Page 63 of Tempest at Annabel's Lighthouse
Faint memories were returning even in the last hour as Niina danced around Rebecca, urging her to wait for Abel, threateningto retrieve Edgar to have him lock Rebecca away for her own safety.
Rebecca recalled the faint image of herself as a child, a man glowering at her, the back of his hand connecting with her cheek. She couldn’t recall what she was guilty of, just that she was guilty. If this were the case, if she bore the weight of transgressions, if she carried the rancor of the man who was her own father—her own flesh and blood—then she herself brought only trial on others.
Rebecca’s feet sank into the grass. Niina had stopped following, but called to her from the lighthouse, “Rebecca,please!”
Her breath hitched as Rebecca fought back a sob. She cared enough about these three who had fed her, bathed her, shown kindness to her not to put them in further danger for her sake. She had to return—for Aaron. She could see his face more clearly now. He was fifteen, she thought. He was hardly a man and yet no longer a boy. She needed to be there for him. This was all her fault...
“Rebecca!”
This time it was a male voice, and it was sharp.
She stopped in her tracks, teetering on the edge of the embankment that led to the shoreline. Spinning, she saw Abel approaching, his long strides determined. Niina’s voice carried over the wind and the sound of the waves. “Bring her back to us, Abel!”
Even as the sun broke through the clouds and warmed Rebecca’s skin, she shivered at the determination she saw on Abel’s face as he drew nearer.
“Have you lost your senses?” Abel asked.
Rebecca bit the inside of her lip to keep it from quivering. Yes, she was certain shehadlost her senses. She had lost them the moment Edgar found her at Annabel’s grave. She had further lost her way when she couldn’t recollect the past. She had lost her way when Annabel visited her, when she brushed Rebecca’shair from her face and cooled her skin with her fingers. She had taken comfort from ghosts: Annabel, Kjersti. Worse, she had lost her way when she became controlled by men who abused her for reasons she didn’t understand. Why then would she bring anyone with her if she were so lost? To have them join her in the darkness of the world she lived in. The questions, the lack of answers, the fear, the need to flee?
Abel stepped closer to her, caution tensing his body, as if he half expected her to throw herself over the embankment. “Don’t do this. Don’t leave,” he pleaded.
“I have to,” Rebecca said with a raised voice, so he could hear her above the waves. The rolling waters that hypnotized with their glistening color and lulling pattern. They were gentle today—unlike the rising tide in Rebecca’s heart.
“You don’t.” Abel reached for her, but Rebecca moved back, maintaining some distance between them.
Abel’s bottom lip was split and puffy. Dried blood had coagulated on a cut in his cheek, and his left eye was swollen, bruised with the evidence of a battle.
“This!” Rebecca gestured to his injuries. “This is why I must go. I’m only hurting you all by staying. I’m putting you in danger, and I don’t even understand why. How can I fix what I don’t understand?”
Abel shrugged off her concern. “It is nothing. It will heal.”
“Mercer did that to you?” Rebecca demanded to know.
Abel winced, obviously not wanting to tell her the truth.
“He did,” Rebecca stated.
Abel shouted over the ruckus of the waves. “He deserved it, and he fared worse!”
“You’ll onlymakethings worse, Abel!” Rebecca felt a pull toward him that she didn’t understand. “For me and for Aaron! For my baby!” She could drown in his eyes, as much as she almost had in the lake. Yet she knew in that drowning it would end up killing him. She justknewthat the man Niina said was herfather—Hilliard—would see Abel as an inconvenient obstacle, one that should be disposed of.
Abel took the final few steps toward her, grabbing hold of her shoulders with the desperation of someone who knew he was losing a battle he could not win. “Rebecca—”
She pulled away from him instantly. “I can’t stay. I know you have only tried to protect me, but I will not—”
“Don’t be foolish.” His words were insistent but not critical. They held an element of begging that made tears spring to Rebecca’s eyes. “Please, Rebecca. Let me take care of you.”
“I don’t need to be taken care of.” And she meant it, though she knew it was a ridiculous thing to say considering how she had relied on him. “Let me go. I’m not your responsibility. I-I am apparentlyhis. My father’s.”
Abel’s face darkened. “Your father doesn’t claim you! Hilliard cares only for himself and his financial legacy.”
“But he’s myfather!” Rebecca shouted back.
“You don’t understand!” Abel’s jaw was set in a stubborn line, icy fire spitting from his eyes.
Rebecca spun to leave, to flee from Abel, from the lighthouse, from the inevitable draw that would be her undoing. It was the open wound of need that made her ache to find refuge here in Annabel’s lighthouse, regardless of its ghost, of its curses. If evil could be traded for evil, Rebecca would bear the haunting of Annabel for eternity if she could only return to what moments before had felt like a prison.
No.
