Awakening (24 page)

They both looked at me with narrowed eyes.

"Caroline, do you love him?" Eva looked at me as if she dared me to lie to her.

I looked down at my lap
thinking about the time we'd spent together recently and how my mind couldn't focus on anything but him most minutes. My eyes welled up with tears and I looked at them with a smile on my face.

"I do...
I definitely do," I told them as they each grabbed one of my hands.

I gave them both a squeeze followed by a brief rundown on my talk with Tessa that morning. They were both relieved to hear that she wasn't a psycho ex-girlfriend like we had originally thought.

"Well, we have some news too," Anne Marie began, looking from me to Eva and back again.

"The other day I went to
Mimi's
again to find a dress to wear for a date with Nick," said Eva. "I saw a few pieces of furniture that had seen better days and asked her if she was interested in having them either restored or repurposed. We got into a big discussion about the business and she wants to help us open a shop here in Bluffton!"

"And," Anne Marie added, "your mother has agreed to give us a bunch of items we found in your grandmother's attic so we pretty much have instant inventory."

"Plus, with Nick's and Ben's business contacts, we're sure to get some decorating gigs in the area," Eva threw in with a smile.

They
talked about moving to Bluffton instead of staying in Savannah. There was still time to get out of the lease at the downtown space, and apparently Mimi owned the entire strip where her boutique was and she was willing to lease some space to them for half the price.

"That is so exciting!" I exclaimed, standing to hug them both before we paid our bills and walked outside.

"Well, well," said a male voice. "If it ain't the Three Musketeers."

We all looked toward a bench outside the restaurant where the creepy guy was sitting.

"Don't even waste your breath, Eva," I said when I saw her narrow her eyes and open her mouth to speak. "Let's just get in the truck and go."

She snapped her mouth closed before climbing into Nick's truck and shutting the door.

"Where to?" Eva said.

"I need to see my dad."

~~~~

Anne Marie followed us to
my grandmother's house and we all headed toward the back door. The front door was still boarded up from the storm damage, but the porch had been rebuilt and it was even better than before.

"Dad!? Dad, where are you?" I called for him through the house.

"Caroline honey, I'm up here," he said, coming into view at the top of the stairs. "Is everything okay?"

I ran up the stairs two at a time. When I got to the top, I paused to catch my breath. "Dad,
do you have some time to talk? I need to ask you something very important."

"Sure baby girl."

I only paused a moment before I blurted out the question I was so eager to know the answer to.

"
How were you able to let go of Jillian so you could love Mom whole heartedly?"

He smiled, comprehension dawning over his face. "Come on, we should sit down."

He put his arms around my shoulders and led me down the stairs to the living room. Once we were settled onto the loveseat he looked at me, smiling again.

"When Jillian died, it almost killed me. I felt like I had loved her even before I met her. She was so full of life and had so much love to give
; I was head over heels. After her death, as you can imagine, I was devastated. It was so sudden, there was hardly any time to say goodbye.

"The morning before her death, she had a rare moment of lucidity. The drugs usually kept her comfortable and made her incredibly sleepy. But, during that small window of time, she took off her locket and gave it to me. She said that she loved me, and she was sorry to have to leave me before our life together had really begun. She told me to hold on to her locket as something to remember her by, but she made me promise that once I was ready to let her go, that I would get rid of the locket and embrace my future with open arms. She made me promise that I would try to fall in love again and be happy. It was her dying wish."

I reached out and grabbed my father's hand, willing him to continue.

"For the first few weeks after her death, I kept the locket with me at all times. I would pull it out whenever I missed her, and run my fingers across the back of it, where I knew it had lain against her skin. I wanted to feel closer to her. In the meantime, your mother was trying to cope as best as she could as well. We were stuck in the apartment together, both of us moping around, crying with each other, sharing hugs, and eventually sharing a bed. Both of us were trying to mend our broken hearts.

"One night, as your mother was sleeping peacefully in my bed, I took the locket out, opening it up. I looked at the pictures of her and me, side by side, and it dawned on me that if Jillian had to hand pick someone for me to be with after her death, that she would have chosen the person most like her, someone she loved more than anything else in the whole world. Her sister. I cried for hours that night, holding her locket close, and thanking her for bringing your mother and I together. The next morning, I packed her locket up, and mailed it to your grandmother for safe keeping. When I got home from the post office, I told your mother that I loved her for the first time. The rest is history."

"That's why you were so emotional about seeing the locket again the other day. You still miss her."

"Caroline, I was emotional at seeing the locket, but not because it was a reminder of what I had lost, it was a symbol of what I had gained. You, Carson, and your mother are the most precious gifts I could have ever asked for. As much as I loved Jillian at the time, I know now that losing her was a stepping stone to my future. If it weren't for her I never would have met your mother and learned what true love really is."

I sat there for a moment, letting his words sink in. He believed that Jillian was the link that brought him to my mother. What if Mark had brought me
back to Luke? If Mark had known he was going to die would he have wanted me to find happiness? I thought of his smile and his laughter, his optimistic view of the world and his zest for life, and I had my answer. Mark would have wanted me to live. He would have wanted me to find happiness, even if it was with Luke.

I looked at my dad with tears in my eyes. "Thank you Daddy, for opening my eyes." I kissed him on the cheek and stood
, knowing what I needed to do.

I went upstairs to the room I had been sleeping in and picked up the few items I'd left behind last weekend, shoving them in a plastic grocery bag.

Mark's ring sat there in its box on the bedside table. I picked it up, sliding it onto my finger. I silently prayed that wherever Mark was, he knew how much I had loved him. Then I slipped the ring off my finger for the last time, and placed it back in its box, closing the lid and putting it in the bag with the rest of my belongings.

After telling Anne Marie and Eva that I was going to walk back to Luke's to give myself time to think about what I was going to say, I started down the long drive way. I decided to cut through the woods near Luke's fort to save some time.

As I crossed onto Luke's property I heard some noise. I turned to see what it was, and a searing pain in my head caused me to fall to the ground. I tried to stand, but I couldn't get my feet underneath me. Then, I felt another blow to my head. Luke's face, and the thought of never getting to see him again or tell him that I love him were the last things that went through my mind before I blacked out.

