CHAPTER17
Gillian stoppedin the doorway of the kitchen she’d grown up in, looking at the counter she had done her homework at after school, the kitchen table where they had eaten all their meals, and where she had learned about life in Granite Falls. It had seemed so simple back then, so small. She’d missed the big picture—Granite Falls was family. It was a safe haven where she’d always be welcome and loved. Where she was allowed to flourish and grow.
She swatted the tears out of her eyes.
She wanted to stay and help her mom with the renovations, to go shopping, help decorate for Christmas, and buy Bailey her first ornament. Even that wouldn’t happen now. Tears filled her eyes as she looked up at the picture of her with her parents at her high school graduation. What a foolish girl she had been, young and unaware of what she had.
She shook her head. No reason to look behind her. She made bad decisions. She had to fix them and move forward. She couldn’t stay in Granite Falls. Paul was out, and this was the first place he would come. He considered her his property. He would never let her go.
Her heart raced as she thought of his voice and the way he looked at her. When they were first married, she thought it was love. Now she knew it was pride. She was a possession he had groomed and molded to be exactly what he needed.
She could never go back to that life.
The only way out was to disappear. Especially once he discovered she’d been in his safety deposit box. She wheeled herself over to the small desk set in the wall of the kitchen, dropped the tote bag underneath, and made a quick phone call to Agent Morris, but his phone went to voicemail after the first ring. “This is Gillian Barnes. Please call me back. I need your help.”
She disconnected the line. She pulled a notebook out of the desk drawer and started to write her parents a note, apologizing for leaving and telling them both she loved them and how much she wished she could come home for good. She wondered if she’d ever get to see them again.
Mom and Dad. I’m so sorry…
The pen hovered over the paper.
Should she tell them the truth? Tell them she was too terrified of her husband to stay? Tell them that because she married him, she’d never get to be happy, that he would always find a way to destroy her life?
Fight, Gillian. You deserve to be happy.Nick’s words filled her mind. He was right; if she took Paul’s money and ran, she’d be looking over her shoulder for the rest of her life. She’d never be able to start over. To begin again. She’d still be trapped. No, she had to face him. She had to let people help her.
She dialed Agent Morris again, and when he still didn’t pick up, left another message. “This is Gillian Barnes again. Earlier today, I found a couple of keys sewed into my stuffed panda. One was a safety deposit box key for a bank in Atlanta. With my husband’s power of attorney, I opened the box. It was full of cash. The second key is for a storage unit, but I don’t know where. Maybe you found something in his papers that will help you find it. If you could call me back, I need to know if it’s true that my husband has been released from jail, and if he has, am I in any danger? I need to know what I should do. Please call me back.”
She heard a crash in the other room and hung up the phone. She didn’t think her parents were home. Fear filled her chest. As quietly as she could, she wheeled her chair to the kitchen doorway and looked down the hall. She heard another crash and then another. The sounds were coming from the den where she was sleeping.
Paul?
She dialed 9-1-1 on her phone.
“9-1-1, what’s your emergency?”
“Someone is in my house,” she whispered.
“Address?”
She quickly gave the operator her parents’ address, then started to wheel herself toward the front door. She had to get out. Now.
“Going somewhere?”
Paul’s voice came from behind her. She slipped her phone into her sling, hoping the 9-1-1 operator could hear what was happening as fear flooded her system. She turned the chair around and faced her husband.
“Paul, what are you doing here?” she asked as if he was home early from work and hadn’t spent the last month in jail.
His eyes narrowing, he reached inside her sling and grabbed the phone, powering it down. “Is that any way to greet your husband?”
She didn’t move. “I’m… I’m just surprised to see you. I thought you said you needed to be picked up from the jail.”
“I found someone else. Obviously.” He sneered the last word.
“Obviously,” she muttered, knowing he must have been right here when he called her and not in Virginia. She wondered as a chill moved through her, how long he’d been in North Carolina.Watching her.
“What I want to know is what in the hell are you doing here?” he asked calmly.
Confusion swam through her. “What do you mean?”