The Perfect Stranger - Charlotte Byrd
Prologue - Isabelle
When it happens…
I can feel my heart pounding as I press my face to the door. I can’t leave. I don’t know when I’ll be able to get back to my normal life again.
These four walls are all I have. He puts me in my own bedroom and locks the door.
I let out a slight sigh of relief.
At least he didn’t follow me inside.
At least he didn’t throw me onto the bed and… You know how it goes.
It’s every woman’s worst nightmare.
No, that hasn’t happened.
Yet.
All that he has done so far is put a blindfold over my eyes and push me into my room.
My hands are drenched in sweat and my body is shaking. I’m all alone and yet I’m still afraid to take off the blindfold. I sit here, completely immobilized by my own fear.
My life has been full of fears even though nothing extraordinary or even a little bit exciting has ever happened to me. I like it that way.
I’m timid, and I’m quiet, and I’m the girl with her head in a book. Most of the time I get my coffee to go, but on occasion I venture inside and sit behind my laptop in a crowded room, just to be next to some people without feeling pressure to interact with them.
I have always been like this. I never wanted all that stuff that people on television want from life.
I never wanted a successful career up a corporate ladder.
I never wanted wealth and power, okay, maybe I want a little money.
I never even wanted to be a mother. Not yet anyway.
My life is super ordinary and I thought it would always be like that.
Until today.
I count my breaths. They are fast at first, a little bit out of control, but as the minutes tick by, they calm down. My breathing becomes more even and I stop shaking.
What just happened?
I try to replay the events of the day, but I get a mental block. My mind refuses to let me go any further back than the moment when I opened the door and saw him on my doorstep.
Perhaps, saw is the wrong word.
Who did I see exactly? I try to remember his face, but nothing comes to mind. He was wearing something over it.
A mask? No, not really.
It was something else.
A baseball hat hung low over his eyes and a bandanna covered his nose and mouth. His eyes were dark, piercing.
They should have looked dangerous but they didn’t. Not at first, anyway, and that’s why I hesitated.
I haven’t had anyone come to my door in a while. No food delivery guys or missionaries like the ones who came all the time when I was little. Do those even exist anymore?
Still, I should have known.
I should have looked through the peephole first. It’s there for a reason, right?
I kick myself for hesitating. People don’t just go around wearing bandannas over their faces for no reason.
It’s eleven in the morning on an average, sunny Saturday.
What’s the worst that could happen?
Tyler
When I see her…
I shouldn’t be here. I don't belong here, but this is the only place I can go. This is the only way that I can get out of this mess and even then, I probably won't.
Still, I have to see her. I haven’t seen her in years and if this all goes wrong, I will probably never see her again.
To protect her and to protect myself, I can't let her see my face.
She hesitates before opening the door when I knock.
I wonder if she will. If she doesn't then there goes my whole plan.
I wait, carefully looking around to make sure that none of her neighbors are around.
It's the worst possible time to be on a suburban cul-de-sac. The kids can come out at any moment to ride their bikes. A busy mom can load up her third row SUV for a soccer game.
I know this because this is where I grew up. Not exactly here, but not far from here with a stay-at-home mom who worked harder than most working moms.
She was the one who baked cookies. She was the one who invited everyone to sleepovers. She was the one who built the backyard swing set all by herself while my dad was flying all around the country, gone two weeks out of every month.
The garage next door opens and an Oldsmobile pulls out very slowly. My heart sinks. I turn my body away from them and lower the bandanna to my neck.
If they see me,