Betrayed by My Fiancé: Left Pregnant in the Rainforest novel · Chapter 1 of 32
Chapter 1: Get Out
Furious that Hannah exposed Alyssa's salon, Jared shoves his pregnant fiancée out of his car in the Hoh Rain Forest and drives away, and after dark something heavy moves in the trees behind her.
"Jared, slow down."
I had one hand braced on the dashboard and the other on my stomach.
The G-Wagon swung wide around another bend on Upper Hoh Road.
Rain came at the windshield in sheets.
"I'm driving," he said.
He didn't look at me.
He hadn't looked at me since Forks.
"You're doing fifty on a wet road. I'm five months pregnant."
"Then maybe you should have thought about that before you went online."
So that was it.
"I posted lab results," I said. "Alyssa's salon burned three women's scalps. I tested what they put on those women. The pH was 12.8."
"You put her name on the internet."
"I put the numbers on the internet. Her name was already on the door."
He hit the steering wheel with the heel of his hand.
"You ruined her, Han. Do you know what her reviews look like? Do you know what people are sending her?"
"Do you know what the bride's scalp looks like?"
"I don't care about the bride!"
The wipers thudded back and forth.
I stared at the side of his face.
Ten years I'd known that face.
The straight nose. The gray eyes. The little muscle that jumped in his jaw when he wanted to win.
"Why do you care this much about her salon?" I said. "I'm your fiancée. I'm the one carrying your kid."
"Right now you're a liability."
He said it quietly.
That was worse than the yelling.
Then he stood on the brakes.
The tires slid in the mud.
The G-Wagon fishtailed and stopped on the shoulder, under trees so tall I couldn't see where they ended.
Moss hung off every branch.
The fog was so thick the road disappeared twenty feet ahead.
"Get out," he said.
I laughed.
"We're in the middle of a national park."
"Get out of the car."
He reached across me and shoved the passenger door open.
Cold rain blew in sideways and hit me in the face.
I folded both arms over my belly without thinking.
"Jared. It's pouring. Close the door."
"Her salon is finished because of your little crusade. This is your lesson."
"What about the baby? You're going to leave your baby out here?"
"There's a ranger station five miles down the road. You'll live."
He leaned over and unbuckled my seatbelt.
The click was very loud.
"I'm not walking five miles in this," I said. "I can't."
He just looked at me.
I waited for something in his face to change.
Nothing did.
He looked tired of me.
"Then next time you'll think before you go after Alyssa."
"Those women were burned, Jared."
"And Alyssa is getting torn apart online because of you."
"Because she hurt people!"
"Enough."
He reached across me again.
For one second I thought he was going to pull the door shut.
His palm hit my shoulder instead.
Hard.
I went sideways out of the seat.
My boots hit the mud, then my knees.
Pain shot up both legs.
Both my hands went around my stomach before I even knew I was falling.
"Jared!"
The rain soaked my hair in seconds.
I looked up at him through the open door.
"You can't leave me here."
"Watch me."
"Jared, please."
I hated the word the moment I said it.
Ten years, and I was on my knees in the mud saying please.
His eyes went to my stomach.
Something moved in his face.
I thought he remembered.
That it was his child. Ours.
Then his phone lit up in the cup holder.
ALYSSA.
He picked it up.
"Hey."
His voice went soft.
Patient.
The voice I'd been trying to get out of him for ten years.
Alyssa was crying on the speaker.
"They're leaving reviews again. Somebody threw red paint all over the door, Jared. All over it."
His jaw went tight.
"I'm handling it."
He looked back down at me.
Cold again.
"I'll call you when I'm done here."
He hung up.
"You're doing this because somebody threw paint at her salon?" I said.
"I'm doing this because you need to learn your actions have consequences."
"And leaving your pregnant fiancée in a rainforest doesn't?"
He smiled.
It wasn't a real smile.
"Ranger station. Five miles. Stop being dramatic."
He leaned across the seat and pulled the door shut.
"Jared!"
I hit the window with both palms.
"Jared!"
The locks clicked.
The G-Wagon pulled off the shoulder and threw mud across my jeans.
I got up and went after it.
"Jared!"
The red taillights went around the bend and were gone.
I stood alone in the middle of the road.
I wrapped both arms around my belly.
"It's okay," I whispered.
I said it to the baby, and then I said it again for me.
"He'll come back."
He would.
Jared got mean when he was angry. He slammed doors and went quiet for days.
But he always came back.
He wouldn't leave me out here in the dark.
Not pregnant, in Olympic National Park, with no phone.
I waited.
One hour.
Two.
I pulled my phone out of my pocket, and the screen stayed black. It had died before we passed the park sign.
My purse was on the floor of his car.
My teeth started to chatter.
Under the trees the dark came early, and it came all at once.
No headlights.
No engine coming back around the bend.
Then, somewhere behind me in the black trees, something heavy stepped on a branch.
It snapped.
And whatever had stepped on it didn't move again.
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