MOVING ON

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Drew leaving was the hardest thing I've ever had to deal with, and I sunk deeper into depression once he was gone.

I moved out of Drew's place so he can stop paying my bills and moved back in with my mom to help her with the twins. It isn't lost on me that Drew choosing to dump me was because of her, but that's all water under the bridge and it won't bring Drew back. Nothing will.

The only thing that seems to help my current mood, is going to church, helping Bill get on his feet, and talking to Grams. She told me the only way out of this emotional slump I'm in is the way through. In other words, in order to mend my broken heart, I have to confront the fact that its broken and I have to forgive Drew, his mom, and myself.

That' easier said than done. Especially the forgiving myself part. I forgave Drew and his mom a long time ago.

"I'm heading out Sidney," Grams tells me. "Are you sure you'll be okay here alone?"

"I'm sure." I nod.

Grams kisses me on the head, then leaves. She's headed to one of her usual retreats, which means I'll have the house to myself since Bill doesn't EVER come out of his room unless food is involved, or he has to go to work.

One day I'm going to set him up with a blind date and get him back out there. This sad existence he's adopted is not the business.

After Grams leaves, I spend most of the day in my room watching Netflix and end up falling asleep on my bed. When I went to sleep it was still daylight out, but now my room is dark, and the moon is out. I start to sit up when someone lunges at me from the shadows in the corner of my room, cupping my mouth with their hand.

As my eyes adjust to the darkness, I realize I can see his face. Slowly, dread fills me from my head to my toes.

"Did you miss me?" Dr. Hadley smiles. My blood runs cold. "I see you've finally gotten rid of your boyfriend. I was growing impatient and contemplated killing him several times."

"Is that why you ran his mom off the road?" I ask.

He frowns. "I have no need to go after anyone else. You're the one I want."

I believe him, but if he didn't run Drew's mom off the road, who did...?

"What do you want?"

"To finish what we started." His eyes devour every inch of me.

"Did the Isaacs send you here to do this?"

"No. They're too busy trying to save their precious image to worry about my comings and goings."

Having distracted him with my questions, I finally get my hand around the base of my lamp and use it to crack him upside his head, shoving him into my dresser. I'm on my feet and bolting towards my bedroom door when he tackles me to the ground.

"Not this time." He grins sinisterly, proceeding to drag me into my bathroom by my hair with his hand over my mouth to muffle my screams. "I've dreamt about this day in great detail and you're not going to rob me a second time."

He tosses me in the bathroom, and I collide into a wall with a sickening thud. He's about to close the bathroom door when Bill appears in the doorway followed by Buster. They must've heard the commotion and come to check on me.

Once they realize what's happening, something in my stepdad snaps and he tackles Hadley to the floor. Hadley tries and fails to wrench free from Bill's grasp, but my stepdad is stronger. He grabs the lid from the toilet bowl and cracks Hadley over the head with it, rendering him unconscious.

Meanwhile, Buster is already on the phone with police, and several minutes later sirens sound outside.

"In here!" Buster shouts while my stepdad looks me over for injuries.

Footsteps thunder down the hall towards us and Hadley is quickly arrested.

You'd think with his arrest my worries would be over, but little did I know, they were just beginning.

After Hadley's arrest, he agreed to testify against the Isaac's therefore putting a target on both our backs. We're the only two people in the world who can make them pay for their crimes, but if we were to somehow disappear, so would the case against them.

Understanding this, my parents tightened the leash, or should I say noose around my neck even tighter. My dad hired a team of bodyguards to follow me everywhere. Even to college, and I can't even go to the bathroom by myself. And as you can imagine, making friends with several hulking, menacing towers standing around me is next to impossible.

Even the coach for Sac State, coach Danvers, find their presence intimidating, and she intimidates me.

Eventually coach says something to my parents who agree to dial back the security during practice. Now if only they can hurry up and put the Isaacs away, everyone will be better off.

"All right ladies! That's a wrap!" Coach Danvers calls practice to an end. "Sidney, my office please."

Her office?

Worried I may have done something wrong, or I'm not as good as she wants me to be, I reluctantly follow coach Danvers to her office in the locker room while the rest of my teammates prepare to leave.

"Sit." She instructs, motioning to the seat on the other side of her desk.

I take the seat across from her and she pulls out a folder that she thumbs through until she finds what she's looking for, then turns the folder around and pushes it across the table to me.

I look down at the page she has the folder opened up to, but I don't understand why she's showing me this.

"Is something wrong?" I frown.

Leaning over the table she points about halfway down the page in front of me. "Read."

As I read where she's instructed, my eyes widen to the size of saucers when I see why she brought me into her office.

"These are the results of your physical, Sidney. According to this you're-"

"Pregnant." I finish the sentence for her.

I'm pregnant...

And my world as I know it has just come grinding to a screeching halt.

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