Page 2 of Highlander Unraveled
“Did you know I was arrested? Do you even care?” he droned.
No. And No.
He let out a frustrated, animal-like growl. “I’ve been searching this godforsaken countryside for weeks. Trying to clear my name. They thought I murdered you. Half my business partners have dropped their contracts.” He gave me such a hard stare, I was certain, now that he’d found me, he was considering murder.
“How… How long have I been gone?” I managed to ask, working to sit up.
“Three months.” He shoved me back down.
Three months. That wasallI was gone? And yet, years had passed with Logan. Years of love, of adventure, of hardship. I was a changed woman. In 1544, which was what it was when I left, I was strong, confident, happy. I was a mother.
Oh, dear God…
I pressed my hand to my middle, feeling the new squishiness of my belly, the place where my son had occupied just six weeks before. I swallowed hard. Trying hard not to cry. Praying Steven hadn’t seen the way I touched my abdomen.
My baby…
An ache, deep and profound, filled my chest, suffused my bones.
How could this be happening?
Steven narrowed his eyes at me, scanning me from head to toe. “You look different. Fatter.”
He sounded disgusted. But I knew it didn’t matter how I looked, bone-thin or thick as a whale, he’d never be satisfied.
And, Iwasdifferent. I had been proud of myself. Logan had loved me and called me beautiful every day. Yet, Steven had the power to strip away all the ways in which I’d changed, blossomed under Logan’s love. I felt small, insignificant.
I curled up in a ball and rolled away from him, unable to look at his hateful face. Tears rolled from my eyes. I was powerless to stop them. I bit my knuckles to keep mournful sobs from leaping out of my mouth.
My true husband, my love, my child, my friends. My life.
All of it was stripped away from me.
In the blink of an eye.
Happiness, that had been mine, was gone.
Steven made a disgusted sound and headed for the door.
“We’re going home, Emma. You’re going to tell the authorities you ran off, but now you’re back. You’re going to pay for what you’ve done to me. I don’t know how, but you will.”
I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t even if I tried. No words would come except for Logan’s name, and Saor, the name of our baby son—meaning free.
The door slammed closed and I jumped.
You’re going to pay…
Steven’s footsteps pounded down the stairs. I could hear him shouting at someone. Maybe his mother. But I didn’t care. I wasn’t going to stay here, and I wasn’t going back to the U.S. with him either.
I wasn’t going topay.
Gathering a strength, which I didn’t quite possess, I sat up on the springy bed and swiped at my tearful eyes.
I had to figure out a way to get home—to 1544.
Again.
Leaning on sheer will like a crutch, I shuffled toward the window, peering out at the graying, cloud-filled sky. Rain wetted the street, making the asphalt look shiny black. Two elderly women walked arm and arm down the street; their heads bowed low, beige raincoats splattered with raindrops, a single black umbrella over their heads.
