When We Collide (24 page)

And how short those weeks had been.

I smiled to myself as I hugged my arms across my
chest, this time, not as a way to hold myself together, but in
memory of the way I felt in William’s arms and in excitement for
what was to come.

I was going to marry William.

I’d just been to the ATM on Main Street and emptied
my bank account of all the money I saved over the summer while
working for the Marsches. I stuffed the small wad of cash in my
back pocket. It wasn’t a whole lot, but it was every penny I had to
my name.

I crossed the street and headed toward home.

It was time to tell my sister goodbye. I
contemplated what I would say as I walked with my head hung low. I
was going to miss her so much, and I prayed she’d be safe.

Turning right, I cut across the far end of town,
taking the long road that wound around before it crossed with my
street. My footsteps echoed in my ears as I counted them, my nerves
increasing as I imagined leaving my house for the last time
tonight. I still couldn’t believe I was actually leaving. I lifted
my face to the cooling air. Night crawled its way westward and a
lone star dotted the sky.

Dread twisted a knot in my stomach when I heard the
sound of the engine behind me. I hadn’t seen him since that night.
I dropped my head further and increased my speed. Troy was the last
person I wanted to deal with right now.

The truck slowed as it came up behind me. He cut
over into the wrong lane and came right up beside me. I didn’t look
up.

“I wanna talk to you, Maggie,” Troy said, his voice
low and simmering with hatred.

That hatred rushed over me as chills, an internal
warning flare. I squeezed myself closer, as if somehow I could
twine myself so tight I would disappear.

“I said I want to talk to you.”

I began to walk so quickly I may well have been
running. I guessed Troy knew that was exactly what I was doing.

The truck inched forward alongside me.

“Maggie…I’m not fucking around with you. Get your
ass in the truck.”

As hard as I fought it, my eyes darted over my
shoulder. They went wide when they met with Troy’s face. I was
completely unprepared for the destruction evidenced there. Bruises
still marked him beneath both eyes and ran across his nose. Rows of
stitches had been removed from above one eye and at his jaw. In
their place were angry, puckered scars.

Troy noticed my reaction. His nostrils flared. “I’m
warning you, Maggie...
get in the truck
.”

I couldn’t...wouldn’t give in. I pinched my eyes
shut once more, sucking in a deep breath as something inside of me
snapped.

I ran.

The rubber soles of my tennis shoes slapped against
the concrete as humid air slapped across my face. I just had to
make it to the end of the street.

The truck lurched forward before it jerked to a stop
beside me. The door was thrown open, and Troy was right behind
me.

My heart pounded in the worst way. A flood of
terrified adrenaline thundered through my veins and roared in my
ears. A slew of curses were unleashed from his mouth, hatred and
corrupt thoughts.

He yanked me back by a handful of hair. My knee
twisted and buckled beneath me. The joint felt as if it burst as it
erupted with a red-hot, lancinating pain.

A scream tore from my throat.

Troy clamped a hand over my mouth and jerked my back
against his chest. “Shut the fuck up, you stupid bitch.”

I tasted the vile skin of his hand as he held his
palm harder against my mouth, dirt and oil and sweat. I gagged and
bile rushed up to take the place of the scream still rattling in my
throat.

I struggled against the arms caging me. My deepest
fear gripped me when he began to drag me back between two houses,
where we blended into the dusky shadows.

Grass and dirt slicked beneath the rubber soles of
my shoes as I fought to dig my heels in, fighting to break his
hold. I clawed at his hands and bit at his palm.

“I will kill you, Maggie,” he threatened in a low
growl at my ear.

I flailed more.

“Help me...please...help!” My pleas were lost in the
palm of his hand.

We broke from the secluded walls of the houses and
to the wide, unfenced backyards. A dog barked, viciously straining
against the chain that held it back by its neck. A solitary light
gleamed from the back porch, although the movement from inside that
I begged for never came.

I knew where he was taking me. As a child, I’d
played in these woods a thousand times.

