Chapter Nineteen
Nineteen
THE CHAIN DANGLES, brOKEN, from the hotel door.
Charles is here. He’s here. He found me. Of course he found me. He always knows where I am.
“You think you can just ignore my texts!” he screams, pushing his way into the hotel room. His hair is wet, sticking to his forehead, his button-down soaked with rain. “You think you can just ignore ME?” He stalks toward me. “How could you?”
My heart slams against my chest. “Please, Charles. Just wait a minute.”
“Stop it!” he screams again. “Just fucking stop it!” He yanks at his wet hair in a fit of rage, a low growl rolling through his body. And then he pulls back and punches a hole in the drywall.
I cover my head and a scream dies in my throat. White dust floats in the air like snow. My body is shaking, shaking, shaking. But I stay silent.
He walks toward me, stumbling a little, his eyes wild and unfocused. Oh god, I think he’s drunk. I haven’t seen him drunk since last Fourth of July, and then he was all smiles and sparklers. “Sydney.”
I squeeze my eyes shut.
“You have to see what you’ve done.” I squeeze my eyes tighter. “Look at me!” he yells.
I back up against the wall, tripping over my duffel bag. “Charles,” I say again. As if that will stop him. As if anything could. “I’m sorry.”
“You’re ‘sorry’? Tell that to Caroline!” His eyes burn like he’s on fire from the inside.
And maybe he is. He grabs my arms with his thick hands.
I can feel each individual finger pressing into my forearms, squeezing until my skin is pressed against bone.
His right knuckles are already bleeding.
The gold watch on his left wrist glints under the hotel light.
“If you’re sorry, then fix it,” he snarls into my face, his breath hot and sharp. “FIX IT!” He screams again, and this time he digs into my arms so tight he lifts my entire body off the ground and slams my head back into the wall.
My head is swimming, the hotel light blurring into blues and yellows. “Please,” I whisper. “Please, Mr. Campbell.”