by Ivy Jordan
I called Elijah, explaining my delay. His flight was already booked, a straight thru, but he was going to make it there in about the same time as me. “It’s going to be fine. We’ll get there in time. He’s not going to do anything to her as soon as he sees her,” he assured me.
I wasn’t so sure. Rob knew about me, and he didn’t like me. Maddie had to delete my name from her contacts, remove any signs of friendship from her social media pages, and pretend she’d never spoken to me while we planned her getaway from the monster she’d promised to marry. He was insanely jealous, and I knew once he heard my name, and knew she’d been in Miami, she was in danger: immediate danger.
I found an empty stool in the little pub across from my gate and ordered a whiskey to calm my nerves. I scrolled through my phone, landing on Maddie’s Facebook page. Her smile warmed my heart, even just through pictures. I hated to think of her unhappy, and I knew no matter what happened tonight, no matter what she believed, she was going to be hurt. There was no doubt in my mind that she was already hurting, and that was all my fault. I tried calling her phone many times but she never answered.
“Can I get you another?” the woman behind the bar asked as she took my empty glass. I nodded, forced a half-smile, and waited as she poured me another glass.
Elijah sent me a text letting me know he was on his way, and I quickly finished my second drink, headed to the gate, and just waited.
Even though I was only a little over four hundred miles away from Portland, it felt like I was a million miles away from Maddie.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Maddie
I felt someone nudging my shoulder as I opened my eyes. My head was against the glass window of the bus. It was stopped, in a large parking lot, and the little old lady beside me was rustling me awake. “We’re here, dear,” she said, her voice sweet and shaky.
I heard my own grandmother’s voice suddenly. I was certain it was her. “Maddie, don’t ever think you can’t do anything you set your mind to do,” she said. Tears filled my eyes, and I choked back my painful memory. “Thank you,” I said politely to the old woman who was now out of her seat and in line to get off the bus.
My phone was flashing and I had many missed calls from Isaac but I didn’t want to talk to the liar.
I waited until everyone had moved from the back and stepped out behind the last passenger.
I wasn’t sure if I would recognize Rob or not, still not certain if he was the man in my bad dreams. “Maddie!” a familiar voice called out, causing me to turn and face the man who haunted my nights. It was him.
My feet froze in their spot as he rushed towards me. He wrapped his arms around me, squeezed me tight, and nuzzled his nose into my neck. It was cold, causing me to shiver. I pulled back from his embrace, still unsure if I trusted if he was who he said he was. After everything I’d been through, it was hard to trust. After the dream where he was hurting me, yelling at me, it was hard to trust. His eyes were wide and filled with what appeared to be relief, satisfaction, love maybe; I wasn’t sure. Even Isaac told me my memories could play tricks on me, the same thing the doctor had told me. Maybe that was why I started to remember Isaac, because of the pictures, his kindness, the need to remember. Did I even know him? Did I ever know him?
“Let’s get you home,” Rob said, picking up the suitcase that was placed beside me. I followed him, still staring at him intensely, trying desperately to remember. Did I love him?
He opened the trunk of a little black car and shoved my suitcase inside. He opened the passenger door, waited for me to get situated inside, and then shut the door. My chest tightened as I started to feel closed in, trapped. Rob opened the door, slid into the driver’s seat, and then stared at me with confusion in his eyes.
“You okay?” he asked.
I nodded, took a deep breath, and then exhaled to relax my heart rate. Rob seemed satisfied enough that I was calmed down, and started the car.
“How far is my apartment? Or do I have a house?” I asked.
“About ten minutes up the road,” he replied without taking his eyes off the road.
I was relieved that the trip would be short. For someone I was supposed to be engaged to, he felt like a complete stranger.
“So, you don’t know why I went to Miami?” I asked.
He didn’t respond right away. Instead, his lips tightened, and I noticed his right eye twitching. “You mean you don’t know?” he finally replied but didn’t answer.
