Unhinge: A Novel (Fairfax, Band 2) - Softcover

Buch 2 von 2: Fairfax

Read, Calia

 
9780553394788: Unhinge: A Novel (Fairfax, Band 2)
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0553394789 ISBN 13: 9780553394788
Verlag: Random House Publishing Group, 2016

Inhaltsangabe

In Calia Read’s electrifying and steamy novel of psychological suspense, a handsome stranger shatters a beautiful young woman’s picture-perfect vision of her past.

Hold your breath and count to ten. Soon it will be over before it ever began.
 
No matter how many times Victoria Donovan repeats that phrase to herself, she’s still trapped behind the walls of a mental institution. Once upon a time, her life was like a fantasy: Wes, the handsome fiancé, followed by a storybook wedding and a white picket fence. But then a picture-perfect marriage twisted into something sinister. And as Victoria’s world warped from dream to nightmare, her husband’s obsessions pushed her beyond the breaking point.

At first Fairfax Mental Health Institute seems like a safe place for Victoria to heal with her baby, Evelyn, and to hide from Wes, presumed dead by everyone except Victoria. Her husband is still alive, she has no doubt: He slips into her room at night to torment and tempt her. One smoldering kiss and she’s powerless. Of course, no one believes her about these visits. When she meets a sexy, mysterious stranger intent on helping her recall her past, Victoria isn’t sure she can trust him. But deep in her heart, she also knows that the only way out of Fairfax is to remember the way she came in.

Unhinge is intended for mature audiences.

Advance praise for Unhinge
 
“Unpredictable, unputdownable, and simply epic.”—New York Times bestselling author Katy Evans
 
“Calia Read has a way of making me feel as if I’m living inside her books. Unhinge is a haunting story that gripped me instantly and left me immersed in the world of Fairfax. I love it when books make such a lasting impression.”—Willow Aster, USA Today bestselling author of True Love Story

Die Inhaltsangabe kann sich auf eine andere Ausgabe dieses Titels beziehen.

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Calia Read is the author of Unhinge, Unravel, Breaking the Wrong, and Every Which Way. She lives in Germany with her husband and their four children.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

1

November 2015

“Twenty-three, twenty-four, twenty-five.”

Abruptly, I turn around and walk toward the other side of the room, continuing to count my steps. My feet are starting to ache; I don’t exactly wear heels here. If ever. But for him, I’ll wear them.

He’ll be here soon. He comes almost every night, but what makes tonight different is I’m determined to get him to help me.

Thirty minutes ago, I started getting ready. I put on my favorite dress. A simple black wrap dress. It’s his favorite too. I brushed my hair until the brown strands fell around my shoulders perfectly and I put a coat of lipstick on. Sprayed perfume on both pulse points.

I straightened up my room, smoothing the edges of my plain white comforter. Folding one of Evelyn’s blankets and draping it over the back of the rocking chair in the corner.

I stopped my pacing, long enough to peek into the bassinet. Evelyn’s wide blue eyes meet mine. She happily coos and kicks her legs rapidly. The smile she brings to my face is genuine—natural and pure. Everything in my life seems to be cloaked in fog, impossible to make out, but not Evelyn.

Very gently, I caress her cheek and brush the gossamer strands of her light brown hair away from her forehead. “I’m going to get us out of here. All right?”

She smiles widely as though she understands what I’m saying. I cover her small body with a blanket and kiss her on the forehead. Give her a few minutes and she’ll be out like a light.

Loudly, someone knocks on the door. The door creaks open and Kate, the night shift nurse, walks in. She’s in her midthirties. Her hair is always pulled back in a ponytail. Face stripped of makeup. She’s a mom of three. Every time I see her, she looks distracted and bored. As if Fairfax is the last place she wants to be.

But Kate’s not so bad. There are nurses much more terrible in this place than Kate.

“Lights out,” she says loudly.

Evelyn eyes open and close. I shoot Kate a withering look.

“Why are you dressed up?” she asks.

“No reason.”

Kate narrows her eyes. “Fine. Whatever. I don’t feel good and I have a kid that’s sick at home. Go have a night on the town for all I care.”

“If you’re ill why come to work? You could get my daughter sick,” I point out.

She sighs. “We wouldn’t want that, now would we?” Kate holds out a plastic cup with a colorful array of medication. “Here.”

