Total pages in book: 104
Estimated words: 102929 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 515(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 343(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102929 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 515(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 343(@300wpm)
Flight.
With absolutely no idea where I was going, I simply sprinted toward some sort of finale, unfamiliar with anything around me. I’d only been with the Bates for the past month. I didn’t have an ID card and didn’t know my Social Security number. I had no birth certificate. No documents for this new life I was abruptly thrown into, like yesterday’s trash.
The only possessions I owned were in my backpack. There were some clothes, a pair of sneakers, a hairbrush, and a few other random necessities. Though safely tucked in the front pocket were my most prized possessions, an old MP3 player with a set of white wire headphones that I randomly found in a box of donations ages ago.
I never expected how much I’d end up cherishing the music that was already downloaded on that device. Especially the orchestra pieces. I listened to them to memorize the feelings they stirred. I listened until it felt like the instruments were speaking for me. I listened until the pain and loneliness melted away. All the emotions I couldn’t discuss with anyone weren’t a problem anymore.
I was ten when I found that MP3 player, and for the first time, it felt as if something was mine and no one could take it away from me. If I somehow lost it, the songs would forever live inside me…
It kept me warm on the nights I was freezing.
It kept me fed on the days I was starving.
Most of all, it kept me loved when I didn’t know the meaning of the word.
Faster and faster I ran, praying I wouldn’t run right into the cops’ hands. There was no explanation for what had just happened.
To me.
To them.
To anyone.
This was a secret I’d share with no one.
My thoughts raced at the same speed I was charging through what seemed to be a subway. Mr. Bates’s lifeless body flashed in the forefront of my mind, and I shook the image away.
While a frantic whisper echoed in my thoughts… It was an accident, right?
I wasn’t a murderer.
Am I?
My legs burned.
My lungs ached.
My body yearned to give up. Maybe I’d lost too much blood.
None of those ailments stopped the agonizing questions screaming in my head. I pushed myself to keep going, one tormented step after another, and I ran toward safety. With the fresh air filling my lungs like a lifeline, I didn’t halt until I burst through the main entrance of the subway station and found a secluded wall to lean against.
I was still badly bleeding, staring at the graffiti, seeing if it would tell me what to do, where to go, and how to get there. My mind was a never-ending scramble, each thought more confusing than the last. And just as hopelessness threatened to devour me whole, a soft, faint sound of comfort sailed through the chaos.
* * *
The melody of a piano saved me from myself.
Chapter
Three
Isla
The hypnotizing melody of Ludovico Einaudi’s masterpiece “Experience” eloquently flowed through the subway. Each perfectly executed note from the piano solo slowly steadied my heart rate. With each note, the alluring tune drew me closer to an overpowering and immediate feeling of refuge. Outside of listening to my MP3 player, I couldn’t remember the last time I felt this way.
I didn’t know it then, but this precise moment was an invisible, gravitational pull—a force so strong that it would realign the stars in the sky, shifting my journey onto a path from which there would be no return. Whatever I thought, whatever I learned, whatever happened next, I had absolutely no control over.
I never believed in destiny.
To me, it was this made-up illusion that people told themselves to find hope in something—to feel like everything had a purpose, a reason. Especially when horrific situations made no sense and caused an enormous amount of pain that was ultimately inevitable, since fate seemed to take over.
It seemed like an excuse, and I refused to be a victim of luck.
Except that evening, the music didn’t only save my life, it also caused my damnation. You see, it wasn’t merely the song luring me in. If that were the case, this would have been easier. I would have been able to walk away. Perhaps even run. Instead, this fleeting moment was destined to become a permanent memory in my new life, and I had no idea how much influence it’d hold over me.
I couldn’t feel the fear in the pit of my stomach or the cuts all over my skin.
I couldn’t see anything but the melody.
Him.
The dim fluorescent lighting of the wide-open space did little to hide the breath that suddenly caught in my chest.
One minute, I stood by the graffitied wall, and the next, my star-eyed gaze collided with two bright, infectious Caribbean-blue eyes that were just as wide-eyed. It was this strong, all-consuming stare where there was no mistaking the instant connection we shared.