“I still don’t understand why this asshole goes silent. What’s the purpose of threatening and then poof. Nothing.”
“I wish I knew.”
The only good thing about this trip is that Lily will meet my family. I already know they’re going to love her.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Lily
We’re finally in Chicago and Tristan and I are headed to my parents house. We’re going alone to talk to my parents, but the others will join us when I text. Tristan and I felt that it would be better if we didn’t overwhelm them with everyone. But the closer we get, the more nervous I get. I don’t know how to tell my parents that I have a stalker. And one that’s making everyone crazy. From what they’ve been saying, the fact that whoever it is, is playing a bigger game with me.
“Could this stalker be the reason that Carson left me?” I ask Tristan.
“What do you mean? Are you asking if this person could’ve hurt Carson?”
“Yes.”
“Sure, anything’s possible. Especially in a situation like this. We asked Sebastiano and Francesco to look into Carson’s disappearance. They wanted me to ask you if you’re prepared to know what happened to him.”
“You’re asking me if I’ll be okay if he’s dead? Or if he just left me for whatever reason?”
“Yes. Because no one knows what really happened yet.”
“I’ll be okay. I’m not alone in this and everyone I have around me makes me feel stronger. Will it hurt knowing he left me on purpose? Of course it will. But I’ve also had two years to get over him. And now I can see all the things that he was that I didn’t like. Things that I never would’ve seen if he had stayed with me. And I know that because I never saw it before.”
“Like what?”
“He never wanted to kiss me in public. That always bothered me because I’m an affectionate person. I like holding hands and hugging. But he only did that when no one was around.”
“Did you ever think about leaving him?”
I think about that for a bit. Because there was a time I thought I wanted something more.
“There was a time I thought he was cheating on me. He was staying later at practice and I couldn’t be there because I was doing my internship at the paper.”
“Did you ever find out if he was or not?”
“Not solid proof. But when I think about it now, I think he was.”
“I’ve never heard you say you think that Carson’s dead. Why is that?”
“Because I don’t think he is. He took most of his stuff when he left. The things he left were things that we shared. But his clothes? Most of it was gone. All our pictures and things we got together, he left.”
I can see that Tristan’s having a hard time with what I’m telling him.
“Talk to me. I want to know what you’re thinking.” I say to him.
“I hate that you went through that with him. I want to take all of that away for you and make it so you never met him.”
I watch his expressions as he talks. I’ve never felt so wanted by anyone before. I take his hand and kiss it.
“We all have to go through things. And going through it made me who I am. And I have you now. You make me feel special, in a way that I’ve never felt before.”
“I’m going to spend the rest of our lives making sure you know how special you are to me.” He says as he squeezes my hand.
We finally pull into my parents driveway and I take a deep breath.
“You’re going to be okay. Everything that you’ve told me about your parents tells me that they’re good parents. They’ll just want you to be safe.”
