Page 127

We sit in silence for a few moments, staring at the frozen screen, before she sucks in a breath.

“I have to go to the police, don’t I?”

I nod. “Yeah, Vi, you do.”

“Does Mom know I’m here?” she asks, sitting up and turning to look at me. I shake my head. How can I possibly tell my baby sister that our mother didn’t care?

“Anything I could tell you about Mom would only upset you more.”

She sighs, turning to look at the screen. “She didn’t care, did she?”

“No, she didn’t. She said Julian was a good man and I should be happy for you.”

“Figures,” she bites.

“Dottie’s been worried sick about you, though. I’m sure she’ll want to come see you as soon as you’re feeling up to it.”

She wipes away a tear, turning back to me. “I wish I had listened to her. She was right about everything.”

“Vi,” I start, unsure if I should even ask this question but I have to know. “Why didn’t you come to me earlier? I would have done anything to help you. Didn’t you know that?”

“Of course, I did. Julian… after we moved in together and I realized I was in trouble, he told me that if I didn’t do exactly what he said, he’d go after you.”

“He threatened me?”

She nods. “And I believed him. For some reason, he decided he wanted me and nothing was going to get in his way.”

“Yeah,” I sigh, not wanting to tell her this next part. “About that…”

“What?”

“When you sent Rosie to my apartment with that note, one of the guys, Streak, started looking into Julian and it got kind of weird. We’re still not one hundred percent sure what was going on.”

Her eyes widen and she studies my face for a second. “What do you mean you don’t know what’s going on?”

“So, he first saw you at the New Year’s Eve event, right?”

She nods. “Yeah, he asked to buy me a drink and I blew him off.”

“But, I thought… didn’t he say he didn’t talk to you that night?”

Her head bobs up and down as she pulls her knees closer. “Yeah. I don’t know why he said that and when I asked him, he slapped me.”

“In the street… we saw that.”

“I told him you and Dottie would be watching. He didn’t care.” She stares at the screen again and I can only imagine how much her mind is racing right now. It’s so much information to process and I hate not having answers for her. “Was there more?”

“Yeah… after the event, he hired a private investigator to follow you around. This guy had everything on you, Vi. Even your medical records. After that, Julian started inserting himself into your life wherever he could.”

“I thought it was fate,” she whispers, more tears falling from her haunted eyes.

“I think that’s exactly what he wanted you to think. He orchestrated this whole thing to lure you in.”

She stands up and paces back and forth in front of me, chewing on her lip. “I’m so stupid.”

“No,” I shoot back, standing up. “You’re not stupid.”

“How could I believe in something like fate? God, it’s like I lost my mind when I met him.”