Page 233 of Obsession

I had no other choice.

I opened the hood and let it cool down, because that was the only thing I could do. I checked the water tank, which was empty, but I didn’t have any to replace it. There was plenty of it falling from the sky, but it wouldn’t do any good.

I waited a few minutes on the side of the road and sat down directly on the asphalt. I propped my head on my arms and tried to calm down, just then feeling that I was soaking wet and shivering.

The cold helped soothe the heated anger, then I relived the events that had just happened and realized it wasn’t the same as yesterday.

This wasn’t an attack, quite the opposite. It overtook me and blocked my path, it was the only reason I stopped, otherwise I would have driven like a madwoman until I met my maker.

Harris had told me that he would protect me all the time from now on, that there was someone near my house since yesterday after he left. I didn’t see anyone, but why did I feel like I had just met him.

Why didn’t he get out of the car? Why did he disappear so suddenly? If Harris had asked him to protect me, he was no mystery.

“Miss, do you need help?”

I winced and lifted my head when I saw an older man right next to me, and I hadn’t even heard his car stop.

My dad’s car was no longer smoking, and I stood up and slammed the hood.

“I’m fine, thanks.”

I didn’t have the strength to ask for help, to explain what had happened to me, to lie.

I got behind the wheel and tried to start the engine. At first it didn’t work, it coughed and smoke came out, but when I tried again, the car vibrated and started.

I managed to turn around in the middle of the road and waved my thanks to the man who had offered to help me. He looked at me as if he had just met a crazy person.

It was a true guess.

I managed to drive slowly back into town, the smoke growing thicker as the car signaled that it needed cooling water. I stopped in front of the first supermarket I found, and slapped my face on my palms.

What the fuck was my life?

How did I end up here when I had left New York to get back on my feet? It felt like I’d left a cursed city and landed in unmistakable hell.

I started coughing again, not sure if it was smoke or vapor, but it smelled progressively worse.

At least my backpack was still in the car, because I’d left it behind when I went into Roberta’s house. I dug around for my wallet and got out of the car.

I had no idea what the car needed, and that was going to be my dad’s problem. All I needed at the moment was a pack of cigarettes. Besides, I needed my phone back, but there was no way I was going back to that house today under any circumstances.

To say I was dizzy would have been an understatement. My head was throbbing with pain, and I got two Lion bars. You couldn’t call it food, but I needed a blood sugar boost. Before Iwent to checkout, I passed the cosmetics aisle and stopped in my tracks when I saw hair dye.

I took my blonde locks between my fingers and analyzed them. It disgusted me. I had dyed my hair in an attempt of removing my mother’s image, but I ended up looking like my father’s lost daughter.

For a moment, I was tempted to get a crazy color that would set me apart from everyone else, but I’d had enough of trying to change just to numb the pain.

I grabbed three boxes of the darkest black I could find.

It was time to get back tomyself.

To the real me.

To the Katherine that had once been a fighter, because the one I was now needed all the strength she could get.

No matter how cursed my life was now, I knew this was just the beginning.

CHAPTER 23

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