~~~~

When I woke, my head was throbbing. I was laying on some sort of hard metal surface. When I peeked open one eye it became obvious that I was in the back of some sort of van. I saw the grocery bag I had been carrying nearby, but my hands were bound and my mouth was full of cloth and appeared to be taped shut. I sat up quickly, making myself nauseous, as I looked around. Part of the van was sectioned off by a metal cage of sorts, and it seemed I was locked inside it.

I leaned my head back against the side of the van, trying to contain my tears as I thought about what to do. Just then I heard movement outside the van, and the back door was opening.

"Well, looky who we have here."

It was the creepy guy who harassed me at the gas station Monday. The same one we'd seen outside of the restaurant this morning.

"My name's Earl, and you 'n me's gonna be real good friends, now ain't we?" He gave me a nasty grin and I felt my stomach turn.

I pushed further into the corner as he climbed into the van and began unlocking the cage.

"Shhh, I ain't gonna hurt ya. I'm just gonna untie yer arms, and take the gag outta yer mouth so you can talk. But, if ya scream, I'm gonna have to gag you again, ya hear?"

I nodded with wide eyes as he moved into the cage and reached to untie me. Once my hands were free, I pulled the tape off my mouth and spit out the cloth, coughing.

"Why are you doing this?" I asked him.

"I been around a long time. Ain't
never seen any girl as purty as you. Can't say I got a real reason for keeping ya here, other 'n I didn't want nobody else to have ya. Been trying to catch me a beauty like you for a while now."

"You're the one the police are looking for."

"You betcha, but they ain't found me yet and ain't gonna find me this time neither."

Earl inched closer to me, smiling a toothless grin, and I could smell the decay in his mouth. I gagged, and before I could stop myself, I puked.

"Stupid bitch!" He slapped me across the face. "Do I make you sick? All you hoity toity girls are the same. Won't give a man the time of day if he ain't got a nice face or a nice car. I seen the looks you n' yer whore friends give me."

I closed my eyes as the tears threatened to come, and then I heard some rustling outside the van.

"What the fuck!?" He shouted, and I opened my eyes just in time to see Tomcat jumping up into the van, meowing. When Earl saw him, he swatted at him. "Git!"

Tomcat hissed at Earl, and swatted with one of his paws, claws out, catching Earl under the eye

"Damn cat!" Earl growled, wiping blood away from his eye.

Tomcat raced over to me and climbed into my lap, ears back, still hissing at Earl. I knew we must be close to the house if Tomcat was here, and I snuggled him close thinking how amazing it was that this cat could find me anywhere.

"As soon as I clean up this wound, I'll be back to deal with both of you," Earl said, locking the cage, and climbing out of the van.

I grabbed the grocery bag, digging inside for my cell phone but it wasn't there. I must have dropped it when I was attacked. As I dug through my things to see if there was anything I could use as a weapon, I saw the ring box. I snatched it up, pulling the ring out. Tomcat was nuzzling my arm as I quickly felt for his collar.

I unfastened it, slid the ring on, and then refastened it. I hoped Tomcat could escape and would keep the ring safe. I knew if Earl got a hold of it I'd never see it again.

I hugged him tight, praying that somehow, some way, I would be found.

A moment later I heard Earl coming back to the van. As soon as he had the cage opened I grabbed him by his shirt, yanking him into the cage, and bringing my knee up between his legs. Tomcat took off running and I scrambled out of the van. My head was still throbbing, and now that I was standing I felt dizzy. I tried to orient myself, and stumbled in the direction I had seen Tomcat go when I was yanked back by my hair.

"You fucking bitch! Where do ya
think yer going? Running back to yer stupid boyfriend? I seen ya the other day at yer granny's house, letting him love all over ya. Lickin' between them sweet thighs."

My eyes widened at his words, all those feelings of being watched, the noises in the woods, the footsteps in the hallway at night. My mother had mentioned someone living in the attic. It had to have been Earl. I was sickened by the thought of him watching me with Luke, of looking over me when I was sleeping. Obviously there was something really wrong with him.

He dragged me back into the van, tying a rope around my wrists, and then stretching my arms above my head, and threading the ends of the rope through the cage before tying them off, essentially rendering my upper body immobile.

He grabbed for the gag again, stuffing it in my mouth and covering it with a new piece of duct tape.

"I tried to be good to ya, but ya just won't play nice, so I guess yer gonna be tied up for the rest of the time yer here."

He dragged one of his dirty fingers from my cheek
, down my neck to my collarbone, and then to the valley between my breasts. I cringed and gagged. Tears threatened I moved my face away from his.

"Now it's my turn to see how ya taste." His nasty tongue came out of his mouth to lick the same path his finger had just taken. I had to hold back the bile that was threatening to rise. With the gag in my mouth I would likely die if I threw up now.

He grabbed my shorts and started pulling them down my body. As soon as my legs were free, he slid his hand up the outside of my thigh gripping my panties and I snapped.