Page 88 of Storm Bound
“Which is why I’m going to the grocery store,” I said and turned my back to him.
I expected the fresh air to rejuvenate me as soon as I stepped outside, but all it did was choke me even more than being in the same room with him.
Walking to my car was like walking on needles. But the closer to it I got, the closer to freedom.
I didn’t really trust myself behind the wheel with so little sleep, but I had to do it. I had to go. I had to try.
When I finally got inside, I started feeling like myself again. And when I drove away, that feeling only intensified. Why was that? Why did distance make me find myself? It had happened when I packed and left Chicago and the apartment I shared with Justin, and it was happening again now.
It was like my body and mind refused to co-operate in his proximity. I knew for a while it had been because I had been in love with him. But since he moved into my house, that love seeped away and was replaced with something else. Something I didn’t quite know or could figure out.
It wasn’t fear. For all his threats, Justin had never been physically abusive. It was something I couldn’t quantify. Like the shame of spending so much time with him and my fear of not wanting to be alone was stopping me from moving on with my life. And it didn’t help that Justin was impossible to get rid of.
I mean, he’d followed me all the way here. Howeverthathad happened.
I navigated the streets with surprising ease considering I hadn’t been here for all that long. If anyone had asked me to drive around Chicago without a GPS, I’d have gotten lost for sure even if the city was gridded. And yet, here I was, in Cedarwood Beach, navigating country roads like a pro.
This was my home. I knew it was. But the longer Justin stayed in my life, the harder it would be to get rid of him, and the more this place would start to feel like a prison.
I rolled down the window and took a deep breath. It came so easy now that Justin wasn’t here. Like I was truly free. But I wouldn’t be free until he was no longer in my life.
The Karagiannis family home loomed in the distance.
I had to explain everything to him. I had to do that without Justin there to poison my words and my actions. And hopefully he’d believe me. He’d believe that I was in love with him and that I’d never meant to hurt him.
If he knew those things, maybe he’d help me get rid of Justin. Show him that I wasn’t his anymore. I hadn’t been his for a very,verylong time.
I was only feet away from their driveway when I stopped the car.
Charlie was there. He was leaning against a car with a young man pinned on him, smiling like they couldn’t wait to get up to good times together. And Luke was there, holding the door for them, completely endorsing his brother moving on with a new man barely a day after what had happened.
I was already too late. How could he move on so quickly? Didn’t he love me? Had it all been lies on his part?
I just drove away and kept driving until I did actually get lost but... I kept going. I didn’t know where. Was I willing to leave now and abandon everything I had just so I could get away from Justin? And Charlie? And how fucked up my life was?
The car blasted with a sound that made me jolt. Then I realized it was my phone ringing via the Bluetooth speakers.
Fuck!
It was Justin, wasn’t it? Checking up on me. Making sure I was coming back.
I still had the power to decline his call, though.
I reached for my phone on the console and turned it, but it wasn’t Justin’s name written across the screen. It was Mom’s.
“Honey, are you okay?” her voice echoed inside the car, encompassing me with her maternal love.
At least there was one person who’d always love me no matter what.
“I’m not, no,” I admitted.
“What? No. What happened? Is it Charlie?”
“No, it isn’t Charlie. It’s just... Justin,” I said.
“Justin? What did he do now?” she sighed.
“He found me,” I said with a deep breath.
