Hidden Temptations

Chapter Nineteen

It’s Monday morning, I slept right through Sunday, I was just exhausted. Lying in my bed, I pull my phone out, it’s 9 am. I check my messages, nothing. Not a single text. I better get up and shower, get that man's memory off of my bruised breast. I turn the shower on and get in. The hot water hurts my burns, I turn the water down, and shower as fast as I can to get out.

I wrap myself in my towel, and look into the foggy mirror. Is this how I feel about myself? Foggy, beaten, broken? No. I want to be strong, I want to change. I wipe the mirror, I see myself clearly. I blow dry my long blonde hair. I throw it up into a high ponytail, It's not what I usually do, but I want to be a different version of myself. A better version of myself.

I walk down the hall to my room and open my closet. There’s not much in there, mostly plain t shirts and one of Sarah’s shirts. I throw on Sarah’s shirt, it’s a bright yellow off the shoulder crop top. I put some cream and bandages on my burns before throwing on some light blue skinny jeans. I finish the new look with a pair of sandals. I walk back into the bathroom and look in the mirror, this is a good look. I smile to myself and decide to put some makeup on. Finished. A new me.

I head towards the stairs, “Mom! What’s for breakfast?!” I yelled as I walked down the stairs. I get to the bottom and turn left towards the kitchen, my mom comes out of her office, she’s fixing her skirt and her hair. “Uhhh, mom?”

“You look nice! There’s donuts and coffee on the counter.” She totally avoided the fact that she’s a mess. I look towards her office, Mark walks out.

“Oh! Hi Adeline!” Mark fixes his tie. “We were just, uh, talking about a case.”

“Yeah okay.” I giggle as I get to the kitchen, go mom. Mark is hot, he’s tall, and has dark brown hair, he has tan skin, and dark eyes.

Mark must have brought these donuts when he came over this morning, I’m not complaining. I take a bite, realizing this is the first thing I’ve had to eat since Peter tried to force me to have soup. I grab another donut, it’s gone within seconds. I take another, this one goes down slower, but I’m still not full. I took the last one, eat it. That was good.

“Adeline, we have some errands to run! Let’s go!” My mother yells from the dining room. I grab a coffee from the counter and head by my mom and Mark.

“Where are we going?” I ask while sipping on my coffee.

“We are going to change your number then we are stopping at the mall.” My mom says goodbye to Mark and I head outside to my moms car. Sarah is outside with Branden.

“Hey Sarah!” I wave across the yard.

“Hey Addie! I’m coming over later!” She smiles and blows me a kiss. “You look amazing! Love the shirt!” She winks and I get into the passenger seat of my moms car. I watch Mark as he leaves, and mother gets in the car.

“You ready?” She looks at me, places her hand on my shoulder. She starts the car and we leave. After a while we ended up at a car dealership.

“Why are we here?” I look around confused.

“You’re getting a new car. The hospital settled on your case, so I wanted to make this a surprise.” She smiles at me. “Well go on, go pick one.” I look at a lot of vehicles, cars, SUVs and trucks. I couldn’t make up my mind, but after a while I did. I need something that will make me feel safe and strong. I point at the truck I am standing next to, and my mom walks up.

“You sure?” She looks at me.

“Yes mom. This is the one.” I touch the 2019 Dark Grey Chevy Silverado truck. We go inside and fill out a bunch of paperwork.

“Alright, you can pick it up tomorrow! We’re going to put the final touches you are requesting and then it will be all yours.” The car salesman shakes my hand and my mother and I leave.

“Can we take a picture with it first?” I tug on my mom's arm.

“Of course.” I hand her my phone and pose next to my new truck. She snaps the picture. “You look so happy Adeline.”

“I am thankful mom! I’m just still kind of scared to drive, I haven’t driven since the accident.” I shrug my shoulders and hand my head. I feel my mom wrap her arms around me. She is just as scared as I am, she doesn’t want to lose me the same way we thought we lost my dad.

“Let’s go get your number changed and go to the mall.” She walks with me back to her car. I need to tell Sarah about my new truck, she’s gonna be so excited! I take out my phone and start to text.

“Girl! Look at my new truck!” I attach the picture and send.

/Ding/

“Wow! It looks good! We have to take it for a drive!”

“We will! Come pick it up with me tomorrow!” Sent.

/Ding/

“Sounds like a plan!” I look at my phone, I don’t respond to Sarah, but I open mine and Ian’s messages.

