I watched the blood coat his teeth quickly, but he merely smiled, swiping the back of his hand across his mouth. He stood and I reached for his legs, but he stepped out of the way, too fast for me.
“Leave them alone!” I screamed.
He opened the door, and I heard a crack, then saw his body fall down, his hands grasping at his knee. “What the fuck?” he screamed, writhing on the floor as blood spilled out onto the carpet.
Vivienne stood there, a gun in her hand, and a terrified-but-triumphant look on her face. “Wes!” she cried, holding out a hand for me. I shoved myself up off the carpet, darting past Elias as he screamed, trying to stand up, but failing.
I reached my mother-in-law, wrapping an arm around her waist and leading her down the hallway as quickly as we could move. “Rory, let us in,” I cried when we reached the locked bedroom. “Come on, it’s Dad.”
I heard the soft click, and she pulled the door open just as I heard Elias began to slide his way out of the room. I looked back, seeing his bloody hand creeping out into the hallway. Pushing Vivienne into the room first, then shutting the door behind us, I grabbed Rory and kissed her head.
Addison was on the floor still, though I saw no blood. I had to believe, to hope, that he’d given her something similar to what he’d given me. I heard Elias scream out, the sound getting closer, and pushed us all to hide on the opposite side of the bed, dragging Addy’s body to join us.
“I called the police,” Vivienne said, her voice shaky and breathless. “It shouldn’t be long now.”
“Thank you,” I said, hoping it could encompass everything I had to be thankful for at that moment. I ran a hand over Addy’s chest.
“She’s breathing,” Rory told me, her voice a high-pitched whine. “She just won’t wake up.”
“It’s okay,” I said, hoping it was true. “It’s all going to be okay.” I found a strange sense of calm in the moment, even as Elias grew closer outside of the door. I could hear the sounds of him dragging himself down the hall, the noise getting louder as he grew near. Vivienne eyed me and then looked down at the gun, a confirmation in her eyes.
“I’m so sorry, Dad,” Rory cried, burying her face in my chest.
“It’s okay. It’s not your fault. None of this is your fault,” I said, wanting to say so much more. There was so much to tell her. So much I needed to say, but all I wanted to do was hold her. So, that’s what I did. I held her tightly with one arm and held Addy’s hand with the other as we bunkered down there, the gun in Vivienne’s hand, and Elias’ screams filling the house as we waited for the police to get there.
We were together. That was all that mattered.
And I knew then and there, as I held my family close, I’d never give anyone the chance to take them from me again.
Chapter Thirty-Five
SIX MONTHS LATER
I walked into the concrete room where I’d see Elias for the first time since that horrible night. Over the last few months, we’d learned the truth, some of it by piecing it together ourselves, some of it from the police.
Elias had been stalking us since we’d left high school. He’d been obsessed with Addy even then. I was still convinced that he may have had something to do with his brother’s death, but the police had assured me they had more than enough to focus on without reopening a case from more than twenty years ago.
Starting with the web cameras illegally spying on us, and the fact that they’d been able to trace the company’s hack back to Elias’ computer and found the cloning software from my phone on his computer. Also that they’d found all the messages he’d sent my fourteen-year-old daughter, pretending to be a teenage boy himself, as well as an entire pharmacy’s worth of drugs stashed in his closet…enough to tranquilize several horses for several weeks, in the words of the officer I’d spoken to.
The list went on and on.
We’d learned that the drugs had come from Garth, Elias’ dealer and only true friend, who’d been in on the whole thing.
Mac, Ariel, and Stephanie weren’t Elias’ friends at all. They were people he knew through the gaming community, but they’d barely known Elias before he’d hired them to ruin my life. It was Mac who had posed as “Matt,” Brody’s dad, the plan elaborate and cleverly executed.
Rory had admitted to us later that he’d told her he was twenty-one, which was why we hadn’t met him. They’d been talking for more than two years.
He’d been laying the groundwork, spying on us, and setting his plan in motion for even longer, all our lives, practically.
The police said we may never know the extent of what he’d done, the level to which the madness had descended.
Everything that had happened, he’d planned.
Everything.
At the end of the day, his main goal was to get to Rory, but I had to believe he wanted to punish me as well. He believed Addy belonged to him. That I’d stolen her from him. He wouldn’t have been satisfied until he’d stolen everything from me—my family, my job, and even my sanity—and he’d nearly succeeded.
The police assured us we were safe. That they had enough evidence to make sure Elias was never going to go free again, but that did little to calm our nerves.
We’d gotten rid of our computers and switched to basic phones, and after I left the prison that day, we were moving far away and changing our names. Vivienne would come with us, too. After how she’d saved my life, all of our lives, we owed her that much.
For all his effort, Elias had saved my marriage rather than
