Page 41 of Aftermath
I knew I was attacked, that I’d survived the Coastal Killer. I knew who I was and what I did, but I didn’t have any idea who had done this to me. They’d hit me from behind, it was dark, and I wasn’t feeling well.
What use was I?
Just another drunk woman who didn’t listen to her fiancé. No one knew the truth or what I lost that day.
That’s what Jake had said, that no one would believe me. Until one day, he finally just left. He never came looking for me in the hospital, never told anyone I was missing at all. I wasn’t allowed to have a job, no friends, nothing that would risk ruining the perfect life he built us.
His perfect life.
I’d wanted to go to the police so many times those first few days, but he refused to let me. I was an embarrassment to him. If anyone found out who he was marrying, and the consequences I’d caused, he’d be ruined.
Consequences that devastated me. Loss that was incomprehensible.
He left me because of it.
I’d been helicoptered to a large hospital over half an hour from Briarport. We lived in between the two. The possibility of ever running into one of those nurses again and being recognized was impossible. I kept far from the local sheriffs and kept out of trouble. No one ever had to know.
Except now, Beck knew.
Before I knew it, my knees buckled, and I knelt in the damp sand. The water barely reached me each time it drifted in across the sand.
My head fell into my hands, and I felt hot tears stream down my face. Beck was right, and now I’d run yet again from the past. I couldn’t escape it, yet I kept trying. What did that make me?
I picked my head up, gazing out into the water again through streaky vision. Birds flew close to its surface, and I felt my heart slow the longer I watched.
A seagull landed close by, a few others joining behind it. I could feel its beady black eyes on me.
“I don’t have food,” I muttered and it hopped closer, cocking its head at me.
“I don’t want company,” I grumbled, but it just stared blankly.
“I’m a coward,” I whispered, afraid if I said it too loud, the world would topple around me.
I’d built the perfect life in Briarport, one that kept my past buried.
And now, that was slipping away.
9
LENNY
I walked home as quicklyas I could after sitting on the beach for hours. The memories of walking in the dark still haunted me, and I tried my best to make it back each day before the sun set.
The sky was already turning a shade of orange that let me know my time was up.
I’d wiped my tears and brushed the sand off my knees before beginning the walk home.
It was further than I realized. My blind panic had driven me miles down the beach, and I knew, at this rate, I wouldn’t make it back with the sun still up.
I found one of the outlet paths that led to the main road, running along the beach.My phone only had ten percent of its battery left, and I used it to call a ride. I wasn’t willing to risk the long walk alone. At least I knew my sanity was partially intact.
A red SUV pulled up to where I stood on the sidewalk, and I checked the license plate with what I’d been provided when I called the ride at least five times before I got in. I made sure the driver knew the name of the person they were picking up.
You could never be too careful.
I used to think I was untouchable, that nothing could possibly happen to me.
I was wrong.
