Fear overtook me as I stumbled after him, tears streaming down my face. “Brian, please! I’m scared. Take me to the hospital!”
He didn’t even look back, his pace quickening as he carried Laurel to safety. She glanced over his shoulder, meeting my desperate gaze with a cruel smirk. Though she didn’t speak, her lips silently formed the words: “Left again. Poor, Angie.”
Their figures disappeared into the distance, leaving me behind.
I collapsed onto the ground, my body weak and trembling. Being abandoned wasn’t my fault, but I couldn’t abandon myself. Summoning all my strength, I pushed the heavy steel beam off me, ignoring the searing pain in my injured hand. After what felt like an eternity, I managed to free myself.
I made it to the hospital on my own. What should have been a simple five-stitch wound turned into an eighteen-stitch ordeal because the flesh had been torn further when I moved the beam. As I sat in the sterile hospital room, anger and resolve swirled within me.
On the way to the airport, I hired a private investigator at an exorbitant cost. I instructed them to prepare a fake corpse and erase every trace of my existence. I wanted to disappear from Brian’s world entirely.