Page 46 of The Fight

Ican barely make sense of my surroundings. It’s like my body is floating and my mind is fighting to wake up, but the pain in my head is too strong. Everything is muffled and distant, like I’m underwater. But at the same time, I’m almost hyperaware of the rough leather seats beneath me.

The smell is one of the first things that register—leather and something stale, like mildew. I’m unfamiliar but personal, like someone’s old belongings. The air feels thick and heavy in my lungs too, and I can barely take in a full breath without it scraping the back of my throat. My senses are screaming at me that something is wrong. I don’t know where I am. I don’t knowhowI’m here. But the darkness pressing against my eyelids is too much to fight.

I try to move, to shift, to feel anything that might be around me, but my body is heavy and uncooperative. Something is over my head. Cloth? A blindfold, maybe? I can’t see, can’t focus. My mind is swirling, and as much as I try and push past the fog, it doesn’t work. The dizziness just keeps pulling me back.

The motion of the car makes me feel like I’m about to slip into sleep again. My legs ache, my hands are numb, and when Itry and move them, the cold feeling in my fingertips intensifies. I can’t remember what happened. Where is Shay? The wedding?

My chest tightens, and panic threads through the edges of my consciousness. Where is everyone? Where is he?

The car lurches suddenly, and the brakes screech in protest as everything comes to a sudden halt. My body jerks forward, but I barely feel it through the weird fucking haze. My heart hammers against my ribs, and the only thing I can think is, why did we stop?

Then, I hear the door open with a creak. The sounds seem so clear now—clearer than anything else. There’s a shuffle of footsteps, the scraping sound of shoes on the ground, then a harsh, almost mocking voice cutting through it all.

“Time to wake up.”

Blake.

The recognition of his voice sends an electric shock through me as everything that happened suddenly slams back into my brain. I try to scream, but nothing comes out. I’m not even sure I’m moving my lips. I feel a rush of air against my skin, and before I can even comprehend it, hands grip me roughly and pull me from my seat. The world tilts, and my stomach spins. I try to fight, but the pain in my head only gets worse.

He moves swiftly but unhurried, like he’s done this before. Then, there’s the unsettling sensation of being lifted in the air and thrown over his shoulder. Blake mutters something, but his words are swallowed by the overwhelming dizziness.

The scent of his cologne is overpowering, being this close to him, and it does nothing but make me want to puke. I try to focus on something else—anything else. His clothes rustle softly as he moves, and the faint crunch of grass beneath his feet. Each step feels like it’s pulling me further away from reality.

The air shifts again, and I know we’ve entered some kind of building. The faint breeze vanishes, and then the sound of adoor closing follows us. Every minute feels like an eternity, and it makes my skin crawl. I can’t see—everything is still black, and that makes me feel even more uneasy.

Finally, he stops, and I’m shoved into something solid. A chair, I think. My body hits it hard, and I wince with the pain. I don’t have time to focus on it too long, though, because just as quickly as I’m thrown down, my arms are yanked behind me. Something cool wraps around my wrists and is tightened in place. Now, I can’t even move.

I instinctively jerk against them, but there is no point. Whatever is binding me digs into my skin with every movement.

“Settle down,” Blake mutters under his breath. “You’re not going anywhere, no matter how hard you try.”

I try and steady my breath, but the fear bubbling in my chest makes it hard.

When he speaks again, his voice is much softer, as if he’s explaining something, like he’s trying to make me understand.

“I’ve been watching you for a long time, Blair. Your mom too. I wasn’t going to let her get away with this—get away from me. You see, she doesn’t understand. She never understood me.”

I try and tune him out, but I can’t. His words hang in the air.

Suddenly, the blindfold is ripped from my eyes, and I’m face-to-face with him. He squats down in front of me and continues.

“You don’t know what it’s like to be rejected over and over again.” He shakes his head. “You don’t know the lengths I went for her, and you sure as hell don’t understand what I’ve sacrificed to make her see the truth.”

The way he talks… like his obsession is justified.

“Richard Slane.” He spits the name like it tastes bad. “That’s who I used to be. Your mom tried to get rid of me because she didn’t want me around, but I never gave up on us. Not for a second.”

He stands back to his full height and starts pacing in front of me slowly.

“I wasn’t dead like she thought, though. It’s easier to fake than you would think.” He winks. “I changed my name, my identity. I waited. I watched. And the moment I saw her again, saw how weak she had become to marry a man like Henry, I knew it was time.”

His words don’t make any sense to me, but that doesn’t make them any less terrifying. The room is suffocating. This can’t be happening. I want to scream or fight or move. Do anything to just get away, but I’m stuck.

“Sylvia did a good job hiding you both, but as soon as that paper came out—the one announcing her engagement to Henry—I finally found you both again. But I had to wait for the right moment, fill my time and bide it. For a second, I thought getting close to Shay would help ease her reluctance to see she and I are meant to be, but the wedding… It happened too fast. You, though?” He points at me. “You fell right into my lap. If it wasn’t for Shay being so wrapped up in you, I may not have gotten a chance to get this close.”

He pauses like he’s weighing his thoughts. Then, even more casual than before, he continues.

“Back in school, she always said she never wanted kids. Did you know that? That’s why I figured taking care of your dad for ruining her plans would lead her right back to me. But she ran… Why did she run?”

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