“Good fucking riddance.”
With a grin of delight, I turned my back on the room, grabbed my bag and walked out of the prison that had kept me caged for far too fucking long. I unlocked the door and stepped into the hallway, shutting it behind me as firmly as I could. I hurried towards the stairwell and ran down them as fast as I could without tripping and falling. When I reached the bottom floor, I slowed my movements way down. I opened the door to the entryway slowly. I heard nothing, not a single peep, so I walked briskly out of the building, relief slamming into me as a rush of freezing cold hit me. I carefully descended the steps, wary of the ice.
I looked around, my eyes wild as I tracked any and every bit of movement I could see. My heart jumped when a small car pulled into the car park of the building and came to a stop right in front of me. I gripped the strap of my bag, and I burst into tears when Bailey jumped out of her car and hurried around to me.
“Noah!”
I wrapped my arms around her and cried.
“I love you.” I hugged her tightly. “I love you, I always have.”
“I love ye too, Noah,” Bailey said, her voice cracking. “You’re me sister.”
I whimpered.
“I’m here,” she said, squeezing me. “I’m here, it’s okay.”
“You’re all grown up now.” I pulled back, sniffling, and looked at her. “You’re so beautiful.”
She smiled at me, but that smile faded when she squinted and leaned in to look at my face. I watched as her eyes of ocean blue, ones identical to her brother’s, scanned my face from top to bottom. I saw the worry, and anger, that glowed within them.
“The fuckin’ scumbag,” she hissed as she lifted her fingers and brushed them over my throbbing cheek. “Look what he’s done to your face.”
“This is nothing,” I assured her. “It’s really not, I swear. Let’s just go. I don’t know where he is. He’ll kill me if he finds out I’m leaving him. ”
Bailey dropped her hand and nodded, then she grabbed my bag and put it in the boot of her car.
“Get in,” she said to me. “It’s fuckin’ Baltic out here.”
I hurried towards the passenger-side door.
“Noah!”
I got such a fright that I jumped, and for a moment my feet cleared the ground. With my hand gripping the door handle of Bailey’s car, I looked over my shoulder as Anderson slammed the door of his own car shut. I wasn’t anywhere near him, but I could see the anger burning within his cruel black dahlia eyes. He knew what I was doing. He knew. He had a bouquet of flowers in his hand. With his eyes on me he dropped the flowers to the ground, took a step forward and crushed them under his boot.
“Don’t you dare get in that fucking car, woman.”
I stared at him, and for the first time since I became fearful of him, I held his gaze and met his challenge head-on. I wasn’t going to cower before him any more; I wasn’t going to allow him to break my spirit any longer. He was nothing, and I wanted him to know that.
“I want a divorce, Anderson. I don’t want to be your wife for a second longer.”
“She’s done with you, ye woman-beatin’, no-good stream of piss!”
He didn’t look at Bailey for a second; his focus was entirely on me. When he suddenly lunged and started to cross the car park, Bailey and I screamed as we rushed into the car and locked the doors behind us. I put my hands over my ears and screeched when pounding erupted on the window of my door. Bailey fumbled with her keys for just a moment before she started her car and pulled away.
“Noah!”
I looked over my shoulder, and in the moon’s light I spotted Anderson running back towards his car.
“He’s coming after us!” I gasped in fright. “Oh my God! Oh my God, Bailey!”
“Don’t worry,” she said, her voice determined. “He can’t hurt ye any more. He knows that I know that he’s been abusin’ ye.”
She may have known that he was abusive to me, but she didn’t know Anderson or the lengths he would go to keep me. I did – I had first-hand experience of how dangerous he could be when someone tried to take away something that was his. He viewed me as his property, even though he always tried to spin a story that everything he did was for my benefit.
“What do we do?” I asked, then I looked over my shoulder and screamed when Anderson’s car skidded out of the car park. “He’s coming!”
“Call me brother,” Bailey shouted as I struggled with my seat belt before I heard it click into place. “The dispatch grid might be busy with a lot of callers tonight. Call Elliot directly, his number is the same as it’s always been.”