Tears broke free and streamed from my eyes. My
vision blurred in both fury and dread as the glimmer of light faded
in the distance. Trees rose up like walls on every side, darkness
swallowing us whole.

I cried out when Troy threw me to the ground. My
back slammed against the forest floor with a painful thud, followed
by my head. I dug my elbows and heels into the slippery soil as I
fumbled my way backward, desperate to get away from the man who
stared down at me with a twisted revulsion, like he hated me and
had to have me at the same time.

I couldn’t allow this to happen. Not after William
had fought for me. Not after he’d
loved
me.

Flipping myself over, I crawled along the ground.
Twigs snapped beneath the weight of my knees and pierced my skin.
In the humid late-summer night, the dirt and leaves somehow felt
cold where they burned and scraped along the abrasions. The acrid
air filled up my nose with the smell of rot and decay.

Gathering all my strength, I labored to my feet. A
hand descended on my shoulder, pitching me to the side. I landed on
my right thigh and skidded across the ground.

Troy laughed. “Where do you think you’re going,
Maggie?”

He lunged at me, forcing his knee between my thighs.
A heavy arm pinned me down across the chest.

No
. I spit in his face. “You asshole.”

Troy roared. He swiped the wad from the edge of his
mouth and looked at his fingertips. “You little bitch.” The blow
came to the side of my face. “Did you really think I’d just let you
talk to me that way…make a fool of me?”

He fumbled at the buckle of his pants. Metal clanked
as he tore it free.

“No,” I whimpered, turning my face to the side and
squeezing my eyes.
No
.

I thrashed.

No.

“Please.”
Oh my God. Please don’t let him do this
to me.

He tore at my shorts, shoved them down to my ankles
and off one leg, and ripped my panties from my body.

I tried to press my knees together. They only
pressed into Troy’s bare thighs.

I fought him until the moment he took me, until the
moment he stole the beginning of life that had been planted in me,
the small flicker of light that had begun to glow, the spark that
had told me I just might be worth it.

The tears of dread gave way to a flood of
submission.

Still, I whimpered
no
as I pinched my eyes
shut in a bid to remove myself from the torture Troy inflicted.

“Look at me.”

I squeezed my eyes closed tighter.

His hand went to my chin where he dug his fingers
deep into the skin. “I told you to look at me.”

In the faint light, my eyes opened and met with the
same sickness I’d witnessed my entire life.

“I want you to remember this, Maggie…the next time
you try to run from me…you…remember…this.”

He clenched my jaw harder as his face twisted, his
body hurried in anticipation.

I fought him one last time, and a wrenching cry came
from deep within my shattered soul.

Troy’s body jerked. A vengeful grin spread across
his face and malignant satisfaction flashed in his eyes. He
collapsed on me, cupping my cheek while he whispered in the
opposite ear. “Don’t forget it.”

When he pulled away to stand, I curled in on myself
and wept as grief took over. It coiled as misery and loss in the
pit of my stomach and erupted as anguish from my mouth.

Troy glanced over his shoulder into the still night,
before he turned and kicked me in the stomach. It wasn’t hard
enough to hurt, just hard enough to remind me of the trash I
was.

“Get up.” He leaned down and tossed my shorts toward
me. They landed in a tattered, stained wad in front of my face.
“Get dressed.”

I looked up at him as he buckled his belt and
smoothed his hair back with both hands.

I hated him…
hated
him. But not as much as I
hated myself.

Wincing, I sat up and pulled the torn shorts up my
legs.

Oh God,
I hurt when I climbed to my feet, an
excruciating numbness that seared through my flesh and spirit.

Troy held out his hand and I took it. I had no
reason left to fight him.

He wound us back through the quickly darkening
night, through the short distance of forest where he’d destroyed
me, across the blackened yards, and between the houses. At the
street, the door to his truck was still open wide. The cabin light
burned bright, and the engine still rumbled low.

No one had even noticed.

Troy wrenched the passenger door open and I climbed
inside. I stared out the side window as he drove the quarter-mile
to my house. The truck came to a standstill in front of the place I
thought I’d finally escaped.

