Fortify: Eve of Extinction Book 5: A Thrilling Post-Apocalytic Survival Thriller by Stephanie Mylchreest & Mike Kraus

Author:Stephanie Mylchreest & Mike Kraus [Mylchreest, Stephanie & Kraus, Mike]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Muonic Press Inc
Published: 2024-07-19T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Sarah

Nate was back. He was there, in Asheville, and it wasn’t a nightmare—Sarah had pinched herself to be sure. She continued walking beside her father, the stroller he was pushing bumping over the road, Rusty inside staring at her like he could see right through her. Bailey and Aria walked beside her father, while Mia remained between them, holding tight to Sarah’s hand.

As they walked away from Nate, the morning sun doing little to warm the cold air gusting up the street, each step was surreal, as if she were moving through an alternate reality from which she couldn’t escape. It didn’t seem possible that Nate was there after all that time, a ghost she’d worked hard to leave in the past, but she’d seen him with her own eyes.

They soon reached home, Sparky’s excited barking and the joyful commotion as she greeted the other dogs momentarily piercing through Sarah’s daze. Their energy and playfulness provided a fleeting anchor to the present moment, and she swallowed hard as she walked inside the house, stepping around the dogs and stopping just inside the front door.

For a long moment, she stood in the entryway, staring at her reflection in the speckled mirror someone had placed on the side table. Her father and Mia walked further into the house, her father’s voice bubbling in the background as he chatted to Mia about the things they had to do that day. But as the world continued to move around her, Sarah was numb, her eyes on her own face, her thoughts a million miles away.

“Mom, who was that man?”

Sarah looked down to see Mia standing beside her, taking in her daughter’s gray eyes, her sweet face waiting for answers Sarah wasn’t ready to give. She swallowed, choked by the tightness in her throat.

“Not now, Mia.”

Daniel stepped closer and took Mia’s hand. “Come on, sweetie. Let’s make some more dog kibble. That was the next thing on our list for today, right?”

“That’s right,” Mia said, although she stared at Sarah as she spoke, her brows furrowed.

With arms that felt leaden, Sarah pulled Mia to her, embracing her, before shooting a grateful look at her father.

“You should go next door to my place for a bit. No one’s home. I’ll hold down the fort here,” Daniel said with a meaningful look that spoke volumes: take some time to pull yourself together.

Sarah nodded and headed to the small house next door, crossing the threshold into her father’s home, each step heavy with the weight of unprocessed emotions. The familiar surroundings of her father’s living room, with its well-worn furniture and the soft morning light streaming through the gaps in the boarded-up windows, offered no comfort. She sank onto the sofa, her gaze fixed vacantly on a wall, seeing nothing as her mind replayed memories she’d long repressed in excruciating detail.

The last couple of months of her pregnancy, a time filled with fear, loneliness, and the bitter sting of abandonment, flooded back with painful clarity. Nate was a wound she’d thought time had healed, but it throbbed with unexpected pain at his reappearance.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.