I shook my head and slouched down into the leather seat. It was a nice car. He was dressed nice, and was very fit.
“How did your accident happen?” he asked.
“I was jogging, and a car hit me,” I answered nervously.
“Why did you end up with Isaac?” he probed.
“He was there when I woke up. The doctors and the police said he came to the hospital with me, that we were running together,” I explained, staring at Rob’s face for some reaction. Another twitch of the eye, and again the pursed lips.
Even though he didn’t act angry, I got the feeling he was upset with me, and that feeling felt very familiar. “Just a few minutes and you’ll be home, and this will be all over,” Rob said, his voice eerily chipper.
We finally pulled up in front of a large red brick building. It was the one I’d seen in my dreams, the one where I fought with the man who choked me, the man who I believed to be Rob.
“Did we have a fight?” I asked.
He didn’t answer. His lips curled into a crooked smile and he got out of the car. He walked around to my side, opened the door, and then helped me out onto the sidewalk. I stood there, staring at the building, remembering it, as he pulled out my suitcase.
I opened the doors to the apartments and started walking up the steps. It was as if my body was on auto-pilot, no need for me to think of where to go because it just knew the way. Three flights later, I stopped. I stood in front of a red door with the number twelve on it.
“This is my apartment?” I asked for reassurance.
Rob nodded and then pulled out a set of keys. He fumbled until he found the one he wanted, his hand shaking the entire time. “Guess that memory is coming back quickly,” he half-chuckled.
“The doctor’s told me coming home might help,” I said, walking into my apartment for the zillionth time, but for the first time.
The door shut behind me, and Rob walked past me with my suitcase in his hand. I watched him go down a long hallway, and duck into one of the rooms. The place was large, very clean, and decorated with soft pastels. Mail was piled up on a small table by the couch. I picked it up and stared at the name. “Who is Maddie Stewart?” I asked as Rob came back into the room.
He stopped, stared at me with a strange grin, and then laughed. “That’s you,” he said.
“I thought my name was Maddie Grubbs?” I questioned. That was the name that Isaac told me, the one that I’d used on the police reports, the hospital paperwork, and for everything else while I was in Miami.
“Grubbs was your grandmother’s last name,” he noted.
My head felt light and dizzy. I turned to make my way to the couch where I fell into the soft white cushions. “I wonder why he told me that,” I mumbled.
Rob snickered and let out a heavy sigh. “I’m sure he was telling you whatever he had to in order to get in your pants,” he hissed.
His tone frightened me. My body tensed as I sat up on the couch. I didn’t want to make eye contact. I didn’t want him to know that’s exactly what happened, that Isaac had gotten into my pants.
Rob moved across the room, his gait slow and mechanical. He stopped in front of me, standing tall and firm. “Did he tell you he bought you that ring?” he asked, his lip curling up as he spoke.
I watched his eye twitch and his expression turn as cold as his tone. “Yes,” I admitted, suddenly scared of the man in front of me. I was just as scared as I’d been in my dreams.
He let out another sigh, turned and walked away. I was
relieved. I feared his next question would be if I slept with Isaac, and I wasn’t sure I could lie to him. I scanned my apartment, noticing a laptop on my table. I got up, moved towards it, and opened it up. The screen prompted a password, one which I couldn’t remember. “Do you know my password?” I asked Rob, who was now pacing nervously around the living room of my apartment.
“Scooter,” he said quickly.
I laughed. “Why Scooter?” I asked.
“It’s my dog’s name,” he answered quickly.
That didn’t sound like a password I’d make for myself. “Did you change my password?” I asked.
“Jesus, why are you acting so fucking weird?” he roared.
I tensed as I typed in the password. The screen opened, and I quickly browsed through all my social media accounts looking for Isaac. He wasn’t anywhere. I checked my e-mails: nothing. How did I know him? How did he know me so well?
“When did my grandmother die?” I asked Rob.
