Page 34 of Saving Grace

Seven years later

There’s nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be...

I read that once or maybe I heard it in a song. Either it was true or my ancestors hated me.

Of all the fucking places. The first time I see Atticus in more than seven years is in a children’s museum and in fucking Michigan. I had been living in Bloomfield Charter Township for almost seven years and the one time I decided to venture out of the small town into Detroit I ran into him? I had definitely pissed off somebody mystical or magical.

As if feeling me looking at him, without so much as searching the large crowd, his head swiveled in my direction and his eyes landed directly on me.

My heart lurched.

My mind was reeling.

For a moment I forgot how to breathe, forgot how to walk. All I could do was stand there. We simply stared at each other from across the room.

I took him in. He was still devastatingly handsome. Even dressed down in a black sweater, tailored pants and brown boots the same color as his leather jacket.

Everything about him was the same as when I’d last seen him. Didn’t look like he aged a day, except for his eyes. They seemed darker. Darker than when we were children, darker than before I left, almost as dark as his grandfather’s. Scarier, if that was even possible.

I wondered what had happened to change him, yet again. But then, the way he was looking at me had me feeling as if I might have played a role in it. That made me sad. I’d never want to be the reason that Atticus hurt. The old habit of feeling the need to protect and heal him urged me forward. I took a step in his direction. Then reality hit me, smack dab in the chest. He was going to kill me. I was in the same place as Atticus, with our son. The one that he didn’t know about.

And if that wasn’t enough motivation Atticus’ grandfather’s warning rang in my head , loud, as if he was right there in my ear telling me, “If he finds you, I’ll kill you.”

had too much to live for.

The ball of anxiety that usually twisted my heart when I simply thought about how’d he’d react to finding out he was a father was a hundred times worse.

My heartbeat picked up, sending my blood rushing to my ears drowning out all sound. If not for adrenaline I would have probably crumbled to the floor from the sheer weight of it all, but somehow I managed to straighten my face so the panic I was feeling didn’t show. I forced myself not to run.

Being that we stood so far apart, with nearly a hundred people between us, I figured I had time. I could get away before he reached me, or maybe he would just let me walk away. I hoped, though a part of me knew he wasn’t going to, but then again, maybe he would I reasoned. I knew from the one time I allowed myself to google him in seven years that he was married, with a four-year-old daughter which meant he was probably there, with his wife and child. He wouldn’t confront me in front of them.

That gave me a tiny bit of hope.

Turning away from his gaze, I headed in the direction of my child knowing we would be leaving the state before nightfall.

Even the thought of having to pick up and run again made my chest tight. Tears stung my eyed. Where we lived was the only home my son knew. And it had been a good home. We had friends. I had opened another boutique that was doing well, we were normal there, for seven years. Now it’ was all over.

Unshed tears started to fall. I knew I was only a breath away from full on sobbing. I pushed my way through the crowd.

They always tell the girls in the horror movies to never look back. When I was past the tangle of people, I looked back.

He was easily making his way through the crowd.

Fuck it. I started jogging the empty corridor. The click clacks of my shoes were too loud. I felt they were leading him to me. I paused. Slipping out of my sandals. I left them behind.

Barefoot I made it halfway down the hallways that led to the theater my son was watching an ocean docu-series in before he caught me.

He wrapped his meaty hand around my bicep, stopping my forward movement, then he snatched me in his direction. My back hit his front, then I was spun around.

My heart was literally in my throat when I came eye to eye with him.

His fake smile didn’t fool me. Like always his eyes told on him, they were filled with malice.

He leaned into me, “Long time no see, Grace.” his warm breath tickled my ear. The forced calm in his tone was scary.

I tried to take a step back, remove myself his personal space but he held firm.

I drew in deep steadying breaths in an attempt to seem calm.