“I mean, they have their eyes on you. They try talking to you and you blow them off.”
“I don’t blow them off.”
Marlena leaned back and raised an eyebrow up in challenge to her statement.
She suddenly felt guilty. She didn’t want to come across as some coldhearted stuck-up snob, but she was too scared to even talk to them.
“Are you scared of them because of your past?” Marlena asked her.
“Marlena,” she said and turned away. Her friend knew she didn’t like to talk about it. Plus she only gave Marlena and her friends some information. Well, very little information. Just the basic bad relationship and needing a break for a while. Men are dogs. Men can’t be trusted. The basics to keep them from pushing her to go out on dates. It was way more than that. Plus now she had Caroline to protect, too. It was a lot to digest and handle.
“Hey, they’re good men, and they watch over you whether you like to acknowledge that or not.”
“I don’t need looking after, and especially by any men. I’ve been taking care of myself for quite some time. I’m not interested in anything but working, making money to support me and now Caroline. She’s my top priority. I couldn’t even think of wanting anything for myself, Marlena.”
Marlena smiled.
“Well maybe once Caroline is here and back on her feet again, you can worry about you, and having some of your own happiness.”
“Maybe.”
Shelby Ann looked at her watch. Caroline would be getting here by dinnertime. She should leave work a little earlier. It wasn’t like she could concentrate anyway. She did get a lot of work done already. She felt so sick to her stomach, and as she looked at the turkey sandwich on rye toast, she knew she couldn’t finish.
Get here safely, Caroline. Chance is the best place you could run to and hide.
* * * *
Caroline Cummings was driving down the highway. She was so tired but had a little while longer until she would hit the town of Chance. She loved the name of it. It signified so many things for her in that one word. Chance. She had thought she was all out of chances. Out of time before Cameron hurt her worse. She stretched her fingers best she could with the cast on her arm. Wait until Shelby saw that. She was going to flip.
She sighed as she held the steering wheel and headed toward the last exit before the highway ended and the back roads began. It was so much warmer out here. The sun was beginning to set. Darkness would roll in but hopefully not until she was in Chance and with her sister. She hated the dark. She had never really been intimidated by much because her childhood was rough. It hardened her heart and made her think she was so brave and so strong, but all that hard work, all the determination to not wind up like her mother fell to shit fast. One well-off military soldier who came from a family of law enforcement officers, and she fell for it all. The uniform, the sexy muscles, the military experience, and the well-off family he tried so hard not to associate with. She thought he was like her in so many ways. A child who’d endured verbal abuse, too. He witnessed his father abuse his mother, cheat on her, and then act all high and mighty because of his social class and law enforcement position. It was a small town.
She didn’t think Cameron would ever hurt her. Not by the things he said and the promises he made. She gave him her virginity, her soul, and all. She gave up her job, a potential career in restaurant and hotel management, where she shined and was moving up quickly. All because he was jealous. He didn’t like her working long hours, helping coordinate business events at the hotel where men from around the country came and flirted with her. Perhaps it was partially her fault as she told him everything. Every event, every conversation, and every comment or show of praise from her male bosses or clients. He always twisted those comments around and made her feel guilty, dirty, like she was flirting or leading a man on. Cameron made her pay for all of it. He owned her in every way. In a way that made her feel dirty, corrupted, and damaged. He took her innocence, was lost without him and his control she grew accustomed to. Trust was something earned and to be respected, but with Cameron it was another tool used to control her.
She exhaled and felt the tears fill her eyes. She was always on edge now. Always shaking, looking over her shoulder or feeling vulnerable, like a potential victim no matter what she did.
She thought about what it took to get here. The lies, the selling off her car, closing her bank accounts, ending her lease early, and paying off the rent. All under the radar. Cameron’s radar. She clenched her teeth. God please don’t let him find me. I need to live a normal life. I don’t want to be scared anymore.
She looked at her cast. She had broken things off with him as she went through the process of selling stuff. She didn’t trust that he wouldn’t find out and try to stop her and follow her. He had been suspicious when he heard she went to a car dealership a few towns away from theirs.
Who would have known he had a friend who worked at that dealer? She lied and said the car was acting up too much and she wanted to save for something better and more reliable. He wanted to buy her a car. She refused. That led to an argument about him taking care of her. Really it meant he wanted her to depend on him, even to get to and from work. It gave him an excuse to show up whenever he wanted to and stake his claim that she was his.
That cost her big time. He wouldn’t let up that night. He lost control and made accusations and threats.
Her arm ached just thinking about it. That fight led to him accusing her of cheating on him, which was so insane. He’d done that so often because he wanted her to beg him to believe her. Then he would take from her body. Have his way with her. That night he was even more rough than usual. When he grabbed her arm and pulled it up to restrain her, he broke it. She felt the crack, screamed out, and cried about the pain, but he just continued to do what he wanted.
Tears rolled down her cheeks. She wiped them away and as her vision blurred a moment she saw the tire light come onto the dashboard.
“No. Please let me get to Chance and to Shelby Ann’s house. Please.”
She was shaking as she continued on the highway and knew there was one more exit. Another ten minutes and she would be on the back roads. It would be worse to get a flat tire there. Maybe she should pull over?
Just as she said that, she heard the pop. The steering wheel pulled to the left and she snagged it back to straighten out the wheel as she slowed down and pulled onto the shoulder.
She gripped the wheel after placing the car in park.
“Fudge!” she exclaimed and thought about what she should do. If she called Shelby, she would panic. Caroline came here, left her old life for a new one. Being strong again, accepting life’s challenges, was part of that. She needed to regroup and to reestablish who she was and what she wanted to be. A sniffling, weak damsel in distress she wasn’t going to be. She turned off the engine and hit the button for the trunk to open. As she got out of the car, she saw only a car here and there. She looked at the flat tire and kicked it. “You couldn’t hold out until I was in Chance, could you?”
When she came around the back, she realized that she would have to take out some of her things. She hadn’t taken many personal belongings, which disappointed her. There were antique pieces she loved, and other knickknacks and things, but making a fast exit in the middle of the night was key.