Chapter 58

Cecilia My heart nearly stopped when I heard those footsteps approaching. Xavier? No, impossible. Even if he'd figured out I escaped and guessed which direction I'd gone, how would he know I was hiding on some random hillside? It made no sense. Then a chilling thought hit me—the man who had shouted outside the car window earlier. Could it be him? Had he been lurking nearby, watching me crawl out of the trunk and head down this road? Had he been following me this entire time? The thought made my skin crawl. I crouched lower, trying to burrow deeper into the vegetation, but it was pitch black. I couldn't see the path, and I didn't dare turn on my phone's flashlight. I was stumbling through the brush like a panicked rabbit. The footsteps behind me grew closer, more deliberate My mind raced with horrifying possibilities—being dragged into the wilderness in the middle of the night, my body never to be found, or being trafficked, or worse. Maybe I should have stayed in the car after all. No,