “I’ll kill you right here, right now.”
Horrified, I watched Emry put his hands in the air.
“You’re acting crazy, John!” Carlin screamed.
“No, I am through with this nonsense,” he said, his hand still raised with the weapon pointing at Emry.
“Wow, John,” E
mry said. “You’ve really lost your marbles.”
Helene began biting on her fingernails.
“What’s next? An entire police squad going to jump out at me from behind the house?”
John narrowed his eyes. “I don’t need a police squad to help me kill you. I can do that myself.”
Maybe John really had lost it. And how pathetic Helene looked standing beside him, tears in her eyes, biting nervously on her fingers like the meek mouse that she was. It’s no wonder I had used to be so naive, so content with a mundane life of living under their roof. These had been my examples growing up. They had made all decisions for me. I could never envision myself going back to that kind of life. I would rather die.
I had to distract John fast. His hatred toward Emry was even greater than I had suspected. He wanted me away from him and would go to the most extreme measure to make that happen. He would shoot Emry without hesitation, I was sure of that now.
“Okay, dad,” I said sweetly. “Just let Emry go. I’ll come inside, whatever you want.”
Neither one of them moved.
“Emry, it’s fine. Just … you and Carlin get in the car and leave,” I said.
“If you ever come back after her again, I swear I’ll put a bullet in you,” John yelled.
“You made the right decision, honey.” Helene came over and wrapped her arm around my neck. I cringed, wanting nothing more than to shrink away from her embrace.
Emry continued to have his hands up. He started to walk backwards to the car. Carlin was already climbing in the driver’s seat, searching for her keys in her purse.
John’s gaze shifted from Emry to me. He started to lower the gun. Emry took John’s distraction as an opportunity. He took two huge running steps and dove at him. The gun went off.
A squeal came from Helene. John struggled against Emry who tried to pry the gun from his hands. Blood was now covering both of them. I couldn’t tell which one was injured.
After a few moments, slowly Emry climbed to his feet. John was panting as he lay on the ground. Emry had the gun. He emptied the chamber of bullets and tossed it on the ground. His hand moved to a wound on his arm, blood gushing from it.
“Emry!” I cried out, hurrying to his side. “Are you okay?”
He took his shirt off and ripped it in half. I helped him tie it over the bullet wound. He stared back down at John who now rose to his feet with Helene’s help.