Read Online Forsaken by Keary Taylor - Free Book Online

covering his face. I whipped around again as Emily danced
around me.
    “ Are you okay?” she
shouted at me.
    I took two steps toward the guy when
he suddenly turned toward me. Relief and embarrassment washed over
me. I was getting paranoid. Of course it wasn’t Cole.
    “ Do you want to go home?”
Emily asked as I turned back to her, her face showing
concern.
    I gave a little half smile. “Only if
you don’t mind.”
    “ Come on,” she said as she
looped her arm through mine. She dug into her handbag and handed me
the keys to her car. “You’re going to have to drive
though.”
     
    X
     
    “ I have to go to work
now,” I said, frustration obvious in my voice. Not looking at Alex,
I grabbed my purse off the table and walked out without looking
back or saying good-bye.
    I slammed the door to my car as I got
in and hurled my purse in the passenger seat. Throwing the car into
reverse, I backed out of the driveway too quickly, nearly hitting
another car in the process. I got a nasty scowl from the man but I
didn’t care enough to feel bad for nearly hitting him.
    Two cars honked at me as I drove to
the bookstore, evidence that I probably should not have been
driving. One minute I was driving way too slow, the next I was
speeding and swerving in and out of lanes.
    I finally broke down as I pulled into
the parking lot of the bookstore. My breathing came in sharp gasps.
I could feel panic boiling up in my system, threatening to take me
over. Tears sprang to my eyes and came down my face in angry
torrents.
    Alex and I had had another fight, yet
the same one we had been having over and over again. I wanted to be
his wife, to have all of him. And he wouldn’t do it.
    I hated that we were fighting, I
wanted it to end. But I wasn’t going to give up on this. On him. I
would deny that he might not be with me someday until the day he
wasn’t.
    I squeezed my eyes closed and leaned
my forehead against the steering wheel. It felt good to let it all
out. I couldn’t let Alex or anyone else see this. But it felt good
to release everything.
    And yet it shredded me to pieces at
the same time.
    Taking a deep breath and wiping the
tears off my cheeks, I realized I was now almost ten minutes late.
I pulled the sun visor down, checking my reflection in the mirror.
My heart leapt into my throat as I caught the reflection of
something moving behind my car, just a quick white blur. I whipped
around in my seat, my eyes searching frantically for whatever it
had been. I found the parking lot devoid of any
movement.
    The feeling that a pair of eyes were
watching me made my skin crawl. Even though I couldn’t see who the
eyes belonged to, the gaze was intense. It took every ounce of
courage I had to jump out of my car and run into the
bookstore.
    I clocked in and set to stocking a few
shelves. My hands were shaking violently and my stomach felt
queasy. This wasn’t the first time in the last week or so that I’d
felt invisible eyes watching me.
    “ Are you okay, Jessica?”
Rita asked as she walked up to me, her expression
concerned.
    “ Yeah,” I sniffed and
tried not to look at her. I realized then that signs of my
breakdown must have still been evident on my face. Crying did
horrible things to my skin. “I’m fine.”
    “ Oh sweetie,” she said as
she placed a hand lightly on my shoulder. “You don’t look like you
feel fine. And you’re pale as a ghost. Do you want to talk about
it?”
    I could only give Rita a half smile,
touched by this woman who cared so much. I missed having a motherly
figure in my life, one that cared about me and asked if I ‘wanted
to talk about it’. “No, it’s fine. Thanks though.”
    “ If you’re sure,” she said
as she gave me a sad smile. “You’re welcome to use my office if you
need some time to yourself today.”
    “ Thanks,” I said again,
fighting back the tears that wanted to spill now at her compassion.
I tried to ignore the fact that Austin was watching a little