“I don’t know, sometime after you graduated college,” he snapped.
Isaac knew that.
“Did I ever talk about her?” I asked.
“What’s with all the grandmother questions? Sure, you talked about her, but I don’t remember what you said,” he snarled.
I moved from the laptop and walked down the hall. I stepped into the bedroom, my bedroom. There were two old dolls sitting on a chair near my bed. Tears filled my eyes. I remembered my grandmother gave those to me. Rob hated them; his voice was in my head telling me how creepy they were, and that I was a grown woman and I should throw them out. Isaac told me about my grandmother, that she collected dolls, birdfeeders, and he laughed about her being a hoarder.
Confusion flooded my mind as I tried to piece everything together. The pictures he’d shown me, I could remember Isaac from the neighborhood, playing ball in the street, sitting on my front porch drinking lemonade. I did know him, but how did I end up in Miami with him?
“Pack a bag and we’ll stay at my place,” Rob ordered. His tone was still filled with frustration and anger. The worried, concerned, and loving man that lured me from the hotel room I shared with Isaac was gone. This man, the one who now barked orders at me, was one I began to remember.
“Why? I want to stay here and try to remember,” I protested. That was the whole point to me coming home: to remember. I didn’t want to admit it, but I was afraid to go to Rob’s. I was afraid to go anywhere with Rob.
“He’s probably going to come looking for you here. It’s not safe. The man is a lunatic, and needs to be arrested,” Rob argued.
I wasn’t sure that was true. Isaac wasn’t a lunatic. He hadn’t done anything to hurt me, and he never spoke to me the way Rob had. There had to be a reason I was in Miami with him, but why hadn’t he told me the truth?
“He doesn’t know where I live,” I argued, not even sure if that was true. Maybe Isaac did know where I lived. He seemed to know plenty about me.
“Yeah, bullshit,” Rob snorted.
My eyes narrowed on Rob as he rushed into my bedroom. He came out a few moments later with a suitcase, the same one I’d traveled with. “Let’s go,” he demanded, pulling at my arm.
“No,” I refused, jerking my arm away from him.
“Do you want him to find you?” he asked, his eyes dark and cold. “Did you run away to be with him? Did you sleep with him?” he demanded.
It was the question I’d dreaded. Earlier it was more from embarrassment and fear of hurting someone who I’d promised to marry. Now it was fear. I didn’t want to answer Rob. “Did you?” he spat, his lip curling up and his eye beginning to twitch wildly.
My heart pounded against my chest. Fear consumed me, filled my veins, and I froze in my spot. I didn’t know what to do or where to go. The man in front of me, the one who claimed to love me was scaring me, but the other one, the one I thought I loved lied to me about so much. I was truly alone.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Isaac
My feet were finally on Portland soil, one step closer to finding Maddie. Elijah hadn’t contacted me yet, so I assumed he was still in the air, on his way. I knew he didn’t understand why I did what I did, because no one did. I didn’t. I only knew I loved Maddie, and even though she probably hated me, I had to save her.
I stood at the car rental place, shifting my weight from left to right while in line. It was moving slowly, too slowly, and I was growing impatient.
Finally, the large man in front of me was called to the counter, leaving me to be next. I stared at the woman with long black hair and a tiny waist with contentment as she asked one ridiculous question after another. I looked back to the large man who was being helped by the other clerk, shifting back and forth between them, wondering which would be first to leave and open up my spot as next.
Finally, the black-haired woman quit asking questions and took her keys. The woman at the counter waved me towards her with little enthusiasm and I handed her my credit card. She punched the keyboard in front of her computer with her long red nails until finally stopping to look up at me.
“Is a sedan okay?” she asked. I nodded. I couldn’t give a fuck what type of car she gave me. I just needed to get to Maddie before it was too late.
After what felt like an eternity, the woman finally entered everything she needed into the system and left the counter to retrieve keys. Her lips pursed together as she handed them to me, then her eyes narrowed as she told me the location of the car.
