I watched anxiously out the window, sure a car was going to speed up on us, that Ben was going to force the bus to stop, come on, grab me, and drag me back to hell. Where I would never get a chance to escape again.
But there was nothing so dramatic.
Just a long, bumpy bus ride into a much shadier town.
It was the perfect place to find myself a cheap car, though. And the guy who I bought it from was happy not to do any official paperwork in exchange for a hundred bucks over his asking price.
The car wasn’t worth it.
My freedom was.
So I paid it.
Then I used some more of my money to get food for Edith, to grab a hat and sunglasses for me. And maps. So many maps.
The rest, I tried to save for fuel and food. Though I ate almost nothing, too sick to my stomach at the idea of Ben finding me that I didn’t dare eat more than a few bites when I was feeling positively lightheaded.
The rest, well, it was history, wasn’t it?
I didn’t genuinely even process the concept of freedom until I found my way to Navesink Bank. I was too busy catastrophizing every possible scenario where Ben might find me.
Looking at a traffic camera.
On a security camera at a gas station.
Tracking me down to figure out exactly what maps I bought, where I was heading.
I didn’t have any reason to assume Ben would guess where I was going, that he would know about the promise made years before.
Even with the cameras all around, there was no way he’d heard Nave in his whispered promise to help me if I ever needed it.
It was that first night, sitting on top of Nave’s bed in the clubhouse, when it really sank in.
I did it.
I got out.
I was free.
And I was never,evergoing back.
He’d have to kill me first.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Nave
“What are you doing, you idiot?” Kit hissed at me as Ariah and Lolly watched Edith greet the homestead dogs like long-lost friends.
“What was that?” I asked, brows pinching.
“We gave youfivedays to convince her to stay.”
“What are you talking about?”
“The stupid panels have been fixed since the day after she left. We waited as long as we felt we could. But it felt wrong to lie to her yesterday.”
“Wait… why would you lie to her?”
