Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 75907 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 380(@200wpm)___ 304(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75907 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 380(@200wpm)___ 304(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
I hope it’s a secret room, or maybe even a vault, or a secret burial place in the basement that June wants to show us. Sure, that’s all dramatic and something out of a movie, but it could happen.
I stop to admire the hydrangeas that are starting to bloom out front, on either side of the steps that lead to the heavy wooden doors. The flowers around this building have always been beautiful for as long as I can remember. The ladies of the church tended to them, and it showed.
It still does, as the perennials come back every year and brighten up the whole block in bold blue and pink, red and purple.
With one last sniff of a bloom, I climb the stairs and turn the knob, finding it unlocked, and then I walk inside.
It’s chilly in the chapel, so I tug my sweater around me a little tighter.
“June?” I move toward the two lone pews near the front of the sanctuary where the altar once lived. “June, I’m here!”
Huh, where is she? Maybe the basement?
I walk toward the door that leads downstairs, but before I can reach for the doorknob, something hits me from behind, and I feel myself falling.
And then I feel nothing at all.
My head is screaming. I try to reach up to touch the back of my head, but my hands are tied.
I open my eyes and find that I’m sitting in a chair, in the middle of the mostly empty chapel, and my hands are tied, palms up, to the arms of the chair.
“June?”
“Don’t be silly.”
My head whips around in time to see a woman, a very pregnant woman, walk across the room toward me.
“You’re awake.”
“You?” I shake my head in disbelief. “From the campground.”
“I fucking hate to camp,” she says, and then jerks a shoulder. “But, we do what we have to do, I guess. I’m Bridget, by the way. We never exchanged names.”
“I don’t know you, Bridget.”
“No, you don’t. But I know you.” Her eyes go cold, and her lip turns up in a snarl. “You’ve ruined my entire fucking life.”
“Me?” I shake my head again. “I don’t see how that’s possible, since I don’t know you. Are you the one who broke into my house?”
“If you’d just been there, we wouldn’t have gotten this far,” she says impatiently. “Everything could have been resolved so quickly, but no, you just had to make it difficult at every turn. So really, we’re here because of you.”
“I see.” Except, I don’t see at all, and my heart is racing, pumping blood so loudly in my ears, I can hardly concentrate on what she’s saying. “How did I hurt you, Bridget?”
Keep her talking. I just have to keep her talking.
I wish I could reach my phone so I could alert Tanner. He won’t be expecting me home for a long time, so he’d have to reason to come find me.
My God, no one knows what’s happening right now.
Don’t panic, Sarah.
“I tried,” she begins and waddles around the chapel, rubbing her hands over her huge belly. “I really, really tried to be everything that he needed me to be. I still try. I’m submissive, I follow orders, I’m demure and kind, and I fuck him whenever he wants me to. I’ve done everything, but no matter what I try, it’s never enough.”
She turns to me now and bares her teeth in frustration.
“Because I’m not you.”
“What?” But it all starts to click into place. “Wait, are you Anthony’s new wife?”
“He’s mine,” she shrieks. “But he throws you in my face constantly. If you were more like Sarah, I’d love you more. Do it like Sarah. Talk like Sarah. Sarah, Sarah, Sarah. For fuck’s sake, I’m sick of hearing about you.”
There’s a thump behind us, and Bridget’s head whips around, and right before my very eyes, her demeanor completely changes.
She shrinks in on herself, casts her eyes to the floor, and seems to…wither.
“You haven’t finished.” He tsks and walks around the chair so I can see him.
He hasn’t changed in the months since I last saw him. Anthony was always handsome, with a full head of dark hair and a tall, lean body. And when he smiles, his teeth are white and straight.
But the smile doesn’t reach his eyes, and I know that there’s no good that lives in him.
“Well, hello, darling.”
“I’m not your darling.”
He shakes his head. “You disappoint me, Sarah.”
“How is that possible? I left with literally nothing but my clothes. You got what you wanted, Anthony. A new young woman and no ties to me.”
“You didn’t beg.”
It’s said so simply, so effortlessly, that all I can do is blink at him.
“What?”
“You.” He walks closer. “Didn’t.” Gets down in my face. “Beg.”
“For what?”
“Me.”
He backs up and walks away, circling the space.
“You didn’t play the game, Sarah, and that really disappointed me. It really hurt me.”