Free Resisting Fate (Predetermined) by Heather Van Fleet Page B

in my stomach.
    His timing, his phone call, it was off though. I wanted to talk to Jack. I wanted to ask him about yesterday. I wanted to ask him how he’d known I was in trouble. In the end, the boy on the phone won out. He had two years of my life already; the least I could’ve done was give him five more minutes, right?
    “Just know this, Emmy. Everything I have ever said to you in the past, about loving you, about being with you for forever? Well…I meant it…all of it. I will always mean it, if you will wait for me…”
    The ex d efinitely  had my attention then.
    My lovely blue polka dotted hospital gown, slipped off one of my shoulders, but I was too shocked with what I was hearing to lift it back up.
    Zachary still loved me and wanted to be with me? Really? No. I wasn’t hearing him correctly. I pressed a hand over my forehead, trying to make sense of the conversation.
    “Are you still there, Emmy?” I cracked my neck to the side, looking carefully over at Jack. I blinked back my tears as I watched him clench and unclench his fingers. His chin was tucked into his chest. His eyes were hard as they stared back at me. There was question there in his beautiful blues, but I couldn’t figure it out for the life of me.
    I stared down at my sheets. I couldn’t look at him, especially with Zachary spilling his guts to me like he was. I don’t know why that was…but something inside of my gut told me that was my wisest decision yet.
    “ Yeah, I’m here.” I blinked. Why in the hell was I crying again? I wiped the tears away. “I’m shocked. Why now, after all this time did you finally decide to call and tell me this? Hell, I’ve waited four freaking months to hear from you, and now all of a sudden you want to be together? You’re delusional!”
    I turned my head towards the window. The stupid tears finally ended at least. That was a start. Otherwise, I no longer knew what my emotion of the day was. Was I happy? Angry? Sad, a combination of all three? I grumbled. Confusion was the one emotion I could actually count on. Oh! And bitterness–me and that one, we’re besties.
    A powerful cracking sound rocketed through the room, and I jumped as I turned around to face Jack again. There was nothing there, he was gone, and in his wake was nothing more than a pile of plaster on the ground. I gaped at the wall and the hole he’d apparently pounded the hell out of was big. Mighty big.
    I settled my feet onto the ground, calling out his name. I had to get him back, but my voice wouldn’t travel beyond my contained room, and my body was too weak to even begin to move off the bed alone. Words that even the devil might have found offensive were rattling off over the phone. I cringed and bit my nail. Well, shit, I’d made one hell of a mistake.
    “What in the hell  is my cousin doing there, Emmy? He wasn’t supposed to be back in town for another six months! Dammit! I thought I’d have more time…” Zachary’s voice dropped off to a whisper. What the heck was he talking about? More time for what? I knew what I heard, and his weird selfish issues over Jack did nothing more than piss me off even more. He’d had his five minutes to explain, I was done, especially since he was the one who left me in the first place.
    “He’s here, or rather he was  here, to check up on me. He saved me last night, Zachary. He saved me from the monster I’ve been living with for over five years now.”
    I scrubbed my palm against my forehead; a headache pounded its way deeper into my skull.
    “I um…I don’t know what to say, Emmy.”
    “You don’t have to say anything, Zachary,” I settled back down on my side, “…you didn’t know, like I said before…”
    “Why didn’t you tell me about how bad it was getting with your stepfather?” I bit my bottom lip, debating on whether or not I wanted to tell him that reason. How did I tell the guy that I had loved, that I felt ashamed of my family? That I didn’t want him to