Learning to Be Little Again(55)

“Don’t you say that! You are my little girl!” Boyle shouted.

For whatever reason, I got angry. This man was delusional. How could he think after what he put me through, I would still want to be his little girl?

“No, I’m not! I’m Robert’s little girl!” I shot back. Before I knew what he meant to do, he punched me in the face with the butt of his gun.

“Ahhh!” I cried out in pain as I tasted blood. I brought my hands up to protect myself if he was going to hit me again.

“That’s what you get for talking back to me. Do it again and I’ll smack you even harder. Just wait until we get to my cabin. No one will be able to hear your screams.”

I tried to fight back the tears the best I could, but it was becoming increasingly harder to do. I was terrified of what he was going to do to me, and angry because he had no right to kidnap me. I slipped my right hand into my purse to squeeze my teddy bear. Why didn’t I bring my cell phone with me today, of all days to forget it? I berated myself for the millionth time.

I was so stupid. I should have tried to fight him harder when he took me from the aquarium. I was just so in shock from seeing him that I froze. I never thought I’d see him again. The only positive thing that I could take out of this entire situation was that Robert and all the other people at the aquarium were okay. If Boyle had hurt anyone because of me, I had no idea what I would have done.

“No!” Boyle shouted, as I saw a line of cops blocking the road.

Cops… this is my chance to get away. He couldn’t turn the car around because there was a concrete median next to us and it was a one way road. If he did try to turn around on the shoulder, it would look suspicious to the cops. We would have to go past them.

I sat quietly as he slowly approached the check point. Any moment, I thought. When we stopped, I would start screaming and try to jump out of the car.

When the car in front of us drove away, Boyle floored it. We were going so fast! He’s going to get away, I panicked.

“No!” I shouted.

Before I could even think about what I was doing, I took the steering wheel from him and tried to shove us off the road. I was not going to let him kidnap me without a fight. I would rather die in this car then let him torture me for the rest of my life.

“Let go!” he shouted as he tried to take control of the wheel, but I wasn’t going to let go. He would have to pry the wheel out of my hands.

He fought me for control but I was not budging, until he smacked me with the butt of his gun again.

“Ahhh!” I cried out in pain, letting go of the wheel. Something must be broken, I thought as my hands covered my swollen cheek.

“Shit!” he screamed.

I moved my hands to see what had happened, and just as I looked up, I saw a tree and then I was engulfed in darkness.



* * *



I had just finished giving my statement about what happened today and was walking towards my car when Mark called me.

“Did you find her?” I asked, not even bothering to greet him.

“Yes, Robert. I need you to come down to the hospital.”

I froze. My baby girl was in the hospital. She was hurt. Boyle had hurt her. My vision flashed red as I made a vow that for any permanent damage done to her, I would inflict ten times the amount of pain on him.

“How bad is it?”

“I’m not sure yet. All I know is that when they were at the road block, Boyle sped up to seventy miles per hour and Juliana fought him for control of the wheel. They ended up hitting a tree.”

“I’ll be there right away!” I hung up my cell phone, quickly started my car, and sped off towards the hospital. She’s going to be fine. She’s going to be fine. She has to be, I kept repeating to myself.



* * *



I made it to the hospital in ten minutes flat. I broke about ten different traffic rules, but I didn’t care. All that mattered to me right now was getting to my baby girl.

When I walked into the waiting room, Mark was sitting in one of the chairs.

“How is she?” I asked, going up to him.

“I still haven’t heard anything. Just sit and wait,” he said, motioning to the chair next to him.

I sat down and couldn’t help thinking over the past few hours. Juliana had been having such a fun time at the aquarium. She was relaxed and was letting her little side out. She even ate everything on her plate I’d ordered for her at the cafe. We were all set to go home, where I had planned for her to take a nap. After she woke up, I had planned to cook her a romantic dinner and tell her I loved her. This day had been gearing up to be one of the best ones of my life, and Boyle had wrecked it.

I just hoped that whatever Boyle did to Juliana wouldn’t have any lasting effects on her. She had just gotten her confidence back and felt comfortable letting her little side out. I didn’t know if this incident with Boyle would have her retreating back into her shell or not. I hoped it wouldn’t.