AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Eleven
“My dad didn’t likemy rebellion with Blaine, and Anthony didn’t like anyone toying with something he assumed was his. The plan was to break Blaine and I up, send me away to distant relatives until I ‘got over’ Blaine, and matured a little. Then I could come back to LA and marry Anthony.”
And here Emilia sat, a good decade later, overwrought and dabbing at her tears. Clearly, the whole “getting over Blaine” thing had been a spectacular fail. Her heart still wanted him, even though that was the last thing either of them needed.
“Oh no, you poor dear.” Aggie’s voice lifted in pitch, though it trembled with what sounded like genuine emotion. “Is that why Blaine returned here? You married someone else?”
“No. First, I ran away. The very same night I learned of their plan.”
A chill ran over her body, and she shivered against the discomfort.
She must have run two miles in heavy rain to get to Blaine’s house that night, and when she arrived, he’d tried to talk her out of leaving. He’d mentioned family friends who lived far away, that if she’d just give him time, maybe they could take off together and build a life there.
Oh, the irony. He’d meant for them to be together in Harlow all along.
She flicked her gaze back to Aggie and swallowed hard, the difficulty of relaying her story causing the muscles in her throat to bunch. “The hour was so late, and he wanted a day to say goodbye to his parents and his little sister, while I wanted to leave that very minute. I had no idea when my father would send me away and didn’t want to risk never seeing Blaine again. So, he agreed and bundled me up into his old Jeep.”
She squeezed her eyes shut, the memory overwhelming, her hand beginning to shake beneath Aggie’s. “I thought we were free, that we’d hit the road and spend the rest of our lives together. But Blaine’s car only rolled forward a few yards on the driveway before he was forced to brake. A flashy black sports car blocked our exit at the end of the drive, and Anthony and some gargantuan-sized friend launched out of the car toward us. Blaine got out and tried to reason with the other guy, the guy headed for my door. Only Blaine ended up getting slammed against my window, the glass exploding all over me. I had a second to register that shock before a strong hand yanked me from the Jeep.”
Aggie gasped, her mouth falling open. “But how did Anthony know you’d be there?”
“My father noticed me missing, so he called Anthony, who took it upon himself to find me. It wouldn’t have been hard to guess where I’d go, and he picked up some help on his way to fetch me.”
“Oh no, child. I’m so sorry.” Aggie patted Emilia’s hand again. “You must have felt so alone.”
“Maybe it would have been easier if it had been just me, but it wasn’t.” She took a deep breath, forcing new air into her lungs. Aggie’s flowery perfume at least offered a token of sensory distraction. “I always was a piece of property to Anthony. And my father, in all his grief-addled stubbornness over my mom’s death, confirmed he felt the same. Anthony laughed when his friend threw me into the back of his car. There’d been no love or concern in his tone when he called out, ‘Be careful with her, that’s my future wife.’
“He could’ve driven away there and then, could have been happy to leave with his prize, me. But he wasn’t. He went back to Blaine, already injured and on the ground from the impact with the car window, and laid into him with a series of hard kicks to the stomach. At one point, he pulled a small pocket knife. I started to scream, I guess loud enough to penetrate the car I was in because a light came on inside Blaine’s house. Anthony stopped with the assault then and bolted, but not before burying that knife into the top of Blaine’s shoulder.”
Aggie reeled back and released a loud hiss, as though she’d witnessed the whole bloody event herself.
There’d been Blaine’s gut-wrenching scream as the knife went in, his face contorted, and his bloodied fingers clutched over his shoulder around the knife. His parents rushed out of the front door, but he’d pinned a desperate look her way, just in time for the car to pull away.
And she never saw him again.
Never learned what had happened.
Never even knew the extent of his injuries.
Until today. The scar at the very base of his neck…
Her stomach knotted now while she failed to shut down her drowning sorrow.
“Oh.” Aggie sat silent for a while, her eyes glistening. “And you had to stick it out with Anthony in the end?”
Emilia nodded, remembering how she’d clawed at the car’s tinted glass, her fingers also bloodied from the earlier exploding window. She’d wanted so badly to let Blaine know she saw him, that she didn’t want to leave. “I tried to find out about Blaine, but no one would talk to me, not even his family. And I get it, they were scared. Just like my dad, they’d drawn a line through our relationship. Then I got sent away, and so I gave up. On everything.”
There’d been no proper goodbye. Just violence and tears. Of course, she’d given up. In her mind, if she couldn’t have Blaine, then what difference was Anthony? The misery of an unwanted marriage matched the misery she already felt. But even with that distraught thinking, she’d had no idea just how much bleaker life could get.
“Good grief, so you married that scumbag?” Aggie’s harsh tone mirrored the abrasiveness of Emilia’s thoughts.
The older woman sank back into the swing and blew out a hard breath that denoted disbelief. Emilia eyed the field ahead, too ashamed to face Aggie. “I married Anthony not long after my eighteenth birthday, and I’m still married to him. There isn’t a day I don’t regret it.”
“Oh, honey, dontcha know?” Aggie’s voice cracked. “You were so young and without any experience or help to make it on your own. Those would have been hard years for anyone.”
Emilia shifted toward Aggie, determined to toughen up and meet her gaze. “You have to understand, what you saw of Blaine today. His anger… it’s not his fault.”
One corner of Aggie’s lip quirked. “Let me guess, Blaine came here with plans to revisit the past?”
