Page 26 of The Firefighter's Angel
“I trusted you,” I whisper to her. “I came back because you said he wasn’t here. Because you said I’d be safe.”
Her mouth opens and closes. “We thought…if you just heard him out—”
“You thought you could gaslight me into pretending it didn’t happen.”
“Sweetheart—”
“Don’t call me that.” My voice is sharper now, brittle like glass on the edge of shattering. “You don’t get to call me that after choosing to believe a stranger over your own daughter.”
“I never touched her,” Lyle says flatly. “Not like that. She’s confused. It was a weird moment, sure, but she’s blowing it way out of proportion.”
“Look, Cindy,” Mom says, taking a cautious step toward me. “Lyle is your brother. He would never hurt you intentionally.”
“We’re your family, Cin,” Lenny adds just as I catch Lyle’s subtle smirk.
I stare at him. At all of them.
And something inside me snaps.
“No,” I breathe, my voice shaking, tears blurring my vision. “No. I’m done.”
I turn on my heel and storm toward the front door. My mother calls my name behind me, but I don’t stop. I shove the door open, and it slams shut behind me with a bang that echoes through the quiet trees.
I don’t wait.
I run.
I don’t know where I’m going. I don’t care. My feet hit the gravel drive hard, then grass, then soft earth as I veer into the woods behind the Airbnb. I hear Lenny shouting for me, the rumble of an engine, my mother’s frantic voice calling my name, but they all fade into the distance.
I run faster. Tears sting my eyes, making it hard to see, but I don’t stop.
I can’t stop.
I just need to get away.
My chest is heaving, my legs aching, my breath catching in sobs I can’t swallow down. The woods close in around me, shadows thickening under the trees as clouds roll in overhead. Wind gusts through the branches above, stirring the leaves and sending a chill down my spine.
It’s going to rain. I know it in my bones. I should go back, but I can’t bring myself to.
My foot catches on something and I gasp, thrown forward, the ground dropping out from beneath me. I tumble down a steep embankment, my arms flailing, branches scratching at my skin as I slide through the wet leaves. My scream gets caught in my throat as I land hard at the bottom, my body twisting awkwardly.
Pain explodes through my ankle. Sharp and immediate and blinding.
“Ahh!” I cry out, clutching at my foot. I immediately realize that my previous injury was nothing but a scratch. This is different. My ankle’s already swelling beneath my fingers, the pain so intense it makes my vision blur.
I try to stand, but the moment I put weight on it, a blinding pain shoots through my leg and I collapse again with a sob.
I’m stuck.
Oh God, I’m stuck.
The sky grumbles overhead, and the wind whips harder, cold now cutting through my thin shirt like a knife. I huddle against a large rock, shivering as I pull my knees to my chest, but the pain is too much to stay still.
I pull my phone out of my pocket and groan when I see that it’s completely dead after not charging it overnight. I can’t even call for help. I’m really all alone.
And no one knows where I am.
Tears streak down my face, hot in the icy wind, and I curl tighter around myself, trying to breathe through the pain and the panic and the echo of Lyle’s voice still bouncing around my skull.
