Page 79 of An Unexpected Everything
ISABELLA
Blood filledmy mouth as I slowly opened my eyes and tried to move. I spit out the copper taste, grateful I didn’t appear to be bleeding more. At least from that wound. Everything ached. The last thing I remembered was a car coming at us, headlights nearly blinding me, and Weston pushing me to the ground. I had screamed for him, trying to get up from the now muddy side of the road, but then somebody had been standing over me. It wasn’t Weston. It couldn’t be. Because whoever it was had moved their arm quickly, something slamming into the side of my head.
And now here I was, shaking, trying to figure out what just happened.
“I told you I would find you.”
That voice. I knew that voice.
“William,” I said through chattering teeth. I blinked, trying to realize where I was, and a sick icy chill slid through me.
When William had knocked me out, he had dragged me deeper into the forest surrounding Cage Lake away from the Cage homes. And now I was tied to a thick tree, rain still sliding down through the canopy, and I couldn’t break free. My wetclothes stuck to my body, and I was shaking even though I didn’t know if it was from fear, adrenaline, or being so cold.
But I had to get out of this. I needed to get to make sure Weston was okay. Was he alive?
Oh God. Had William killed him?
Everything came into my brain in a split second, one thought after another, as the man in front of me moved from the shadows and smiled.
It was still daylight, the slight light shifting through the leaves, but the cloud cover was enough that it felt like midnight. Or maybe that was just my mind playing tricks on me. I wasn’t seeing double, but I had been knocked out. Meaning I probably had a concussion.
I didn’t think anything else was broken, but my hands were bound in front of me, the rest of me tied to a damn tree.
And I didn’t know how I was going to get out of this. Nobody knew where we were. It wasn’t as if they could hear us.
And I didn’t know what I was going to do.
“I’m so glad that you remember me.” William smiled at me then, and I tried to figure out who this man was in truth.
I hadn’t wanted to date him. I had been polite in rejecting him. But he hadn’t agreed with that. Instead, he ignored my pulling away and decided I was for him.
He had slammed my head into a wall, threw me down to the ground, kicked at my side, and nearly broke my jaw. I ended up bruised, cut, and had almost lost my spleen.
Kyler and my sisters had been so worried about me, that they had stayed overnight in the hospital despite being told that they weren’t all allowed to stay there. My mother had cried at my bedside, and I had pulled away from all of them, telling them that I was fine. That it was only a few cuts and scrapes and I would be okay.
But I hadn’t been.
Nor had the woman that William attacked later before he had been finally caught.
He had done so much worse to that woman. So much worse.
And now he was out of jail. Far away from his parole officer.
And he wasn’t going to get out of this. Not this time.
William then stood in front of me and tilted his head. His blond hair was slicked back, wet from the rain. He had on a gray button-down tucked into dark pants. He looked like any parent going to graduation. But he wasn’t. He was a monster.
“I’ll forgive you for running from me that one time. I know I scared you.” He bent down in front of me, and my pulse raced. When he reached out and slid his finger along my jaw I shied away, cringing.
“Don’t. Don’t look away from me.” He gripped my jaw in a fierce hold and forced my gaze to him.
“Don’t do this William. Please.”
“Oh. You’ll beg. But later. For now I just want to know if you read all my letters? Or just the ones that your family let you see?”
“Please. You don’t have to do this.” The rain finally began to subside, but I couldn’t hear anything other than the droplets falling from the tall trees hitting leaf by leaf before they hit the ground beside us.
I wanted to scream, to ask for help, but I had no idea what William would do.
