Chapter 25 ~ Isabella ~
"Y ou have no business here anymore. Go home!" Carter glared at me. Then he raised his right hand. His outstretched index finger pointed to the path leading to the large wrought-iron gate at the end of the gravel driveway. Beyond it lay the road.
He didn't want me here anymore.
And I didn't want to be here. With a man who had betrayed me in the worst way and was now insulting me too.
Carter was no better than Owen.
Get out of here, Isabella. You don't need this in your life again. You don't need someone like him. He'll only hurt you.
I turned around and walked away as fast as I could.
Which wasn't very fast. The heels of the shoes I had borrowed from Hayley for today were higher than those I usually wore. So I could only walk slowly if I didn't want to fall.
And I definitely didn't want that. Carter shouldn't see me fall.
Head held high, I tottered towards the gate. The tears I had struggled to hold back earlier now welled up in my eyes again. I blinked. In vain. A tear spilled from my right eye and ran down my cheek.
Finally, I let my grief run free.
Tear after tear rolled down my skin. I sobbed loudly and tried to wipe my cheeks dry with my hand. But soon after, my skin was wet again. I cried like I had never cried before in my life.
Part of me wanted to turn around and see what Carter was doing. Was he watching me? Or had he already gone into the house?
I lifted my chin a little higher. If Carter was watching me, he shouldn't see how unhappy I was, at any cost. I would walk slowly through the gate with my head held high. Like a queen. Even if I was crying like a baby. Determined, I lifted my chin another notch. Meanwhile, my tears dripped from my cheeks onto my purple dress, leaving dark spots on the neckline. But that couldn't be seen from behind.
Finally, I reached the gate.
The temptation to turn around became overwhelming. In my mind, they were all standing in a row at the other end of the driveway, watching me. Carter. His grandmother. His parents. Cameron. Hanny. Johnny's mother. Abigail.
Don't turn around, Isabella. That jerk doesn't deserve it.
I stepped from the gravel driveway onto the asphalt road without turning around and quickened my pace a little.
Where did this road lead?
I had no idea where I was exactly.
Carter and I had flown here in his helicopter. I had been awestruck seeing Long Island from above. Elegant villas, huge estates, and the sea right behind them.
But now I had no orientation at all. I didn't know where New York was, how far away the city was, and how long it would take me to get back home.
Was there a bus here?
But the thought of sitting in a vehicle with other people made me shudder. I just wanted to crawl into a corner and cry my heart out.
Less than an hour ago, I had felt like Carter had special feelings for me. More than just lust. As if he felt the same way I did.
My heart had skipped a beat every time I saw him. I hadn't told anyone, but deep down, so deep that I barely dared admit it to myself, I had seen myself in Hanny's place. And Carter in Cameron's place. I had imagined a wonderful future.
My future.
Our future.
And now I had nothing.
No Carter.
No 50,000. No, he certainly wouldn't pay me that. I hadn't achieved the intended goal. Carter's grandmother didn't see me as the good fiancée with whom her grandson would be happy. Carter wouldn't get half the inheritance. And I wouldn't get 50,000 dollars.
So I couldn't pay off my bank debts, let alone the next loan installments. I was deep in debt. The apartment would be sold.
Where would I go then?
I didn't even have a job to pay rent for a room. I could already see myself having to depend on other people's goodwill again. Living off my sister.
My life was in shambles.
I had put all my eggs in one basket.
I had bet everything on Carter.
And lost.
I had bet everything on the wrong horse.
On the day of the accident, when I had first seen Carter, I had been convinced I was really in deep shit. At the memory of it, I laughed tiredly. I had no idea, really. I had been doing pretty well back then.
At least I hadn't had a broken heart.
My throat tightened again and my chest felt constricted.
"Ow!" I stumbled and looked down. In the last few minutes, I had been so lost in thought that I hadn't paid much attention to the road. Now the heel of my right shoe had gotten stuck in a manhole cover. Just great. With a jerk, I freed my foot and tried to walk on. Then I stumbled for the second time.
"Damn it!" I took a closer look at my right shoe. The heel was cracked.
"Shit!" I cursed further. The cursing felt good. For a moment, I forgot my sadness. Being angry felt... somehow relieving.
I couldn't go on like this. Without hesitation, I bent down and slipped off my shoes.
Splash!
A drop hit my neck.
What was that?
I straightened up again, with the shoes in my left hand. Suspiciously, I looked up. The clouds that had gathered earlier and seemed slightly gray now hung low in the sky, appearing like a dense, dark blanket.
Splash!
Another drop hit my face.
And then another.
And another.
Just great. What was I supposed to do now? Of course, I had neither an umbrella nor a jacket with me. In the small purple purse I was carrying to match my dress were my phone, some money, and the key to my apartment. I had nothing else with me.
Splash.
Splash.
Splash.
One drop after another fell on me. The dress quickly acquired many dark spots. I kept walking. What choice did I have? At least I could move a bit faster without shoes.
Just a few seconds later, the sky fully opened its floodgates. The rain grew stronger and stronger. The drops pelted down on me and soaked me completely. The damp dress clung to my skin.
