Finding Sam (Featured)

Chapter 42 - We Need To Talk

After spending the early afternoon beneath a gazebo we'd set up on the beach building sand castles with Olivia and Bella, Anna dropped me off for my occupational therapy appointment, which was followed right after by a counseling session a few blocks away. I was to call Anna as soon as I was finished and she'd pick me up.

Though I'd objected to attending the counseling sessions, it was one of the concessions I'd agreed to do with Doug as part of my rehabilitation from Serena's attack - that I go through the sessions to deal with the trauma of what had happened to me.

I hadn't told anyone about my nightmares, thinking it was all part of whatever drugs I was on, a combination of painkillers and anti-inflammatories. But my nightmares had awoken Anna and Michael enough times to be a real concern. The dreams were always the same - Serena coming after me with a knife, though sometimes, she transformed into David, and then David would turn into Roy, my stepfather.

Anna told Erik about my nightmares, and Erik mentioned it at our last meeting with Doug. Counseling sessions would help me, they said afterward. And even if I didn't exactly agree with their suggestion, I should, at least, try it out a few times.

The psychologist's office was three blocks south of the OT office and a walk in the late afternoon would do me some good. It had been awhile since I'd done any running and though any jarring motion made my hand still ache and swell, walking posed no problem for it. It was still encased in a removable splint, one that I still had to wear all the time to make sure that my finger would remain flexed, and give the tendon time to heal completely.

After my occupational therapy session, I called Anna to let her know I was headed for my counselor's office and that I'd call her when I was done. The walk was a pleasant one, spanning only three blocks along Sepulveda and Jane McKenzie-Smith was friendly and understanding of my concerns. Though she seemed to just sit in her chair listening to me, it actually felt good to talk to someone who wasn't family, like Anna, or one's future husband, like Erik. The only request she made of me was to set my phone to silent, or turn it off altogether, so no calls would bother us during the session.

It was six-thirty when I emerged from the counseling session and made my way down the street towards home. I felt good, elated even as if a heavy weight had been lifted from my shoulders. It felt right to tell someone that I was scared of Serena, not knowing what to expect from her now that I had filed charges against her. But most of all, I needed to tell someone that I was even more scared of David, and what he'd do to me once he got served his papers. Because he would do something to me, I thought. I could feel it.

I was so lost in my thoughts that I wasn't even aware of what I was doing. By the time I reached my house in Hermosa Beach - the psychologist was only a mile away from me - I realized what I'd just done without thinking. It wasn't until I found myself standing inside my house that I realized I was in the in-between place between my past and my future, just as Anna said that morning.

I didn't even notice the car parked in the driveway, beneath the purple-flowered jacaranda, nor the fact that the front door had been unlocked when I entered.

"Hello, Sam," David said as I entered the dining room to deposit the mail on the table. I'd been so deep in my thoughts that his voice startled me, and I dropped my phone on the floor. But before I could pick it up, David got to it first.

"We need to talk, my love."

"If you're here to pick up Michael, I have him this weekend, remember?" I said, trying hard to remain calm and wondering how David managed to get into the house again. With all the appointments with Doug and my occupational therapy sessions, I hadn't had time to change the locks since David broke into the house and took the property documents.