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“327 Fairview Drive?” He points at the numbers to the side of the big stained-glass door. Before I can argue, he gets in the driver’s seat and peels away, leaving me standing there hugging my coat around me in the chill, late October afternoon.
This can’t possibly be where Sarah lives.
My high school counselor had a little one-bedroom apartment in downtown Flat Plains, Nebraska, back when I went to school here. This house has got to be one of the largest houses, not just in the gated subdivision, but in the entire town. Flat Plains has one nice neighborhood, and this is it. And this house is easily several thousand square feet.
But when the door opens, it’s Sarah standing there between the two-story high fluted white columns, waving wildly, with a huge smile on her face.
I grab my suitcases and hurry toward her, wincing only a little. The bruises are fading, and the cuts and burns are healing. Inside, I’m shaky and frightened and lonely. I miss Joshua fiercely, and I hate myself for it.
“Tamara!” Sarah hurries toward me and grabs the suitcases from me. They’re stuffed with all the clothing I had in my apartment before Joshua kidnapped me. I woke up in my hospital room a few days ago and they were just sitting there. The nurse had no idea how someone had snuck them in my room.
“Let’s get inside before we freeze into corpsicles.” She grins as she says it. Our breaths make puffs of white vapor as I follow her up the steps.
“This house is amazing,” I tell her. “Gorgeous. Did you win the lottery or something?” I pause in the foyer, closing the door behind me. She throws back her head and laughs. “Almost! You’ll never believe what happened.” She’s walking ahead of me, leading me through the big octagonal foyer and into a lovely living room with views onto a snow-capped mountain.
“I’m dying of suspense.”
She shakes her head, a smile beaming from her round, freckled face. “Two months ago, I got an anonymous gift offive million dollars, from someone who said they were a former student of mine. They said that I saved their life.”
Shock ripples through me.
Joshua.
It could only be him.
He did that while he was holding me prisoner, and he never even told me. I told him about Sarah, about what she did for me, about how I was sinking into depression and my grades were slipping until she made me believe in myself. Did he send her the money as a thank you?
If so, I don’t know Joshua as well as I thought I did. Then again, I don’t think he knows himself as well as he thinks he does.
“What?” She laughs at my expression of shock. “What’s that look? It’s a good thing.”
I force a smile. “I’m just surprised. And tired, so please forgive my resting bitch face. That’s great! I’m really happy for you!” And I am. Nobody deserves it more.
She beams with happiness, her hazel eyes alight. “I’m doing some amazing things with it. I’ve created a charitable foundation. We have a daycare program for teenage mothers so they can stay in school, and scholarships for college or tech school for low-income students.”
I smile at her, blinking my watering eyes. After being force-fed various flavors of evil for half a year now, seeing there’s still good in the world makes me want to cry. “Of course you did,” I say.
“Enough about me. Come on, come on, let’s get you settled in.” She leads me to a huge bedroom, with a cherrywood sleigh bed topped with a white comforter. There’s a matching cherrywood desk, and a bookshelf filled with paperbacks. Colorful abstract paintings adorn the walls. “You can stay here as long as you want to. Months. Years. Until you get sick of me.” She winks at me as she sets down the suitcases.
Then she puts her hands on my shoulders. “How are you holding up?”
I meet her gaze and manage a rueful smile. “Surprisingly well. I mean, I can even pass for sane most of the time.”
She knows what was reported on TV, and what little I’ve told her. I was one of the victims of the mysterious twin brother of the equally mysterious billionaire Joshua Smith. I was kidnapped and tortured for a week, and spent ten days in the hospital recuperating.
I’ve refused to talk to the press and I didn’t tell the police much. When they asked me why I disappeared for six months and where I was staying, all I would say is that I had a breakdown and realized that I couldn’t handle college. When the police asked me, again and again, where I’d been staying, who I’d been staying with…I refused to tell them.
The truth sounded absolutely mad.
I was the prisoner of an incredibly sexy serial killer who broke my mind to the point where I don’t know who I am or what I want any more.
And more than that…it would have sent Joshua to prison, and I couldn’t bear to do that.
“You know you can talk to me any time.” There’s worry in her kind eyes as she drops her hands and shoves them in her pockets.
“I know. Right now, I’d just love to eat dinner and pretend everything’s normal.”
“Fake normal! I can do that,” she says cheerfully. “And I’ll have dinner ready in an hour. You settle in and get comfortable.”
