Why I Met Your Mother – Chapter 10 by MadeToFit

On the last word of the speech, he opened the door and swept out with a flourish. Breathing hard, he entered the bathroom, resting his head against the wall, trying to cool himself down and stop the blood roaring in his ears.

Now he just had to hope. Hope that she would see the sense in all of this and take his side over it. She didn’t owe him any of it of course, and if her conscience would let her, she would refuse, and in fifteen minutes he would be exposed.

He went over to the sink and splashed cold water over his face, breathing hard and thinking for a moment that he might vomit. Despite retching once, nothing came up and he decided eventually he felt well enough to just clean his teeth and head for bed. For a long while, Kiara’s door stayed shut. She was making no obvious efforts to move out of there. A brief scrub with his toothbrush and he rinsed his mouth out, catching sight of his reflection in the bathroom mirror. He could swear he had aged a year with all of this stress today. Still, it would all be over soon. He was at least in a much better position than he had been five minutes before. He swung the door back open and sauntered out, then along the corridor, pausing only briefly outside Kiara’s room, wishing so much he could see what was going on behind the door. Even if he could, maybe that wouldn’t give him any insight into her decision. How could the tables have been turned so definitely in the space of one short day? He couldn’t abide feeling so powerless, especially against the teenage girl, but too many unfortunate things had gone wrong. Ever since he’d started enjoying the girl, he’d been so careful to make sure he’d played the perfect game. Just one slip up and it had caused this whole chain of events.

He made sure his breathing was level by the time he entered the bedroom, hoping desperately that Sadie was already asleep. As it happened, she wasn’t, but she did look pretty tired as she opened her eyes and glanced over at him. He could at least be sure that by the time he’d gotten changed, those eyes would be firmly shut for the night again.

If this day were taking a turn for the better, it was taking its time over it. As his luck would have it though, Sadie had actually drifted off by the time he climbed in beside her. Then, after two or so minutes of nervous waiting in the dark, he heard the door along the hall open up. The floor creaked lightly as Kiara crept out, and started inching her way down the stairs. Phil breathed out with pure relief, and mouthed a silent prayer of thanks up to the ceiling.

Kiara realised she had never felt so empowered as she trod cautiously down the stairs. Reaching the hallway, she paused by the coat rack and lifted up Phil’s heavy greatcoat, which dominated all the rest. She dipped her hand into one of the inside pockets, but there was nothing there. At this point, she was half hoping that she couldn’t find the receipt at all. She had worked herself up so much to finally tell her mum everything, her adrenalin was beginning to race. As she stuffed her hand inside the other side though, she instantly felt the crumpled up piece of paper. She brought it out, as quietly as she could, then unfurled it to read what was printed there. There it was, just as he’d said, the tiny letters illuminated by the moonlight glinting in through the glass of their front door. ‘P. Turner: 1 double room, 1 night.’ Everything else was still legible too. The date, the majority of his card details, even his address and phone number jotted down. She flattened the paper against her chest and felt a wave of relief wash over her. This was it. Solid proof, pinning him to the crime of kidnapping her. No amount of smooth talking from him could get him out of this one. At worst, she could prove he’d taken her and raped her that night, at best she could accuse him of cheating. He’d said to Sadie he was at the sight all night, and this proved him as a complete liar. She’d never held such an important piece of paper in her life before. This was the end of it all. A way out. Her eyes moistened slightly at finally seeing the end to this terror. Her ducts were almost empty though and she decided instead to fold the paper back up, very carefully, then headed for the stairs. She leapt back up to her room, taking the steps two at a time, bolting inside and shutting the door over. She knew she’d have to hide this very carefully, because she couldn’t trust that man one inch. Even with this in her hand, she knew he’d try everything to get her back again. He’d looked somewhat bashful though tonight, and maybe he really had accepted that things between them were over. They had to be. With her body still aching from the latest attack only a couple of hours ago, and with her precious piece of evidence sitting inside her jewellery box under her bed, she got under her covers, feeling tired, but somehow happier than she had in months.

To her surprise, his manor had then utterly changed over those next few days. He’d stopped staring at her lustfully every chance he got, stopped making little comments to her whenever he saw her alone, and hadn’t even tried to lay a finger on her. He’d almost created a barrier between them and stayed at least a few inches away from her at any time. As each day passed, her mood lifted more and more. She wasn’t constantly having to look over her shoulder. She wasn’t having to arrange instances where she wouldn’t be at home with him alone. Didn’t have to just live in fear for the next time he would get the opportunity to fuck her again. The trauma she had been through would not leave her for a very long time, but at least now she knew that it had ended.

She’d panicked slightly when he’d ducked into her room the following Saturday night, but it was only to straighten out a few more details. “Did you get that receipt?” he asked her curiously, and she nodded mutely, deliberately moving to the far side of the room. “Ok. I’ve told your mum that I want to take you both out next Friday for a meal. We’ll eat together, then at the end, I’ll tell her I’ve got a job offer in Scotland. She won’t want to move you so far away, so then I have the weekend to pack and leave. Monday morning, I’m gone from your lives forever. I promise, ok?” She actually saw some sorrow registered in his eyes, but she’d learned a long time ago not to trust any kind of emotion he showed. She nodded eagerly, still saying nothing. She turned towards the window to look out of it, down into the back garden, ignoring him as best she could.

“Ok,” he said sadly and turned to leave.

Just as he did, she looked back towards him, a thought striking her. “And you don’t touch me at all before you go ok? Not even to say goodbye.”

He stopped and looked down, then shook his head. “If that’s what you want Kiara.” The moment the hurried conversation was over, he left her alone. She suddenly relaxed her tense muscles once he was out the room and lay on her bed. Her fists clenched in triumph, she actually felt proud. Proud of herself for withstanding everything he’d thrown at her, but that justice had tipped in her favour in the end. She then sat up and quickly set a timer on her phone, with zero hour being midnight next Sunday night. ‘193 hours and 51 minutes’ read the display. The number looked quite big, but she just took a long breath in and looked straight ahead defiantly. Just over one week? She could do that. Then she would have her mum back, have her body back, even more than that: have her life back.

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