Page 90 of Abducting Sarah

Jenny, the more gregarious, happy-go-lucky of my two sisters, grinned and gave me another hug. “I’m just so relieved they let you go.”

“I…I wasn’ttaken.” I didn’t like lying to her, but I didn’t know what else to say without any of them thinking I’d lost my mind and gone certifiably insane.How do I explain any of it?

“What do you mean you weren’t taken?” Ryan snapped.

Elizabeth, the caretaker sibling who avoided conflict at all costs, put her arm around Jenny and said, “Uh, we should get going. I’m sure you have a lot to talk about with Ryan, and this conversation sounds like you could use some privacy.”

Ryan’s hands fisted at his sides as he glared at me, ignoring my sister. “You go missing for over a month, and you weren’t even kidnapped?” he snarled furiously. “Do you know you missed the Founder’s Banquet for work? I needed you there and you left me high and dry. Where thefuckwere you that was more important than supporting me at a work event?”

Anger shot through me, that he’d turned things around and make the situation all about him. Of course he would, the narcissistic asshole!

All the times I had told myself that Ryan loved me…all the times I had tried to make his mansion into our home because that’s what he’d expected of me. The time I had wasted on him, trying to do whatever it took to makehimhappy, including going on medications that had fogged my brain and dulled my senses, because he’d insisted I was not in the right mind when I told him about the ghosts I saw.

As that fury inside me built, I looked around and realized there wasn’t a trace of myself to be seen anywhere. His mansion was my address, but it had never been my home. I had been nothing more than a shell of myself during our entire relationship. Someone Ryan could control and mold into a perfect little Stepford wife.

Then, with clarity, I realized,I am fucking done with him.

I straightened my shoulders, and with my brain cleared of any drugs or depressants, I finally fought back. “How is your neck these days, Ryan?” I asked, narrowing my gaze on him. “Still not able to go down on a woman, because of your neck problems, right?” I asked, reminding him of the excuse he’d always givenme, during sex.

He frowned, marring his perfectly handsome face, despite the Botox injections he received once a month. “What are you talking about? Of course I still have neck issues.”

“Really?” I laughed, then lowered my tone to mock the voice he’d used when I’d watched him on Deacon’s ship monitor as he’d fucked Lanai Dea. “Mmm, you taste so fucking good…that’s what you told the cop you screwed in our bed when I went missing. I bet you don’t even remember. How many women ago was that for you, Ryan?”

Jenny removed Elizabeth’s hand from her arm, her eyes lighting up gleefully. “Oh, we are not going anywhere,” she told our sister.

Elizabeth seemed riveted by the conversation, too, and they stood and watched my confrontation with Ryan, instead of leaving.

Ryan’s face flushed. “You’re being ridiculous. Obviously, you’ve been off your meds for too long—”

“I saw you, Ryan,” I said, stepping toward him and jabbing him in the chest with my finger. “I saweverything. Including pictures of you and our dentist, you and our neighbor—”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, shaking his head as though he felt sorry for me. “Clearly, you are delusional and you need your pills.”

I laughed, but the sound lacked any humor. “I’ve never been more lucid and clear headed. I’m never taking those things again. They were how you kept me under your control and always doubting myself so I never asked questions, like why did you have so many late night meetings at hotels, and why did you come home smelling like perfume so many times? You stopped me from trusting myself and what Iknowis true, and you will never do that again.”

He glared at me and my sisters. “It’s a shame, you know? When I found you in that coffee shop, you seemed like the right girl to fit into my life to be the perfect fixer upper. Sweet and quiet and someone I could mold into a suitable wife and in return I’d give you all the things you’d never had. But I got boredquick, and I had to find real women to spend my time with. Can you blame me?”

I laughed again, unphased by his deliberately hurtful words and insults. “Arealwoman, huh? The cop you fucked was an android, Ryan. A fuckingrobot.”

He rolled his eyes and pointed to Jenny and Elizabeth. “You heard that, right?Androids?Your sister isn’t making any sense. This is why she needs her medications. You two gave me shit for her prescriptions when she disappeared and blamed me for her taking too many, saying I probably killed her with the pills, but this shit is why I had her on them,” he railed at my siblings. “This is the kind of shit I had to put up with on a daily basis. First ghosts, then some bald man stalking her, and fucking androids, now?” He shook his head in disgust. “She is unstable and a danger to herself. I told you so.”

“Android?” Elizabeth asked with a wince, while Jenny looked fascinated by the entire conversation and everything I’d revealed. “Sweetie, are you sure you’re feeling okay?”

“I am feeling great, actually. Better than ever.” My thumb probed the giant diamond on my left ring finger, and just touching it made me feel calmer, more centered. More sure of what I wanted in my life. “You see this?” I asked, lifting my hand and showing them the ring.

“Jesus,” Elizabeth gasped.

Jenny’s eyes widened, too. “I don’t even like diamonds, but that’s beautiful. Did Ryan upgrade your old stone before—”

“I didn’t buy that.” Ryan’s voice rose in anger. “Where is the ring I bought you?”

I smirked at him. “I thinkAllegiantprobably ate it, considering how the place cleans up cum towels with a snap of the finger.”

He shot my sisters another incredulous look. “You’re hearing this, right?”

“This ring is going to take me to myrealhome.” I glanced at my sisters, making my choice, which wasmyhappiness, for the first time ever. “Jenny, Elizabeth, I love you both more than damn near anything, but I have to do this. I will be back to explain everything one day, I promise, but I have to go now.”

Jenny nodded as if understanding, while Elizabeth frowned in that pragmatic way of hers. “What are you talking about? Who gave you that ring? Are you going back to him?”

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