Desperately, I peered down the street. There was no place here where I could take shelter. Nothing. No awning. No tree overhanging the fence of a property. Literally nothing. Longingly, I thought of New York. There were stores with awnings, malls, cafes, and subway stations, offering plenty of opportunities to seek shelter from bad weather.
But here...
Nothing. In front of me was the wet street, to the left and right were unwelcoming walls and fences that barred my access to gardens and houses.
Just as Carter had barred my access to him. At that thought, a new lump formed in my throat. I swallowed.
At that moment, it began to rain even harder than before. The drops bored into my skin like tiny projectiles. In my sorrow, I barely felt the pain and continued walking through the rain, which drummed with unexpected force on the street and on my body. I was soaked to the bone.
Just then, I heard a sound behind me.
A car.
My heart skipped a beat.
Carter?
Was he coming to get me? Did he want to bring me somewhere warm and talk to me?
I turned around and saw a black Rolls-Royce slowly driving towards me. But it drove past me.
It wasn't Carter.
Isabella. Don't be stupid. He's not coming back.
Nobody was going to save me.
I had to do that myself.
I shivered. I urgently needed to get dry.
But where?
A few meters ahead of me was an intersection. Maybe I would see something there that could help me. A sign saying New York. At least then I'd know which direction to keep walking.
Hopefully, I approached the intersection and peered to the left. Nothing. The street looked just like the one I was on. Unwelcoming walls and high fences. Then I turned my head to the right. And there... I wiped the rain from my eyes to make sure I wasn't imagining what I saw just beyond the street corner.
A bus stop.
With a small wooden shelter.
It would surely be dry in there.
Maybe there was even a bench.
And I could think about what to do next.
I hurried towards it.
"Hello, sweetheart!" Behind the wooden wall, I almost collided with a burly man in an old anorak and tattered jeans. He grinned at me and blew his breath in my face. Disgusted, I backed away. Alcohol. The guy must have had more than one drink.
"He... hello," I stammered. Only now did I notice how much I was shaking all over. The rain had affected me more than I thought.
"Well... you're soaked." The man thoroughly examined me from head to toe. His gaze made me uncomfortable. Nevertheless, I squeezed past him into the shelter. Relieved, I shook myself. At least I wouldn't get any wetter now. The rain continued to fall from the sky with undiminished intensity, drumming on the roof of the little hut.
"Should I warm you up a bit?" the man offered, turning to me.
"No, thank you." My tone was icy and left no room for misunderstanding.
The man moved away from me a bit but continued to watch me. I decided to pay him no further attention. It was best to treat such people like air, then they wouldn't do anything to you. This principle had always worked well for me in New York, it would certainly work here too.
I looked around searchingly. There was no schedule in the shelter.
"Does the bus to New York leave from here?" I asked.
"New York?" The man laughed harshly. "There's no bus to New York from here."
Damn. So it wouldn't be that easy to get away from here. I put the shoes on the ground. With numb fingers, I opened the small purple purse I was carrying and took out my phone. I finally wanted to know exactly where I was. And most importantly, how I could get home.
At that moment, the burly man snatched the purse from me. And then the phone.
"Hey!" I had trouble grasping exactly what was happening.
"Shut up, you little rich brat. Or I'll break every bone in your body." The man bared his teeth and shoved me back against the wall of the shelter to emphasize his threat. "You must be coming from that rich people's wedding back there. Everyone's rich here. Everyone. Except me."
"Give me back the purse," I demanded. I didn't know myself where I found the courage for this request. It must have been the courage of desperation. Without the purse, I had nothing but a pair of broken shoes.
"You'd like that, wouldn't you!" The man looked into the bag, took out my wallet, and stuffed it along with my phone into the pocket of his anorak. Then he threw the bag to the ground, grinned as he flipped me off, stepped out into the rain, and ran down the street at an astonishing speed. With his sneakers, he was moving faster than I could without shoes.
Desperate, I slid down the wooden back wall of the small shelter onto the ground.
What now?
I was alone. I was cold, soaked to the bone, in a place I didn't even know the name of. I no longer had a phone to call for help or money to take a bus. Neither to New York nor anywhere else. Slowly, I crawled from the back wall of the shelter to the front where my bag lay. I looked inside. At least the guy had left me my apartment key.
Not that I could get home, and the apartment practically belonged to the bank already.
I grimaced in despair. I couldn't even cry anymore. Everything inside me was empty.
At that moment, a car stopped on the street right in front of me.
With a mixture of fear and hope, I looked up.
The guy?
Carter?
Don't be silly, Isabella. It's neither of them. The guy probably doesn't even have a car, and Carter certainly won't come to get you.
The window of the silver SUV rolled down. I struggled to my feet and peered inside. A red-haired woman with a friendly face looked at me. She seemed vaguely familiar.
"Hey. I saw you at the wedding earlier. Are you okay? Can I help you?"
I studied the woman. And then I remembered. She had helped set up the buffet. She probably worked for a catering company.
"Yes. You can help me. I want to go home," I replied and burst into tears again.