All The Ways He Didn't Look At Me

Chapter Four The Wrong Number

Abby’s POV

I hear the click on the other end of the line at the first ring and a slight rustle in the background. It stops when a sobs break through me, when I fall back to the floor, bringing my knees close to my chest.

“Hey,” I whisper, but it comes out as a choked sob. “I’m such an i***t, Harper. I thought he was…he was different, but he’s not. Jordan…he hurt me. I can’t even look at myself right now.”

Silence.

I taste the salt from my tears as my lips part again. "I know you probably think that I am an i***t, too. I should have left the first time he cheated on me, but who would want me, Harper? And you know what's stupid? I defended him. The first time he cheated on me, you told me he was bad news, yet I refused to let him go. And now… now, God, I just want to disappear."

The silence at the other end of the line seems to have gotten even louder.

“Harper?” I call softly, then sniffle after a beat. “Don’t tell me you are just going to ignore me. I need you.”

I hear a sudden deep breath and another rustle. “Abby.”

Everything in me stops when I hear that voice, his baritone stretching through me. For a moment, I just sit there on the floor, the phone pressed against my ears, frozen in time. Nothing moves, not even my tears dare make an entrance.

My heart hammers against my chest as my lips move. “Noah?”

His name falls off my lips in a whisper, as if scared that having it out there will make the situation more real than it already feels. Another shuffle sounds, but he doesn't answer immediately.

Three seconds.

I know because I count, my breath coming out in short gasps. His breathing comes next, deep and measured. I pull myself off the floor and wipe my face with my sleeve. “I … s**t! I didn’t mean to call you. I thought… Oh God! I thought I dialled Harper…”

It is quiet. Too quiet.

“Noah?”

Silence.

Shit!

I bring the phone away from my ear, my eyes taking in the blank screen. Panic courses through me as my feet move, pacing my room. When I reach the mirror, I halt at once, taking in my reflection. Swollen eyes, a tear-streaked face, and slightly parted lips.

"He's not going to do anything," I whisper to myself, shaking my head slightly. A memory reaches for me. I was thirteen at the time, and my favorite doll had just fallen into the water while swimming. I tried reaching for it, diving into the deep end even though Mom had warned me multiple times never to go there.

Noah wasn’t supposed to be inside the house. He always got into trouble when he snuck in to see my older brother, Wes. But suddenly, that day, he was there, looking over me as I struggled in the water.

I thought he was going to help me get the doll. It didn’t matter that he barely spoke to me, but in that moment, I needed him. But Noah stalked away, turning back around and heading into the building. I remembered staring at his retreating figure, feeling too much ache for a child.

Wes came out a second later, but I didn’t want the doll anymore. I didn’t want a lot of things because of Noah.

“He’s not,” I whisper again, tears drying on my face. “He doesn’t even live in Seattle.”

So when the knock sounds on the door, when it rakes through the whole building demandingly, I assume it is Jordan, returning to finish what he started. Only that Jordan doesn’t knock. I remain in front of the mirror, my eyes on the door, my heart threatening to rip out of my chest.

Time seems to slow down in that moment.

My breath hitches in my chest as the door suddenly pushes open. The dark hallway comes into view first, something blocking the light from passing through.

And then, in one second, he pushes in, drenched from the rain, a black hoodie clinging to every bit of him.

The room suddenly feels so small as his frame fills every inch of it. It feels hot, like the temperature in the room has been turned up a notch, like the air has been replaced by something else.

Something sharp and heavy.

In that split second, I forget how to breathe, my eyes trained on him as he searches my features. Neither of us says anything, but I catch the dim light in his green eyes. It makes him appear scary, but I don't move back.

Even though I haven’t seen him for five years until today, I know he won’t hurt me.

“Abby.”

My name falls from his lips like a groan. It reverberates through his chest so fervently that it makes me push forward a bit. I try to fight it, to ask him to leave, to explain that this is all some huge mistake.

But I press my lips tight when I see the muscle working in his jaw. My chest heaves as my lips part open. “How…Why did you come?”

A lot of questions rush through my head. How does Noah know where I live? And how did he know I was the one on the phone? When he called my name, he didn’t sound uncertain. He knew for sure.

Noah's eyes pull away from me, scanning the room quickly. The door closes behind him as he takes a slow step further, his scent enveloping the whole room. And just like that, all those years ago spent in the Carters' Mansion in Seattle come back.

Only that this time, I am not that kid who lost her doll in the water.

“Where is he?” His voice pierces through the silence, and his gaze meets mine again, green clashing with blue.

I swallow sharply. “Who?”

“The fucker who laid his hands on you?”

The door pushes open again in that instant.

And Jordan walks in.