Without a word, I take the cup and toss the pills back. Then I open my mouth dutifully and stick out my tongue. She barely looks. She takes the cup from me and throws it away in the bathroom.

“You should be in bed,” she calls out over her shoulder as she leaves, none too quietly.

I take this as my moment of opportunity and spit out the pills. I stopped taking them a month ago. In the three years I’ve been here, I’d always taken these pills. Never once did I question them. They did their job. They made me blissfully unaware of the world around me. They blotted out all the questions that danced around the corners of my mind. They made the days blur together.

But recently the questions had been getting louder. Loud enough that not even the medicine could block them out. Very swiftly, my body became sluggish, my actions robotic. And the whole time there was an all-out war in my mind.

So I stopped taking them, thinking the questions would just fade away.

But that only made things worse. Now the questions are accompanied by small flashes of memory. I realize there’s so much of my life that I don’t remember.

Sure, I remember some moments, but they’re mostly from my childhood. Family. Teenage years. College. Graduating. Getting my first job as a nurse.

But when I became Victoria Donovan—it all goes blank. There’s an enclosure around that part of my life that I don’t know how to get around.

And I think . . . no, I know that the only person in the world who can help me is him.

“Did you hear me?” Kate appears at my door again. “You need to get ready for bed.”

“I can’t. I have a—”

“I know. You have a date,” Kate cuts in. “Blah, blah, blah. I’ll check up on you in an hour.”

The chances of her following through are low, but I nod along and smile just to get her out of the room.

But, as she leaves, I quickly speak up. “Kate?” She turns. “Next time, can you not be so loud when you walk in? I’m trying to get my daughter to sleep.”

Kate rolls her eyes. “Yes, Victoria.”

The second the door shuts behind her, I push my bed away from the wall and stuff the pills in a little hole in the wall. It’s no bigger than the tip of an eraser. I found the hole by accident one day when I dropped a piece of paper behind my bed. Many times I’ve wondered how it got there. I like to think that some other patient made that hole and did the exact same thing.

I sit at the very edge of the bed, my heels tapping against the linoleum floor. The clock on the wall ticks slowly, almost taunting me with all the time that I’m losing.

He’ll be here any second. Of course he will.

Over and over I remind myself that I have to stand my ground and not give in to his words. If I follow these two rules then he can’t seduce me.

Even though I turn into a live wire that only comes alive when he’s nearby.

Skin tingles.

Heart races.

But not all of his visits are pretty. Sometimes he reveals the darker side of his heart and torments me with his knowing grin and cryptic words.

To put it simply, he’s a bad habit that I just can’t break. A habit that everyone around me thinks doesn’t exist.

“Your husband’s dead. . . .” My doctor’s words run across my mind.

I hug my stomach and hunch over, reminding myself to breathe.

They’re all wrong.

He’s not dead. It’s a lie.

He’s as real as it gets. My reaction is proof. But no one here believes me. It doesn’t matter how many times I tell them.

Abruptly, I stand up and start to pace the room. My heels clicking against the floor. I count my steps all the way to twenty-five before I start over and count again.

My eyes start to get heavy.

He’ll be here soon and then I’ll have my proof. One of the nurses will catch him and they’ll let me go.

Because then they’ll see I’m not crazy.

Right?

I settle on my bed and obsessively stare at the clock. Time ticks away.

10:45

10:46

10:47

My eyelids start to droop. I fade in and out before finally giving up and letting exhaustion take over.

The door opens quietly.

I lift my head and watch him as he steps into my room. I smile slowly. I don’t know how much time has gone by. Maybe a few hours.

Maybe a few minutes.

All that matters now is that he’s here. He’s always owned any room he walks into. The half smirk he wears so well shows he knows the effect he has on people.

I stand up and follow him with my eyes. My hands toy with the hem of my dress.

He hasn’t changed and I’m convinced he never will. His blond hair is cut short, his face freshly shaven. Those austere hazel eyes.

Even though the lights are off, my blinds are open, letting in stripes of silver light. They run across his face, making him look like an...

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Verlag
Random House Publishing Group
Erscheinungsdatum
2016
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0553394789
ISBN 13 
9780553394788
Einband
Taschenbuch
Anzahl der Seiten
400
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Verantwortliche Person
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