Chapter 20
[ 503 words ]
Chapter 20:
She sat there for a long time. Finally, she stood up. She didn’t take the cardboard box. She opened her locker, shoved the box back onto the top shelf, and slammed the metal door shut.
She walked out of the hospital, stepping into the crisp autumn sunlight. The bright rays stung her eyes. Her entire world had been turned upside down, and she had no idea how to right it.
Caroline paid the cab driver and stepped out onto the quiet, tree-lined street in Alexandria, Virginia. The two-story colonial house looked exactly the same as it had when she stormed out hours earlier, but the atmosphere hanging over it felt suffocatingly heavy.
She walked up the driveway, her legs feeling like lead. She needed to pack her actual clothes and figure out where to sleep tonight.
She pushed the front door open.
“Well, look who decided to come back.”
Caroline stopped in the foyer. Her mother, Mrs. Thompson, was sitting on the floral living room sofa, aggressively flipping through an outdated home decor magazine. When she saw Caroline, she slammed the magazine onto the coffee table and stood up.
Her mother’s eyes were sharp, filled with a mix of anxiety and demanding curiosity. “Did you go to the hospital? Did you see a lawyer about that ridiculous piece of paper?”
Caroline closed her eyes, a sharp throb of a headache pulsing at her temples. Her mother was in complete denial. She had convinced herself that the marriage certificate Caroline showed her earlier was either a fake to get out of dating Preston, or a scam.
Caroline kicked off her low heels, her bare feet sinking into the rug. “It’s complicated, Mom. The hospital won’t let me quit. It’s a whole thing.”
𝘕e𝗐 𝗰𝘩𝗮ptеr𝘀 𝗲𝘷𝗲r𝘆 𝘄𝘦е𝗸 𝗼ո 𝗀𝘢𝗅n𝗈𝘷𝖾𝗅𝘀.𝗰о𝘮
“Complicated?” Mrs. Thompson’s voice shrilled, echoing in the hallway. “I’ll tell you what’s complicated! That man you brought up earlier—Jarrod whatever-his-name-is. He’s a criminal, Caroline! He has to be! He’s probably a mobster blackmailing the hospital to keep you there!”
Her mother began to pace back and forth across the living room carpet, wringing her hands. “I should call the police. Or maybe Pastor Miller. Yes, the church can help us intervene before you ruin your life completely.”
“Mom, stop,” Caroline pleaded, rubbing her temples hard. “He’s not a mobster. Please, I am so tired. I haven’t slept properly in two days. I just need to go to my room and rest. We can talk about this tonight.”
She didn’t wait for her mother’s inevitable counter-argument. Caroline practically jogged up the carpeted stairs, rushed into her childhood bedroom, and shut the door, twisting the lock.
She collapsed onto her twin-sized bed, burying her face in the familiar scent of her old quilt. She stared blankly at the glow-in-the-dark stars stuck to her ceiling. Every time she closed her eyes, all she could see were Jarrod’s deep, stormy gray eyes staring down at her in the locker room.
Miles away, in the heart of Washington D.C., a black Department of Defense SUV was crawling through the heavy evening traffic on Constitution Avenue.
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