Anthony shoved the door open and pulled her into the house. A musty odor assaulted her nostrils. Glancing around the small room they’d entered, a couch and two chairs appeared to be the only furniture in the room. They looked as if they belonged in a landfill.
Anthony didn’t stop but propelled her through the room and down a hallway with a door on each side. He stopped at the door on the right, opened it and with a hard shove, pushed her inside. The force sent her reeling across the floor and into a table that sat in the center of the room. She straightened up just as the door closed and a lock clicked.
She ran across the floor and pulled on the doorknob, but it was no use. The door was bolted from the outside. There was no escape that way. Across the room she could make out the shape of a window, and she ran toward it. She grabbed the bottom of the window frame and pulled, but it wouldn’t budge.
Callie gazed around the dark room. A ladder-backed chair sat against the wall across the room. She dashed to the chair, picked it up and hurried back to the window. Grasping the back of the chair, she swung it with all her force at the window. The glass shattered and fell to the floor.
She raked the remaining pieces of glass from the window and prepared to climb out when her heart broke into as many pieces as the scattered glass.
Iron bars, bolted to the house, blocked her way.
She stared at the bars for a moment before she turned away and picked up the chair. She sat it upright at the table and dropped down into it. Crossing her arms on the table, she laid her head on them and thought about Seth. Had he missed her yet? If he had, maybe he was already looking for her. Had he found Marty? Was the lieutenant even still alive? If so, he could tell Seth what had happened. But even with that information, how could Seth ever find her at this deserted farm?
Her thoughts turned to her uncle, and she wondered how he was doing tonight. She and Seth had planned to go back by the hospital and see him on their way home when she was finished at the shelter. Now she would never see him again because she was about to die. A tear slipped from her eye, and she wiped at it.
Regret for all the things she should have done during her life flashed into her mind. There were many, but her biggest regret had to do with Seth. She wished she had told him the truth about why she wouldn’t marry him. If he’d known she couldn’t have children, maybe he could have accepted the chance for a rich life with someone else. But she would never know. If only she had the chance again, she would gladly tell him.
She sat up straight in her chair and stared past the iron bars on the window to the outside of the house. She rose to her feet, walked to the window and looked up into the overcast sky. Her fingers wrapped around the bars, and thoughts of the time she’d spent with Seth lately drifted through her mind.
She’d always known he was a good person, but the past week he had put aside his anger toward her and had done everything he could to make the ordeal with her uncle easier. In her heart she knew what had enabled him to do that—it was the faith he lived by each day. She’d seen it in his mother’s life, too. She had welcomed Callie into her home and gone way beyond what one would have expected in trying to help her get through a difficult time.
Seth and Uncle Dan, too, had tried many times to tell her about their faith and about how much God loved her, but she’d refused to listen. She’d blamed God for taking her father and mother and for allowing her to be injured to the point where she could never be a mother. Now, as she faced death in a remote farmhouse, she was completely alone.
Even as the thought entered her head, she remembered Seth once saying that God was always with us. When we’re going through the worst times in our lives, He doesn’t abandon us, Seth had said. He stays close and gives us peace to endure what must come. Could He do that for her now? Could He help her face death in a courageous way?