Stay With Me (She's With Me #2) - Jessica Cunsolo Page 0,11

blurs as I recall the next part, my heart beating faster, as if I’m reliving the experience again.

“Just over a year ago, after dinner, I decided to go for a walk despite the biting cold and inky darkness spreading through the air. My thoughts consumed me and I didn’t notice that a truck had been following me since the moment I’d left my house. I didn’t turn to look when it pulled up beside me and a door opened. I barely blinked when there were heavy footsteps crunching in the snow behind me. Only when I heard my name being called did I turn around. Only then did I realize that it was too late for me to stop living in the past and to start paying attention to the present.”

My throat feels like it’s closing, and just when I’m sure I’m going to pass out, a comforting hand lands on my leg, just above my knee. Aiden’s hand tightens on my leg, and he doesn’t need to speak out loud for me to know what he’s saying. He’s here with me. I’m safe. Silently borrowing his strength, I force the words out.

“There was a man, pointing a gun at my head. Shock took over, and I didn’t recognize him at first. He held the gun on me with callous determination, his eyes dark and empty, like an open grave. Tony Derando, Sabrina’s father. He said that I killed his daughter. I replied that I didn’t, but I was sorry that she’d passed. That’s when his expression changed.”

The wall behind Aiden suddenly looks very interesting, and I keep my attention there.

I can’t explain it. He was an empty shell of a man with no hope, with no desire to move on. It was like he didn’t care about the future, didn’t care about anything except right then, that moment. It was like he saw nothing except a way to relieve the anger, relieve the pain over losing the most important—the only important—thing in his life. His rage radiated off him, and even then I knew that he had a need to exact revenge, to hurt me.

At this point I zone out, the memories rushing back to me as if a floodgate has opened and the angry water is speeding out, almost overwhelming me with how clearly I remember everything. It’s as if I’m reliving the moment my life changed forever as I share my story with Aiden.

“Tony was going to shoot me. Should I try to run, talk him down, or just accept my fate? He took the decision from me when he suddenly lifted his arm and smashed me over the head with the end of the gun, and that’s the last thing I remember.”

4

The first thing I noticed was soreness. The pounding in my head was hard to ignore, but the rest of my joints felt stiff, as if I had been thrown around. I was lying on the floor and hazily sat up, rubbing my head, my body pushing to stay conscious.

My feet were completely bare but I could’ve sworn I’d left the house with shoes on. The light-blue color of my cast wasn’t obstructed by my winter jacket. Where was my jacket? It was cold, I hadn’t left the house without it.

But I was no longer outside, I was in a small bathroom. Standing up, I assessed my surroundings. In the bathroom there was just a toilet and a sink; there were no mirrors or cabinets, and the walls were bare and windowless. There was an eerie chill in the air, which had nothing to do with the fact that I was just in jeans and a T-shirt.

The door wouldn’t open. It wasn’t locked because the knob turned, so there was probably some type of dead-bolt system added to the outside too. Heavy things seemed to be pushed in front of the door as well, since when I looked through the tiny slit between the door and the threshold, I was met with some type of sturdy, wooden furniture.

Tony had taken me, and I knew it was only a matter of time before he came to finish his plans with me. I had to get out. There were no windows, so my only hope was to escape through the door. I tried to escape for hours, sitting on the hard floor and kicking at the door until the heels of my feet bled. Desperation took hold. Even punching and clawing at the door and its hinges