Page 1 of Shining Pearls
1
Claire
Icouldn’t believe I’d finally made it home. I’d escaped. This was the moment I’d been dreaming of and grasping onto as a beacon in the darkness for all of these months.
I stood at the front door of my house, wondering if I should knock or ring the doorbell. It was strange to not know the appropriate way to enter my own home. When I saw the keypad locking mechanism that we had installed as part of our front door upgrade, I decided to try my access code. When it worked, I took that as a good sign.
Grabbing the handle, I took a deep breath and stepped inside my home for the first time in over a year. The man standing in front of me, looking at me like I was a ghost, and my little girl were the reasons why I had fought so hard to survive. I had to make it back to them. They needed me, and I loved them both with my entire being.
My eyes locked onto my handsome husband, not quite able to believe that I was actually finally here with him. It was too surreal––almost like a marvelous dream that I was going to awaken from and return to the devastation that had been my reality for the past year.
Alex looked as stunned as I felt as he stood surrounded by the pile of broken glass where the vase my Aunt Janet had gotten us as a wedding gift had shattered when it slipped from his hands as soon as recognition sank in. He drank in my appearance for a long moment as if not quite believing I was really here. I must have looked like a dirty, disheveled mess, but I didn’t care. I was home.
I ached to run into his arms, but my feet remained firmly planted just inside the entryway of our home. For some strange reason, the tile beneath my feet caught my attention. I stared at the beautiful hunter green slate with lovely russet and gray streaks running through it. Alex and I had spent days narrowing down which tile we wanted to be the first thing guests saw upon entering our home. In the end, Alex had agreed to my selection, of course. He always did his best to make me happy.
Gazing down at the tile now, it was obvious that I chose wisely. The flooring gave a warm, inviting feeling to guests. It was strange, but I currently felt like a visitor in my own home. It had been so long since I had been able to cross this threshold and spend quality time with my family––standing here felt foreign.
Our dog, Pepper, was ecstatic to see me. She nearly bent herself in two as her tail flapped from one side of her body to the other, and she whimpered almost like she was crying with joy. I bent and rubbed her soft ears. “Hey, sweet girl. I missed you, too.”
The dog plopped her butt down right by my foot and leaned her weight against my leg. The familiarity of her was glorious after so long away, but I forced my eyes back up to Alex’s. As much as I loved her, the dog was not where my focus should be in this crucial moment.
My mind was foggy––clogged with so many overpowering emotions.
Alex was the first to regain his wits. He rushed forward, exhaling my name with what sounded like a mixture of both relief and disbelief. “Claire.”
He engulfed me into his warm embrace, and I sank into it, savoring the safety of having his strong arms wrapped around me. As much as I loved our house, hugging Alex––the love of my life––was where I truly felt at home. My body sagged into my husband’s warmth as he held me for the first time in far too long.
My mind was slogging slowly through quick sand, but it did finally begin to process the situation. It took a long moment to register as we stood there pressed together.
When I noticed his semi-hard penis pushing into my abdomen, my first thought was that he was as excited to see me as I was to see him. But that didn’t seem like an appropriate reaction for the very first moments of our reunion. That would come after I’d hugged my little girl to reassure her that I was home and after we sent the police to deal with my kidnapper’s body in his lair.
Alex and I would make love once we were snuggled together in our bed late tonight. I was looking forward to that, and I’m sure he was too, but an immediate hard-on didn’t seem like the right initial reaction from him over my return.
Suddenly, a memory of something I’d glimpsed when I first walked through our front door flashed in my mind. I’d been too excited and flustered to fully process it at the time, but I was fairly certain there was a woman on our sofa.
Placing my palms on Alex’s chest, I stepped back from him. My gaze darted to the couch and stayed there. My mouth fell open as I glared at the pretty woman looking back at me with a wide-eyed, shocked expression. She was vaguely familiar to me, so I must have seen her around town. She hadn’t grown up here, though, or I would have known her and all of her business.
Remembering the firmness I’d noticed in Alex’s pants, my eyes volleyed between this woman and my husband’s lap. My eyelashes fluttered as I attempted to make sense of this new horrific reality.
I struggled to find words. “Are you two…? Were you…?”
I couldn’t make myself even utter the awful questions that were swirling in my mind.Had Alex already moved on from me? Was he in a relationship with this woman? Was he turned on for her?
Alex was mine. He always had been, and I’d thought he always would be. My heart broke into a million pieces when I saw the guilty expression on my husband’s face.
The other woman had the decency to look mortified as she straightened her rumpled clothing and mumbled something about needing to get home before scurrying past me and out the door.
“Claire.” Alex’s pleading tone matched the look in his eyes. “I thought you were gone for good.”
It was true… He had given up on me and moved on with that woman. Dizziness overwhelmed me as I tried to assimilate this harsh reality with the marvelous fantasy reunion I’d been dreaming of for so long.
My stomach roiled, and I wavered on my feet. This must be what it felt like to pass out. My mind disassociated from my body as if it was a balloon flying high above us, watching with detachment as this nightmare unfolded.
Alex reached out to clasp my forearm and steady me. His hand scalded my skin, and I yanked out of his grasp.
I’d never before pulled away from his comforting touch. The heartbroken expression in those eyes I loved so much almost did me in, until I remembered that he had moved on with someone else while I was trapped away from him like a caged animal.
“Please let me explain.”