“I’ll be here to get you when I get off work
tomorrow.”

I didn’t look up when I reached for the door handle.
I froze when he spoke again.

“I’d better not catch you going to the cops and
making a bigger deal about this than it is, Maggie. They won’t
believe you, anyway. Everyone in this town already knows you’re
mine. But if you do, I promise I’m gonna find out if your little
sister feels as good as you do.”

I swallowed down his words and took them to heart
because I knew he’d make good on them, then I slowly opened the
door and climbed out.

Maggie ~ Present Day

Troy breathed down my neck, corralling my sides as
he gripped the kitchen counter to trap me, his words replaying in
my mind.
I’ll kill you, Maggie
.

It was the third time he’d ever given me that
threat. The first time had been the night he’d shattered my heart
and stolen William from my life. The second time was when I’d
tried
, as futile as it’d been, to save my son from living
this way. It was the night I’d actually believed Troy was going to
kill me.

And he’d said it tonight. Chills rolled down my
spine as his intent finally dawned.

He thought I was getting ready to run.

My eyes dropped closed, William’s face in my
mind.

The chaos raged, and I felt myself slipping a little
closer to the edge.

William ~ Present Day

On Tuesday, I sat down the road and across from the
elementary school where the kindergarten was housed. Waiting. I
followed her the entire day yesterday, trying to understand and
make sense of the connection I had with the boy, the connection I
had with Maggie. After seeing them on Sunday, this need was
something I could not ignore. Yesterday morning, I stayed back as I
followed her to the school where she dropped off Jonathan and then
had gone on to her mother’s, not sure how Maggie would react. I’d
gotten brave enough to expose myself when I followed them to the
park that afternoon. She needed to know I couldn’t and wouldn’t
stay away.

An anxious smile tugged at my mouth when the blue
van pulled into the school parking lot. I sat up, straining to see.
Maggie stepped out from the driver’s side. The smile on my mouth
spread when I saw the ease on her face.

I’d almost forgotten how well I knew her, what I
found in her expression, how I could tell exactly how she felt.

This morning she was happy.

Sliding the side door open, Maggie helped Jonathan
climb down from his seat. The child grinned up at her when she ran
her fingers through the locks of his golden hair. Emotion filled my
chest.

I wondered if Maggie was so blind that she really
didn’t see it or if she was too scared to admit it. I guessed it
was probably somewhere in between. Jealousy bit at my nerves. Who
knew when that sick fuck had coerced her into his bed. As much as I
couldn’t stand the thought, I knew it had to have been as soon as I
left.

I watched my son scurry behind his mother with his
hand in hers through the front gate and disappear into the crowded,
narrow hall of the school.

No, being a father had never been something I had
longed for, although I’d always figured one day I would have a
child, and I’d known instinctively I’d be committed and love my
family once I did. With Maggie, it’d somehow never even crossed my
mind, my every thought wrapped up in loving her.

What I never could have imagined was that it would
come at a distance, a connection on disconnect. Now that longing
was there, filling me with loss and lingering thoughts of a baby
boy, little joys and small triumphs, experiences I would never
know. Eclipsing those thoughts was terror for a child I really knew
nothing about, only an affinity in my dreams and a face to match my
own. But in the moments when I was able to push that terror aside,
it was shocking just how badly not knowing Jonathan hurt.

Ten minutes later, Maggie resurfaced at the gate.
She hesitated, scanning the lot, although her gaze never made it
all the way to where I watched her from down the street. When she
pulled out, I turned around and got in line three cars behind
her.

Stupid?

Probably. I just didn’t know anymore, and I really
didn’t care if it was.

I already knew where she was headed. She’d gone
there yesterday morning after she dropped Jonathan off at school. I
couldn’t begin to grasp why. The stories of the torment she’d been
subjected to within the walls of that house still turned my
stomach. I’d always listened without a word, silently understanding
she’d never been able to voice them before, while inside it had
torn me apart.