“This it?” The clerk’s question shook her from her reverie and she nodded quickly, putting cash on the counter.
She felt tingles in her gut as she pulled into a spot at the condo. She’d been feeling those tingles every day since she’d arrived and recognized them as the reminder that she really had escaped. Her phone rang just as she opened the door, unleashing a kaleidoscope of butterflies in her stomach.
“Hey, Rach,” she answered hesitantly.
“Hey. Just wanted to let you know shit is hitting the fan around here.”
Dread settled over her and now the butterflies were trying to escape her gut through her throat. “Ashley?”
“Oh, hun. Ashley is fine. I spoke with her an hour ago. She’s upset, obviously, but I told her you had to go, that something bad had happened to you and you couldn’t stay and you would come get her when you could.”
“Thank you.” Emery sat on the edge of the bed, the anxiety of the call leaking out of her body.
“Your mom went ballistic.”
“What?”
“She ripped me and dad a new asshole. She found out he helped you after you got arrested.”
“Oh shit, how?”
“I guess she got my number from the note you left Ashley.”
“Damn. I just wanted Ashley to be able to call you if she needed you,” Emery said and ran her hand through her hair. She hadn’t really thought about or cared how her leaving would impact her mother. It certainly didn’t seem like she cared that much when Emery was at home. It made her sad for the relationship they’d lost after her father passed away.
“It’s cool. I had to tell my dad though.”
Terror gripped Emery. “Tell your dad what?”
“That your boyfriend beat the fuck out of you and threatened to do the same to your sister. He told me you were stupid and went on and on about how he expects me never to get into that situation and all kinds of shit. Nothing I couldn’t handle, Em. I told him you’re sixteen, so of course you do stupid shit.”
She could finally breathe.
“What, you thought I would tell my dad?”
“I…”
“Don’t doubt me, Em. We’re going to do this. I promise.”
“Mom was really mad?”
“Mad is not the word I would use for what your mother was…it was feral. Like an animal. I thought she was going to try to rip my hair out. I told her I didn’t know where you went and that I had no idea you were leaving.”
“Did she believe you?”
“I don’t know, Em,” Rachel said sadly.
“Thanks, Rachel. For everything,” Emery said, trying not to cry. The eerie realization that while she may have escaped Atlanta and Phil’s physical touch, she’d never elude his grip on her life played over and over again in her mind.
“Happier news!” Rachel squealed. “I got the first round of money today…”
“Really?”
“Really. I mean, it was in a brown paper bag like the movies or something.”
“Why would he do it like that?”
“Derrick said this was the best way so that no one could trace the money. He said you could have some in cash and he’d open an account for you that no one would know about for the rest.”
She couldn’t believe that he’d actually done it, that he’d paid her to keep quiet. Bastard.
“Em, I got you,” Rachel said. “You know that, right?”
“Yeah, Rach. I know…”
Her entire life had changed because she was arrested and met Rachel, her best and only friend. It was amazing how one person could change so much.
CHAPTER NINE
New Person, Old Problems
Noah wasn’t there. She released a sigh. It was nice to be alone; if there weren’t girls in the apartment, it was full of stinky football players. The parade of different girls Noah brought in every week was amusing, but she liked it when the players camped out in the den for hours. They played video games and talked about girls and football. It gave her insight into a world that was foreign to her. She’d never been around boys like that before. They basically ignored her because that’s how Noah treated her. Emery thought that was best for everyone involved anyway and it allowed them to talk like she wasn’t there.
She sat on her bed, reading the instructions on the hair dye. Her laughter filled the silent room. Her mother would die if she knew that she was using boxed hair dye, brown at that, to cover the golden tresses her mother had always adored.
She watched herself in the mirror as she applied the color and realized that she could do this. Emily could be anyone she wanted to be. She would have short brown hair and an obnoxious laugh.