“Wow! Just wow. She raised her hands in the air in a dramatic way. “So I am a hostage now, after you’ve gotten what you wanted from me.” Vanessa raised her eyebrows, giving Darryl a questioning look.
Why was she even surprised? She shouldn’t have expected him to be different from others. They are all the same, she told herself. They act angelic, and they change when they are done with you. Just like Emmy did.
“I shouldn’t have expected anything different from a player like you,” she hissed.
“Enough already. Stop your childish attitude.”
Darryl tightened his grip on the steering wheel, trying to focus on the road. His fist clenched tighter as he tried to control his irritation.
“No. The only person that needs to stop is you. Stop it! Stop the car. She yelled at him.
“Are you out of your mind?” He turned to look at her, to confirm if she was not serious about asking him to stop the car. “I’m not stopping the car, so you better sit still and enjoy the fucking ride.”
Darryl gritted his teeth at Vanessa’s reaction. Why was she overreacting because he asked her to move in with him? To him, Vanessa sounded like he had forced her to do everything she had done.
At that moment, Vanessa lunged for the steering wheel unexpectedly. Her hands grabbed at Darryl’s grip on the steering wheel.
“Stop the car!” She said furiously.
Darryl, caught off guard by the sudden movement and her sudden outburst, felt a surge of resistance against his own hands. If his hold hadn’t been firm, the car would have lurched out of control.
“What the fuck, Vanessa! Do you want to get us killed?”
“I would rather die than enjoy the ride with a crazy man like you.” she shot daggers at Darryl.
Darryl was startled by Vanessa’s display of hostility. He knew Vanessa was dramatic, but he didn’t expect that reaction from her.
She grabbed the steering wheel. He could not wrap his head around what had just happened.
Darryl wrestled the car to a halt as he pulled over at the side of the road. For the first time, he noticed the weather. The sky blurred because of the heavy clouds, indicating an impending downpour.
His eyes moved from the sky to Vanessa, his heart pounded in his chest as he noticed she was fumbling with the seat belt.
“What do you think you are doing?”
This woman beside him was not the Vanessa he had known, she was a stranger.
“Getting away from you, idiot.” She shot, causing a shiver down his spine.
He fixed his eyes on her, his gaze intent, searching for any familiar trace that she was bluffing, but the chilling realization hit him that she would get out of the car if he didn’t do anything to stop her.
As Vanessa struggled with the seat belt, her eyes flickered at her hands. Instantly, she recognized the ring on her finger. Anger surged through her as she battled with the ring.
Her plan was to throw his ring in his face and walk out of his life. After so much struggle, the ring didn’t come off her finger. She tried different ways to pull the ring off, but it wasn’t coming off.
“Why won’t it come off?” She asked furiously, throwing her hand in his face.
A sly smile played on Darryl’s lips as he watched her struggle for nothing. “It is locked. Don’t fight it because you can’t force it off until I open it myself.” A smug look etched on his face.
A groan escaped Vanessa’s lips as she heard his revelation. It was unbelievable that Darryl had locked the ring on her finger. She struggled with the ring again, but her struggle was wasted.
She had never in her life witnessed the stunt Darryl pulled on her. “You are a psychopath. How could you do this to me? You locked a ring on my finger for heaven’s sake.” She screamed, the vein on her neck popped up as she shouted at the top of her lungs.
Flinching at the sound of Vanessa’s scream, he turned his face to the window, looking at the heavy downpour.
“I knew you would do something stupid, but I didn’t know you would act this way. You are overreacting for fuck sake.”
Darryl didn’t notice that Vanessa had opened the door of the car. All he heard was the loud bang of the car door. He hit the wheel, trying to use the sound of the hooter to stop her, but his effort failed.
Rain lashed out at Vanessa as she walked away from Darryl’s presence. Ignoring how her hair and wedding dress cling to her damp skin. The once exquisite dress was now dirty as she dragged her heels along the flooded pavement of the road. Despite the heavy downpour, she marched forward, her face a mask of determination to stay away from Darryl. She heard the persistent horn of his car, but she ignored it.
As the sound of the hooter became louder, she could tell Darryl was getting closer to her. So she increased her steps just to get far away before he could get to her.
Cars moved down the highway, splashing water on Vanessa, but she couldn’t care less. Even the throbbing of her ankle didn’t stop her from pressing on.
A sleek black car glided to a halt beside her, stopping her from proceeding with her journey. Vanessa’s eyes moved to the driver’s side to see who had stopped her walk. She froze on the spot, her eyes widened, and her body tensed as recognition dawned on her.
She remained speechless at the impossible that had happened. There, in the driver’s seat, was Emmy, the last person she expected to see.
“Emmy”, his name escaped her lips like venom. A silent understanding passed between Vanessa and Emmy as they stared intensely into each other’s eyes.
Darryl, who was driving slowly behind her, saw the unfolding drama. Who was that? And why did the driver stop by Vanessa? He wondered as he watched the drama unfold.
Without wasting time, he got out of the car and raced towards her. His eyes, wide with concern, scanned the scene as he sprinted through the rain.
As Darryl drew closer, the car remained motionless, and its occupants remained hidden from his view. But he could see the shocked look on Vanessa’s face. Finally, he got to Vanessa’s side, and he got the chance to see the occupant of the car.
“Stop staring and move it man.” Darryl waved his hand in dismissal. He didn’t like the idea of someone else staring at Vanessa.
Emmy stepped on the gas and drove away, leaving Vanessa and Darryl alone in the rain.
“Emmy” she repeated before she dropped into Darryl’s arms.