“Yes but how long is that going to last? Every time we thought we’d found a way around him in the past he’d outsmart us. I know it’s just a matter of time before he shows up here too he always does. Sometimes in the diner I expect to walk up to a table and come face to face with him.” I finally saw some anger in her then which if you ask me was the right fucking emotion.
“Babe here’s the thing, it’s always been just you and your mom right, well now you have four men five if you count the douche who will stand between you and this monster. We won’t let anything happen to you, this is your chance to take your life back but you have to want that. You have to believe that you deserve better I can’t make you fell that.” It seemed I’d have to repeat certain things over and over until she learned to accept them as truth. I hope I could keep my word, that no matter what I could keep her safe.
“Why do you even care Matthew, wouldn’t it be better if you found someone else?”
“No and don’t say that shit again. Do you think I’m that fickle that I can switch my feelings on and off at will? You think I wanted to fall in love with anyone now after the shit I just went through? No, I was fine with the way things were I too had made up my mind about my future but it wasn’t meant to be. You’re here now and for whatever reason my heart wants you and that’s that. But I won’t live my life in fear of this asshole and neither are you. When’s the last time you spoke to your mom?”
“We can’t risk it, I think he’s very good with computers because he always knew things and once we even thought he had our house bugged because he’d always know what we talked about. Mom couldn’t afford to hire anyone to sweep the house and the police either didn’t have the resources or they didn’t think it was important enough but we never knew for sure. So we learned to be careful even behind closed doors.”
“Well he’s no match for Josh Steele when it comes to that shit I can assure you, by the time we’re finished with him he’s gonna regret ever hearing your fucking name.”
“What do you mean, don’t do anything Matthew you’ll get into trouble and I don’t want that. Your parents were very nice to me today but they won’t be so nice if I get their sons mixed up in this. I’ve learned that lesson too. No one wanted their kids around me when word got out about what was going on. I lost almost all my friends…”
“Don’t worry about stuff like that we know what we’re doing and besides my parents won’t hate you because of something that wasn’t your fault. So tell me have you really never had a normal day in the past four years? Didn’t you have a boyfriend, go out on dates?”
“No, I could never involve someone in my life. Before it all started I had friends there were boys I liked when I was twelve and thirteen but nothing serious obviously because I was too young and I wasn’t allowed to date then anyway. Then by the time I could date he was there and there was just no way.”
“So you’re a virgin.” The blush that touched her cheeks answered the question even before she nodded her head shyly against my chest. Why that should make me want to shout for joy was beyond me but somehow it meant a hell of lot that she was mine and only mine. It was just one more thing that made me that much more determined to keep her and to make sure that she remained a part of my life for always.
“How did you escape?”
“It was the prom, a few weeks before I received a threatening letter that said if I went with anyone that person would come to grievous harm. By then we knew that he was listening to everything we said. We were sure that he couldn’t see what we were doing because sometimes he’d text me or send emails asking what I was doing and where I was, stuff like that. Mom and I started writing notes to each other back and forth while we were home in the evenings. That would drive him crazy, he’d call nonstop then and make all kinds of threats.
One evening when I came home mom gave me a note; it said that this policewoman that she’d befriended was going to help us. Although there wasn’t much the police could do because there wasn’t enough evidence against him she wanted to help. They came up with this scheme. Mom got in touch with dad while she was at work and the three of them worked it out before they let me in on it.