CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE
Ella
E very call to Balor the rest of the day Saturday goes to voicemail but it doesn’t allow me to leave a message. Every text fails like I’ve been blocked.
Hannah and Val circle me as I sit on the floor in my bedroom crying.
“Where’s your dad?” Hannah asks.
“I got a text that he’s meeting with someone about a new job.” I hold up my phone. “That’s how I know my phone is working.”
“We’re still going out, right?” Hanna asks. “I got us into the VIP section of the club. You deserve a night out after all this.”
I should get an Uber and start pounding on O’Rourke doors, but that’s how women get labeled psycho.
“There has to be an explanation.” Val rubs my back.
“A woman answered his phone. Balor is never without his phone,” I mutter.
“Did you hear him in the background?” she asks, while Hanna shakes her head.
“What are you saying?” I stand up. “That I imagined a woman telling me the man I love just fucked her and wanted a second round of anal in the shower?”
I go dizzy because that’s our thing. Only, it was his thing with escorts, first.
When my friends each open their mouths, I remind them, “Balor screws escorts. She’s an escort apparently because she said she won’t share him with another whore.”
My friends gasp in unison.
“This is my fault,” I whine and gulp down more tears. “He asked me to stay. I didn’t. I ran home with my daddy like an idiot. Balor is insatiable. I was in his bed every night. I understand he has needs. ”
“Now you’re talking like a mafia trophy wife whose husband fucks around,” Hannah says, looking nervous. “You’re not marrying him after this.”
I turn away and fix my makeup to go out. I need to shake this stress away with some dancing, loud music, and bodies bumping into me, so I don’t have to think or feel this pain in my heart.
OUT ON THE STREET IN front of my father’s building, I bundle against the cold.
Leaving the twenty-grand at Balor’s house means I have no money to move out on my own anyway. I’m stuck living with Dad until I return to full-time teaching at Fredricks.
I should be able to afford one of those micro-studios.
With two babies?
I dump my head in my hands. If I don’t hear from Balor by tomorrow, I’ll talk to Katya, and explain the baby situation. Put myself at the O’Rourke’s mercy.
“Two Ubers?” I say when more than one car pulls up.
A man gets out and struts up to me. “Sorry, my buddy has groceries in his front seat. Can I take you in mine, same price? I’m just getting started and can use the reviews.”
“Me?”
“Who else?”
Hannah and Val, plus Val’s sister, Thea, who just showed up, are climbing into the backseat of a sedan that can only fit three people.
I consider calling out for one of them to ride with me, but I want to keep calling Balor. And I might ask this driver to make a detour to Astoria.
Knocking on doors like a psycho isn’t looking like such a bad idea after all.
“You know the address to the club, right? ”
“Yes, ma’am. Just need to program it. Give me a minute.”
The other car pulls away and I relax.
Before my besties notice I’m not with them, I dive into the other car. Taking out my phone, I text Hannah that I’m right behind her.
The rear passenger door facing the street opens and it’s like it happens in slow motion.
Wesley gets in. Smirking, he turns to me. “Hello again, Ella.”
I reach for the handle to open the door, but it’s locked. “Open this door!”
“Go!” Wes barks at the driver.
I hold onto the door as the car tears away from the curb, thinking this isn’t an Uber.
Wesley planned this. I inhale, trying to center my thoughts and think of a plan to escape. Maybe it’s time I face my fear with him. What can he do to me that I haven’t already endured? I survived once. I’m stronger now.
Only, I’m carrying Balor’s children. I can’t tell Wes I’m pregnant. He’s so evil, I can’t imagine what he’ll do to me.
“Where are you taking me?” I ask him, trying to remain calm like I don’t care and I’m not afraid of him anymore.
“Where you belong. With me. Forever.” He turns to face me with glassy eyes. “Ella, I’m so sorry. Please. Please give me another chance. I know your father knows what I did. And I’ll apologize to him, too. Prove to you that it will never happen again.”
The harder I fight Wesley, the harder he’ll fight back. I have to trick him somehow.
“Can I have time to think it over?” I sniff. “Please, just ask the driver to bring me back to my apartment. Please?”
“Fuck, man, I love when you beg me.” He grips my face, startling me. “Will you crawl for me?”
His touch makes my stomach turn. “Um. ”
My heart pounds. I squeeze my phone in my hand. Even if Balor doesn’t want me anymore, I know I could message Katya and her husband will get me out of this.
“Answer me!” Wes hollers.
When I struggle, an acrid smell fills the car’s interior. Wesley’s large hand presses a thick white towel across my face.
I pull on his veiny hands and kick, screaming into the towel as he smothers me. The sickly-sweet smell drags into my lungs and then everything goes black.