The Roommate, Kiersten Modglin [best books for 20 year olds .txt] 📗

he didn’t need to keep up the ruse any longer. If I had a chance, this was it.

I eased one hand up, placing my palm on the stiff comforter, then the next. Once they were both at my sides, I pushed up. The room spun around me.

My throat was sore, and I felt like I hadn’t had anything to drink in weeks. I eased myself forward, sliding my feet onto the ground. They were heavy, landing with a thud. I sat still, waiting to see if I’d given myself up. I’d expected the noise to alert them that I was awake, expected to hear them rushing toward me at any moment, but instead, I was met with more silence.

That worried me more. I stiffened my back, my spine cracking loudly as I did. I looked over my shoulder, searching for my phone. If I could find it, I could call the police.

When I stood, it took me several minutes to regain equilibrium, the entire world tilting on its axis around me. I was exhausted and weak. My stomach was sore and empty, and I felt nauseous again.

I bit down, refusing to give in to the urge to vomit. I had to keep it together. I grabbed hold of the footboard and took slow, quiet steps across the room. My phone wasn’t lying on the nightstand. I leaned down, looking under the bed, my head jolting with the sudden move.

The phone wasn’t there, so I stood up, gripping the footboard with both hands. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t catch my breath.

I needed to keep moving. I had one chance to get myself out, and I couldn’t blow it.

I gripped the door knob, placing my other hand on the doorframe. My heart pounded, both from my nerves and from the jarring reality of being awake after having slept for so long.

With one swift motion, I swung the door open, staring around the dark living room. I shuffled my feet across the floor, trying to make sense of everything. Moonlight lit the room, casting shadows across the furniture.

Addy wasn’t there.

Neither was Elias.

Where were they?

I felt my gaze being drawn across the room to Elias’ door. Could they be in there…together? She wouldn’t, would she?

No.

Please no.

She didn’t see the wolf in sheep’s clothing. If they were so close before, if she trusted him now, perhaps she’d let her guard down. Perhaps she needed someone to comfort her through the hardship that was taking care of me. Elias, I was sure, was more than happy to oblige.

I shuffled my feet quicker, my hand resting on the wall as I made my way across the apartment and toward the door. I no longer cared about them hearing me. I had to get to her. I had to save her.

When I reached the door, I turned the knob, pushing it open and flipping on the light.

I sucked in a deep breath.

The bed was empty.

Elias was gone.

Addy was gone.

Chapter Thirty-Two

The room smelled stale. The smell of cologne had faded, replaced by sweat and cleaner, though it was every bit as dirty as it had been the last time I’d been in there. I looked all around, searching for a sign as to where they were.

“Addy?” I called out, though I knew it was useless. They were gone. They’d left me. I had no idea what he’d done with my wife, where he’d taken her. I screamed with rage and kicked the mattress, the motion with my unstable footing knocking me down. From where I sat on the floor, I pulled his sheets off the bed, tossing things across the room, angry tears blurring my vision. I was a toddler having a tantrum, wanting to destroy the things that belonged to my enemy.

Where were they?

Where had he taken her?

I’d never been so angry.

Never quaked with white-hot fury like I was in that moment.

I needed to find her.

I needed to find a phone.

I eased myself onto my hands and knees, reaching for the mattress to help me stand up. When I did, I froze, spying a box underneath the computer desk on his far wall. It was simple cardboard, no identifying features, but something about it made the hairs on my arms stand up.

I scooted myself forward, one hand, one knee, one hand, one knee, until I reached the desk. I shoved the chair out of the way, my movements still clumsy as I pulled it toward me. Sitting back on my butt, I tossed the lid off the box, digging inside. The box contained several yearbooks, newspaper clippings, and loose photos.

It took a moment for me to process what I was seeing, but once I had, I felt myself sobering up almost instantly, the outright fear was ice cold in my veins.

The photos, snapshots of Addy and me—or, my body at least. On each one—photos of prom and our wedding, and then more recently of us at the park, us out with Rory—he’d replaced my head with his own, taping a picture of his grinning face where mine had once been.

I dropped the pictures, one by one, with shaking hands, my stomach churning.

No.

No.

No.

No.

There was a wedding announcement, though he’d scribbled out my name and face, replacing both with his own. Rory’s birth announcement, his own name replacing mine there, too.

There was a plain, spiral-bound notebook near the bottom that I dragged out, then dropped as if it were on fire, the book landing open in front of me. Each of the one hundred and twenty pages were lined with scrawled-out handwriting.

Mrs. Addison Munn.

Mrs. Addison Munn.

Mrs. Addison Munn.

I threw the book across the room, trembling as I returned to the photos, each one more terrifying than the last as I realized what a monster I was truly dealing with. Even I hadn’t suspected it was this bad.

When I’d gone through all the loose photos, I opened the yearbook, almost too afraid to look. I flipped until I found Addy’s photo. The page was sticky and stiff, and he’d drawn