Read Online The Color of Heaven - 09 - The Color of Time by Julianne MacLean - Free Book Online Page A

told me it was over,” Mr. Foster shouted. “And how dare you bring her here when we’re away! You know the rules. What were you thinking?”
    Ethan had told them it was over? When? I didn’t even think they’d known about me.
    My stomach turned over and I felt nauseous. Had Ethan been lying to me all this time about our future together? Was he toying with me? Using me? Or was he just trying to protect us from his overbearing father’s interference?
    I couldn’t hear much else after that, until their voices escalated.
    “You can’t stop me from seeing her!” Ethan shouted, and I wondered if he would be standing up to his father if I weren’t outside the door, listening.
    “I most certainly can,” Mr. Foster said. “I can send you abroad with your mother. I can take away your car. I can take away everything. ”
    “I don’t care,” Ethan replied. “Take it all. And you can’t force me to go anywhere. Even if I did, I’d come back for her because I love her and I’m going to marry her.”
    I gasped with shock, which was followed by a sudden flood of happiness, for I never imagined Ethan would say such a thing to his father.
    He really wanted to marry me? For real?
    I could have wept with joy.
    “Ethan, darling…” his mother said, speaking up for the first time. “You don’t know what you’re saying.”
    “I know exactly what I’m saying.”
    There was a pause.
    “Where the hell are you going?” his father shouted. “Come back here!”
    There was another pause.
    “Take your hands off me,” Ethan growled, and my heart began to race at the muffled sounds of a struggle. I put my hand on the doorknob, wondering if I should go inside to try and stop it. Glass smashed on the floor, then I heard a thump, followed by silence.
    Mrs. Foster cried out, in agony. “Ethan!”
    The panic in her voice filled me with fear. I pulled the door open and rushed inside where I stopped, transfixed, in the parlor entry.
    There was Mrs. Foster on her knees, cradling Ethan in her arms in front of the fireplace. Mr. Foster stood over them.
    “Call an ambulance!” she shouted up at him.
    My eyes focused on a pool of blood forming under Ethan’s head on the white marble hearth. Crushing dread and terror exploded in my heart, and I strode forward with wide eyes. Please, God, no …
    Suddenly aware of my approach, Mr. Foster turned to me with a diabolical glare that sent shivers of horror into my blood.
    “ Get out !” he roared at me. With hands in fists, he strode toward me.
    The rage in his voice shook me so hard, my entire body jolted into action. Never so frightened in my life, I turned and bolted out the front door, hurried down the steps and ran toward the long tree-lined drive.
    Help. Ethan needs help!
    It was dark by that time, and my feet pounded over the gravel while the image of Ethan’s unconscious body on the floor—and Mr. Foster’s chilling wrath—played over and over in my mind.
    I kept seeing the blood and hearing Mr. Foster’s voice in my head…” Get out! ”
    I must have blacked out from shock and distress, because I have no memory of running the two full miles down Shore Road. When I finally reached the town, I stopped, looked around in a panic, bent forward and vomited into a drainage ditch.
    Fighting to catch my breath, I wiped my arm across my mouth and focused on the gas station, a hundred or so yards down the road.
    Limping on tired feet, trembling uncontrollably, I finally reached the station and asked to use the telephone. The cashier regarded me with concern.
    “Sure,” she said as she set it on the counter.
    My hand shook as I dialed the number, which should have been my grandparents’, I suppose, but I didn’t want my parents to find out I’d gotten into trouble again, so soon after my arrival—so I called a friend.
    “Hi Chris? Thank God you’re home. It’s Sylvie. Something really bad just happened.”
    “Are you okay?” he asked.
    “No. Can you come and get me? I