“Hey, I’m getting a new number, I’ll text you as soon as I get it.” sent.

We get to the phone store, I get my number changed and we head to the mall. I text Sarah on the way making sure she has my new number. With them only changing my number, nothing on my phone changed. Time to head to the mall. I think I’m going to get a whole new wardrobe, I feel amazing being dressed in something else other than black t shirts and jeans. We get into the mall and head up to the clothing store. I’m going through the clothing rack looking for some new clothes.

“Addie.” I turn around, wow. I can’t believe it, it’s Bryan.

“What do you want Bryan?” I turn away and continue looking through the clothes.

“I want to say I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you, but how could you do that with Mr. Matthews?” Bryan said. I look around for my mom, she isn’t in sight, she must be in another store.

“What I do is none of your business.” I still don’t look Bryan in the eye, because it really is none of his business.

“Well, you hurt me. We had a good date, and I was supposed to be the one to walk you into your party, then he does? Really Addie, he was our teacher!” He takes a step closer. I turn around.

“You think your feelings matter to me? I went through hell these past two weeks, a car accident, two hospital stays, having to be in a wheelchair, being kidnapped, and then assaulted by the same man after my party!!” I scream at him. His feelings are nothing to what I am feeling right now. “Now leave me alone Bryan.” He is taken back. He doesn’t know what to say, he walks away. I grab a few things off the rack, and some new skinny jeans, pay for them and head out to find my mom. She is right outside of the store on the phone. I walk up to her and pull my phone out.

I type out a message to Ian

“Hey, it’s Addie. I need to see you.” Sent.

“Are you ready to go?” My mom put her phone back in her purse.

“Yeah, more than ready.” We head out of the mall and head home. I can’t stop thinking about what Bryan said. I can’t believe he had the audacity to say that to me. He had no right. I could have had him arrested for snooping in my backyard, but I didn’t, I saved his scholarship. Ugh, I hate what everything Peter has done to my life.

We pull up in our driveway and I go up to my room without talking to my mom. She seems occupied with her phone anyways.

I lay the bags of clothes on the floor in my room and I lay on my bed, I’m still so mad.

/Ding/

It’s from Ian.

“Where and when?” My heart starts to race. He’s not even here and he already is making me feel better.

“What about your place? 8 o’clock?” Sent. Is it a good idea to be alone with him? I mean after everything he is the only one who can protect me. The only one I want to be with. I just need a way to get to him tonight.

/Ding/

“Yes.” Ian responds, now my heart is racing even more. I need to get ready. Should I dress up? I need Sarah’s help. I dial Sarah’s number.

“Sarah! I need you to come over, with a cute date night dress!!” I yell into the phone!

“Woah! I’ll be over in a minute!” She hangs up the phone. I look through the bags of clothes that I just bought at the mall. I lay all of my new clothes out on my bed, I have cute crop tops, new shirts, and new skinny jeans. I didn’t grab anything that is good enough for Ian!

I hear footsteps running up the stairs. Sarah gets to my bedroom. Panting.

“Help! I have a date with Ian tonight and I don’t have anything to wear!” I rummage through my closet even more.

“Don’t worry, I brought the perfect dress.” She holds up a small black strapless dress. It has a slit up the right leg.

“What about my burns?” I look down at my legs, why can’t they just go away, same with this stupid cast on my wrist.

“Ian doesn’t care about that! Try it on.” She hands me the dress.

I slip on the little black dress. It’s tight and shows my cleavage. “What do you think?”

“You look hot, Addie!” She touches my shoulder with her finger and acts like she burns herself. We both laugh. “Let me do your hair and make up. How are you gonna get there?”

“I was going to ask you to take me, and just tell my mom we are going out.” I look at her with puppy dog eyes, I need her right now, I need to get to Ian.

“I got you.” She winks at me and starts fiddling with my hair. “All done.”

She pulls me to the bathroom to look in the mirror, I look different, but a good different.

By the time she got my hair and make up done it was 7:30 pm.

“You ready?” Sarah fixes the back of my dress and we head down stairs. My mom isn’t in the dining room which is weird.

“Mom! I’m going out with Sarah! I’ll be out late!” I yell across the house hoping she could hear me.

“Okay Adeline! Be safe!” My mom yell’s back without making an appearance to say goodbye.

Sarah and I leave the house and walked over to her car. We get in and she drives me over to Ian’s.