I sat on the couch, staring at
Family Feud reruns and trying to collect my thoughts. Growing antsy, I began to pace the floor, trying desperately to find the right words to say when I called Anderson.
“Anderson, I’m pregnant,” I practice out loud and then shook my head, knowing I couldn’t spring into such a major confession right from the start. I’d have to work my way up to it.
Besides, I knew that when I called, the first thing he’d want to know was why I’d been ignoring him…
I continued pacing the floor, my mind running wild as I envisioned all the possible scenarios that could happen.
Would he be happy to hear from me, or would he be angry? Would he agree to come see me, or would he demand I just told him over the phone, right then and there, what was wrong with me?
Would he be happy about becoming a father, or would he panic and try to worm his way out of it?
Had he talked to Tobias at all since the gala?
The doorbell rang, catching me off guard and making my heart leap to my throat. I let out a long breath. “Goodness, Joanna, get a grip,” I said to myself. I reached for my wallet and headed to the door, my stomach growling despite the ridiculous amount of ice cream that I’d eaten over the past few days.
“How much?” I said, as I opened the door.
I looked up, stopping dead in my tracks. My blood turned cold and my stomach dropped as if the floor beneath my feet had suddenly disappeared.
I wanted to believe that I was dreaming, and this was only a nightmare that I would wake up from at any moment…
But I already knew that wasn’t the case, and that Zander really was standing there in front of me on the porch, sloppy drunk with a bruise across his left cheek. His eyes were glassy with intoxication, but that didn’t prevent him from sneering, proud to have successfully tracked me down.
“Told you I was coming, didn’t I, love?” he said.
Survival instincts finally kicking in, I quickly moved to slam the door in his face. My mind raced with what I needed to do, like lock the door and call the police…
But even in his state of drunkenness, he was able to react quickly enough to grab the door and force his way inside.
“Did you really think you could get away from me?” he spat, painfully grabbing my arms.
I twisted, panicking and trying to free myself from his grasp. I kicked him in the shin with every ounce of strength I could muster, catching him by surprise.
“You bitch!” he yelled, momentarily releasing my arm.
I turned to run, but his hard and heavy footsteps followed closely behind me. A scream got stuck in my throat.
And just as I reached the edge of the steps, he lunged forward me, sending me crashing down. My body exploded in pain as I landed roughly on the steps, right on my stomach. The wind was knocked right out of me.
“What did I tell you about trying to run from me?” Zander bellowed.
CHAPTER 26
Anderson
To say that I was a nervous wreck was probably the understatement of the century. Ever since Tobias had revealed that Joanna had left his house without leaving any indication of her whereabouts, there had been a ball of dread in my stomach, especially since I had learned the full details about her fucking asshole ex. Something just wasn’t right, and Tobias and I both knew it. But with Joanna not answering her phone, returning our calls, or showing up for work, we just had no way of figuring out what was going on.
We had tried in vain to find her, visiting places she had frequented—such as favorite restaurants, bookstores, shopping malls—all to no avail. Tobias had even resorted to calling a few of her friends, but no one had heard anything. It was like she had somehow disappeared right into thin air.
“She’ll turn up,” Tobias had kept saying. “She always does.” But the more he said it, the more it became apparent that his words were solely an attempt to comfort himself.
When we had exhausted all of our ideas of places she could potentially be found, we were forced to throw in the towel.
“Maybe she’ll show up for work this week,” I had offered, but my words were just as hollow as Tobias’. I strongly doubted she would just report to the firm after avoiding everyone for a full week.
“Maybe so,” had Tobias said. But we both knew we were kidding ourselves.