"It’s not what I think? Then what is it?" My voice rose, adamant. “Where did this blood come from?”
"Nothing happened!" Her words were nearly lost, a whisper swallowed by the building tempest. She looked away, a portrait of torment against the backdrop of an angry sky.
"Olivia, look at me!" I demanded, reaching for her, desperate to wrench the truth from her quivering lips. But the wind howled louder as if nature itself was conspiring to keep her secrets safe.
"Stop it!" Olivia's voice cracked like the whip of lightning outside, her hands darting out to seize the bloody evidence from my grip. The T-shirt hung between us for a suspended second before she wrenched it free.
"Olivia—" I began, but she was already moving.
"Stop!" she hurled back at me, her voice laced with raw emotion. Her feet drummed a rapid retreat across the wooden floor, each step a loud noise in the otherwise silent bungalow.
"Olivia!" My call was stern and authoritative, but she didn't slow. She slammed the door open, and the wind snatched it from her grasp with a violent thud against the wall.
I stood there, the space where the T-shirt had been still warm in my hands. With a deep breath, I followed, reaching the doorway just in time to see her figure blur into the storm's fury.
"Olivia!" I shouted, but the wind swallowed my words whole.
She ran away, her silhouette etched briefly as lightning forked across the sky. Thunder growled a warning, rolling over the island like an angry beast awakened.
When the electric light caught her face, it was a canvas of despair and defiance, tears carving clean lines down her cheeks. She didn't look back; her body was angled forward against the gale that now whipped her hair into wild tendrils.
"Damn it," I muttered, heart racing with the same intensity as the heavens above. I knew better than to let her go alone into this. I knew the danger wasn't just the storm itself but what brewed within her, untamed and desperate.
"Olivia!" My voice fought to rise above the cacophony of nature's rage, hoping beyond hope that it would reach her, that it might get her back to safety, back to me.
But she was gone, devoured by the storm, leaving only the echo of her flight and the unanswered questions that howled with the wind.
I went after her.
Of course, I did.
Chapter28
"Olivia!"
My plea was a mere whisper against the wind's howl. I stumbled forward, the first sheets of rain pelting me like shards of glass.
"Olivia!" This time, with more force and determination steeling my voice despite the wind's insistence on silencing me. My feet skidded on the slick wooden planks of the bungalow's porch as I launched myself forward.
Rain hammered down, stinging my eyes and blurring my vision. I blinked rapidly, striving to keep sight of the retreating figure that had been my daughter only moments before. The world around me had become a watercolor painting left out in the rain, edges bleeding, forms melding together under the onslaught.
"Olivia, stop!" I gasped, my breath catching in my throat as gusts of wind fought my advance. Palm trees bowed and danced in a frenzied tango above me, unsettled by the encroaching fury of nature.
"Mom, go back!" Her distant cry reached me, distorted and fragmented. But it was her voice, unmistakably Olivia's.
"Can't do that!" I yelled back, though I wasn't sure she heard. My agent instincts kicked in, every sense attuned to the chaos, searching for order within it. I had to reach her, had to bring her back from the brink—whatever it took.
Lightning cleaved the sky, a brief, brilliant guide lighting my path. Thunder boomed, an unrelenting drumbeat urging me on. The rain turned torrential, a relentless downpour that soaked through my clothes. Yet, my heart burned with worry, pounding a rhythm that matched the heavens.
I couldn’t see her anymore.
"Olivia!"
No response. Only the sound of the wind, mocking and challenging.
"Damn," I gritted out between clenched teeth, pushing onward. Ahead, the foliage whipped into a frenzy, thrashing as if to block my way. Each step was heavier and slower as I fought the deluge that sought to drive me back.
"Come on, Eva," I muttered to myself. "Keep moving."
