Know Your Worth ✔️

Chapter 15 - Stop Trying

⚠️ Warning - this chapter contains descriptions of rape and abuse.⚠️

This is my favourite chapter ❤️🥺 (I'll be saying that about 95% of the chapters in this book but still, I love it 😍)

I hope you love it, don't forget to vote and comment ❤️

~ Daniela's POV ~

The rest of our walk to Matlock was silent. Carson walked ahead of me, refusing to even acknowledge me once for the entire journey.

It was like I wasn't even there.

The whole time I was just wishing I could take it all back, hating myself for losing control and telling him when, in the end, there was no need to tell him. I just needed some kind of comfort from him but he didn't seem likely to give me anything. So all I could do was hold my broken necklace in my hand as we walked in silence.

I wasn't going to New York with him, I already knew that. There was no way I could go back there, not after everything that had happened with Ayden and now with Carson. It would be stupid for me to do that.

But, I had no where to go and after I'd gotten over the regret of telling him about Ayden, I couldn't stop thinking about where I was going to go.

I couldn't just stay with Carson now. As soon as we got to Matlock I knew things would start moving much faster and I would eventually have to go my own way before he went back to New York.

Maybe I could back to Ohio? I still owned my parents house, I could stay there and then get a job and settle down. Even if it was a painful option because of all the memories, it was also the best one for me. It was the only place I could be independent, where I didn't need to rely on anyone.

Where I could finally live for myself and make decisions for myself.

I was still in my own mind, busy debating and thinking about what I should do when we finally came across what seemed to be like the small town Diane and her husband had told us about. It was definitely nothing like I'd expected.

It was hardly a town, there were just a few small clusters of buildings here and there. It had a rustic feel to it, like something out of a Wild West movie out in the middle of absolutely nowhere.

I guess that's where we were though, so it made sense.

I stayed close behind Carson as we walked down the roads for what seemed like another fifteen minutes before we finally started seeing more and more signs of civilisation. Everything from the laundrette to the garage and shops all seemed to be closed which made sense it was probably early evening already.

We really needed to find a damn phone to keep track of the time.

Carson still didn't say a word to me as we walked, only stopping sometimes to read something taped to a door or a lamppost or to look around at where we were.

"Can I help you?" At the sound of a voice behind us, both Carson and I turned around to see a man coming out of what seemed to be a poker place. "Are you lost?"

"Yeah, kind of. It's kind of a long story but we need a car."

"A car?" Carson nodded his head as he stepped closer to the man. "We're trying to get to Shelton."

"Ah. Well, everything's closed around here now but there's a garage a couple of streets away from here that could help you tomorrow morning."

"But we don't have any where to stay tonight." When I spoke up for the first time, Carson glanced in my direction before turning back towards the man who seemed to be thinking.