Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 79332 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 397(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79332 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 397(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
“Ellie?” Mom says. “What situation?”
Dornan’s face is flushed and tense, veins bulging at his temples. I’ve never seen him enraged to where he’s lost all concept of what’s happening around him. “SHE’S PREGNANT,” he yells, shoving Colby again. “And one of these fuckers is responsible!”
I stare at Dornan, horror flooding through me in an ice-cold rush. My mouth drops open as I watch my mom stepping back, the news like a bullet to her heart. Colby’s eyes are wide with the same alarm, knowing that this turn of events has robbed us of the opportunity to deal with this pregnancy and our relationship with any kind of privacy. Seb and Micky are frozen, with eyes trained on their father’s face.
I don’t know how many seconds pass before I react, but it feels like many.
Dornan didn’t mean to do it. I know he loves me, but that love has just blown my universe apart.
27
SEBASTIAN
For a second, I have no idea what to do. Dornan has just blurted out our secret in the most terrible way, and Ellie is standing frozen like he stabbed her in the heart. Dornan still has Colby’s shirt in his fist, and I can see his other hand flexing as though he intends to throw a punch. There’s no way he’s hitting Colby with his monster sized fist.
I edge forward, intending to try to smooth the situation over when Ellie bolts. She flies past her mom on the stairs, traveling so quickly, my heart is in my mouth. The front door is yanked open and slammed before any of us can react to her exit. Micky steps in next to Colby, putting his hands up to diffuse Dornan’s anger.
“What is going on?” Lara says. “Ellie’s not pregnant. She has a stomach bug.” Even as she says the words, I can see the truth dawning. “She’s pregnant?” Her attention turns to the stairs and focuses down into the hallway below. “She’s gone.”
That gets Dornan’s attention. He drops Colby’s shirt and spins to look for Ellie. “Where did she go?”
The sound of an engine starting outside sets everyone in motion. Colby shoulders past dad and stomps down the stairs like a whirlwind. I’m not far behind, and Dornan and Micky follow closely. Lara is still yelling for an explanation, and dad bellows we need to get back upstairs and explain ourselves, but no one is listening.
Colby flings open the front door as Ellie’s car speeds out of the drive. She’s going too fast.
For fuck’s sake.
“We need to get her back,” Micky says quickly. He grabs the car keys from the console, but I raise my hand. “We’re not going to find her if we follow now. She’s long gone.” Turning, I focus my attention on Lara. “Check her room. We need to know if she has her phone on her?”
She blinks, still lost in the turmoil of what’s just happened. Celine disappears up the stairs, jogging to Ellie’s room.
“She’s pregnant?” Lara says again, her eyes wide. “Who. Who’s gotten Ellie pregnant?”
“COLBY. EXPLAIN. RIGHT NOW,” Dad yells.
“Her phone’s not here,” Celine calls.
“Lara, can you track Ellie’s phone? Can you tell us where she’s going?”
Lara dashes into the kitchen with her long hair streaming behind her, filled with an urgency that I know she doesn’t quite understand. Everything feels so frantic and crazy.
“EXPLAIN,” dad yells again.
“Harry, wait,” Lara says. “Here.” She hands me her unlocked phone, and I search to find the app that can track Ellie. The girl I love is reduced to a moving dot on a map.
“Have you found her?” Dornan asks.
“Yeah, but she’s still moving.”
“Let’s take the phone. We can follow her.” Micky is already sprinting to his car, his bare feet out of place on the driveway.
“COLBY,” dad yells, his eyeballs bugging out of his head.
“Not now, dad. Let us find her first.”
Lara puts her hand up to stop the conversation as we all pile out of the door and into Micky’s waiting car. I haven’t even gotten my door closed before he spins us to the end of the driveway. “Yell directions,” he orders.
“RIGHT,” I bellow, clutching Lara’s phone like it’s the key to the universe. I’m trying to find where Ellie is, and where she might go, and where we are, and where we have to go to follow her. It’s confusing as shit.
“Now?” Micky yells.
“LEFT,” I shout, turning the phone and squinting down at it in the dark.
“Give it here,” Dornan says, snatching it out of my hands. He holds it close to his face, the blue light illuminating his flared nose and flushed cheeks.
“She’s stopped…hang on…”
“Give it here,” Colby says, snatching it from Dornan.
Fuck. There’s going to be a flight over the phone now.
“Can you fuckers just tell me where to go?” Micky yells, frustrated.
“Molly’s. She’s stopped at Molly’s Motel.”
“Why the fuck has she gone there?” Dornan asks. When none of us says anything, he growls. “You took her to Molly’s? You put a baby in her at Molly’s?”