Talia stares at him, incredulous. “How are we supposed to sleep right now?”
“Because we’re safe here.”
“But Meera knows where you live.”
“Yes, but we spoke to security, and they’re not letting her past that front desk. We’ve locked the door. We’ve set the alarm. We’re safe here.”
Her eyes well up. Before she can stop them, the tears begin to spill. “I thought I was safe in my house too,” she says. “But now it’s gone. Now I don’t feel safe anywhere.”
Townsend takes her hand. “We’re safe here,” he repeats. “You’re safe here. I wouldn’t lie to you.”
“You wouldn’t lie to me?”
“Not on purpose.”
She doesn’t want to pick a fight, not now. But she needs to ask: “Then why did you never tell me that you and Meera dated?”
“Because we didn’t. We hooked up a few times more than two years ago. I didn’t think it was worth mentioning, because it literally meant nothing.”
“It meant enough for Meera to burn my house down over it.”
Townsend sighs, almost sounding annoyed. “She didn’t send those messages and make those threats and do all that shit she did because we dated. She did it because she’s a fucking insane person, okay? Had I known that, I never would have hooked up with her, just as you wouldn’t have spent the last three years being friends with her.”
He’s tired,she tells herself.It’s been a long day. He’s not angry with you. He loves you.“You’re right,” she says after a moment. “I know you’re right. I just feel so ... betrayed.”
“I know you do. I do too. Now please”—Townsend slips off the couch, tightening his grip on her hand—“can we get some sleep?”
She doesn’t budge. “What if we just leave? We could throw some stuff in a bag, take my car, and just drive. Townsend, please.” She can feel herself getting worked up, basically asking him to run away together like two reckless teenagers.
“Shhh.” Townsend rubs her arm with his other hand, but the gesture feels forced to Talia. “The police are working on locating a body. Once they find Amanda, they’ll be able to get Meera, and then we’ll be free of this nightmare. Until then, we should do as we’re told and stay here.”
“Fine.” Giving in, Talia follows him to the bedroom. She needs him to believe that she trusts him—and shedoestrust him. She just wishes he’d agree to pack a bag and run away with her, to some place where they could get a fresh start. A place where the ghosts won’t be able to follow them.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Townsend
Next to Townsend in bed, Talia snores softly.Lucky her,he thinks. He’s so tired he can feel the blood pumping behind his eyeballs, but sleep just won’t come. Instead, he lies awake, watching out the window as the sun starts to rise over Downtown Austin. It’s Saturday, Townsend realizes numbly. It’s a new day. His company’s fraudulent data is possibly moments away from being exposed, his ex is likely dead, and the police haven’t caught the psycho who’s threatening both him and his fiancée—but it’s a new day, and Talia looks so beautiful, her sleeping form illuminated by the glow of the rising sun.
A few hours have passed since he and Talia left the police station, and Townsend still can’t wrap his head around everything he’s learned. Amanda, possibly dead this whole time, while someone else has been posing as her just to harass him—it’s insane.
After Talia went off with Harris at the station, Townsend followed Burrows to a separate room, where the detective didn’t waste any time dropping his bombshell. Apparently, Amanda wasn’t Townsend’s stalker after all ... and she may not even be alive. Regret washed over him when he heard this—not for having broken up with Amanda but for having vilified her for so long. It was certainly tragic to see a beautiful young woman gone too soon (as damaged and self-destructive as shemay have been). However, he wasn’t in the right headspace to mourn—not yet. He was too distracted by his pent-up resentment, which now needed a new target.
“If Amanda wasn’t behind all those messages and threats,” he asked Burrows, “then who was?”
“Well.” Burrows cleared his throat. “We have reason to believe it could be Talia’s coworker, Meera Ratnam.”
Once again, Townsend felt his stomach drop. “Meera? Are you sure?” Meera, his fiancée’s best friend, who just that night was in his home, alone with him. She could have done anything she wanted to him, and yet, all she did was leave him with a threat:You deserve all the shit that’s coming your way.Was it possible she then tried to burn Talia’s house to the ground while she was inside it? She had proved herself savvier than Townsend had realized, sure ... but could she really be that unhinged?
Burrows gave him a curious look. “You don’t seem convinced.”
“It’s just ...” Townsend thought back to Meera’s unexpected visit to his condo, to those grunts of pain she’d made as she got on and off his sofa. “She has Hashimoto’s disease, right? From what I understand, it makes her pretty weak. Talia told me she always struggles in their Pilates classes. I just have a hard time picturing her breaking into a house, or throwing a brick through a window, or committing arson and fleeing the scene before she’s caught.”
“Valid point.” Burrows didn’t seem particularly surprised by this argument. Really, he didn’t have much of a reaction at all.
“Plus, she has a kid.” The more Townsend thought about it, the more doubt crept in. “She has this seven-year-old daughter who is her whole world.”
“Mothers can’t be criminals?”