“Great, thank you,” I said quickly, taking the keys and rushing from the counter to the lot to find the car.
I walked the length of the parking lot twice, and then finally found the little black car that my credit card had paid for. I climbed inside, pulled Maddie’s wallet from my bag, and entered her address into the GPS system. Ten minutes and I’d be at her front door.
My phone rang as I pulled onto the highway. I slid my thumb across to answer and turned up the stereo for the Bluetooth to work its magic. “Hey, Beth,” I greeted.
“Isaac, where are you?” she asked with a panic in her voice.
“I’m in Portland,” I answered.
“Is everything okay? You never called me to let me know how things had gone,” she lectured.
I forgot in all the commotion to check in with her. She worried, I knew that, and under the circumstances, I couldn’t blame her. “I’m really sorry; things took a different turn than expected,” I explained.
“What does that mean?” she questioned.
“Well, we had a delay, Maddie found her phone, talked to Rob and took off,” I sighed, feeling the impact of the situation as I spoke.
“Oh, Isaac, is she okay? Are you with her now?” she probed.
“I’m on my way to her place now. I have no idea if she’s okay,” I admitted with a defeat in my tone.
“Isaac, you need to be careful; he could be dangerous,” she warned. There was no doubt in my mind that he was dangerous; that’s why I was going seventy in a fifty-five to get to her as fast as I could.
“Shouldn’t you call the cops, have some backup?” she asked.
I chuckled half-heartedly. “And tell them what?” I snorted. “Elijah is on his way,” I informed her.
Knowing Elijah was on his way seemed to satisfy her, but she still tried to convince me to wait for him to arrive. That wasn’t happening, not if I found her and knew she was in danger. I couldn’t call the cops; there was no way they’d understand. What would I tell them? “Yes, officer, I lied to this woman about her identity, kept her for weeks at my place in Florida, and made her fall in love with me…this man, the one that she knows, the one whose she is wearing his ring, he’s the bad guy.” Yeah, right. I was fucked. I had to do this on my own if Elijah didn’t make it in time. I knew that.
I promised Beth I’d be careful and hung up so I could follow the directions from the GPS. The woman’s voice told me to take a right, then a left, and then told me the destination was on my right. I slowed, watching for a
ddresses and found a large brick apartment building with the numbers matching my GPS and parked behind a black car, similar to the one I was in. Her apartment was on the third floor, number twelve. I looked up, checking the windows, finding one that had a light on three floors up. I didn’t know if it was her apartment or not, and I couldn’t see anyone inside.
My phone rang again. I unplugged it from the Bluetooth and slid my thumb to answer it. “Hey, Elijah,” I greeted my friend.
“I’m here; where are you?” he asked, his voice winded.
“I’m in front of her apartment. I don’t know if she’s here yet or not, or if she’s with him,” I explained.
His voice was still winded as he grumbled in the phone. “I’m walking as fast as I can to find my car,” he explained.
I talked to him while he looked for the car. Once he found it, I gave him the address and told him it was only about ten minutes away, seven if he drove like I had. “I’ll be right there. Don’t do anything stupid,” he warned.
I assured him I wouldn’t and hung up.
Suddenly a shadow walked past the window on the third floor. I stretched my neck to the passenger side window to get a better look. Another shadow walked by, but I couldn’t make out the people. I knew there were two up there. If that was Maddie’s apartment, Rob was with her. Fuck, I am too late!
I wanted to go up, to bust through the door and slam Rob to the ground, wrap my arms around Maddie, and save the day. I knew there were a couple problems with that plan. One, I wasn’t sure that was her apartment. Two, Maddie may not be happy to see me. Rob may be filling her with lies, pretending to be the sweet fiancé that is only concerned with her safety. If she still believed his story, and he hadn’t shown his true colors yet, she would surely call the cops and have me arrested.
