Autumn stared down into her empty wine glass. I knew from the very first sentence that this story was not going to have a happy ending. But I also knew I needed to hear it, because it was going to fill in a lot of the missing pieces on the Autumn Wilde puzzle I’d been trying to work out for a long time.
I took her empty glass and swapped it with my three-quarters-full one.
She smiled sadly and took another deep breath before continuing. “Braden was in his first semester of law school and was nothing like the boys I’d gone out with in high school. I had no idea what I wanted to do with the rest of my life, and he was so driven and mature, and he was attracted to me for some reason.” She turned her head and stared off for a minute. “When I look back at that first summer, I still don’t see the red flags I missed.” She frowned. “I think that haunts me almost as much as anything else.”
“What happened?”
“Braden and I dated for four and a half years. Things didn’t go bad overnight. We grew really close that first summer. I’d dated before, but it was my first serious relationship. Then I went away to college. I only went to Boston, so it was just a few hours’ drive. I’d come home often, and sometimes Braden would visit me. Once in a while he’d even surprise me and not tell me he was coming. But sometimes I felt more like he was checking up on me, rather than really wanting to see me.”
I definitely didn’t like the direction this was heading. It felt like the ominous music of a horror movie had started playing.
“Anyway…” Autumn wrung her hands together. “Over the years, there was never enough to make an alarm go off—not one single thing anyway.” She shook her head. “Maybe there was, and I was in denial. I don’t know. I’d notice small things—like I’d think his car was following me, but then it would be gone. Sometimes I’d ask him about things I noticed, but his answers were so believable that I just kept chalking it up to my own paranoia. He actually made me feel crazy for thinking he’d have the time or inclination to follow me. Plus, and I know this sounds horrible, but it was an easy relationship. Our fathers were business partners and the best of friends, and I’d made the decision to go to law school, so Braden was able to demystify that entire process.” She shrugged. “I just… I was very trusting and naïve back then. Too trusting.”
I wasn’t sure what to say or do. It felt like she needed to get something out by taking the long way, rather than cutting to the chase, but damn, my heart was in agony waiting for that other shoe to drop. Still, I stayed quiet.
Autumn finished off the wine in my glass.
“You want some more?” I asked.
She shook her head. “I shouldn’t. I just needed to take the edge off. I promise I’m getting to the end of this story soon.”
I took her hand in mine and squeezed. “Take all the time you need. There’s no hurry.”
She nodded and stared down for a minute again before continuing. “After I was done with college and back home again, more things started to raise red flags. I’d think he was following me, and then I’d catch him in a lie about being at work. He had this way of turning things around and convincing me I felt guilty because I’d been growing distant. I was in law school and meeting new people and wanted some freedom, so he wasn’t wrong. We had been growing apart. But he’d waited four long years for me to move back home. So I felt bad even considering breaking things off, especially because while we were together, he was so good to me. Though once I’d caught him in a few lies, I found it hard to believe anything he said. One day I’d noticed some of my emails marked as read, even though I was positive I’d never opened them. Things started to feel really unhealthy, so eventually I told Braden I needed a break.”
“How did that go over?”
“Better than I expected, at first. But he was convinced I was just stressed from my first year of law school, and it was only a break and we’d get back together.”
“Did you get back together?”
She shook her head. “We kept in touch, but once I’d broken things off, I knew pretty quickly that I’d made the right decision for a lot of reasons.”
“Okay…”
“Once he realized it was over, and I was moving on, strange things started to happen.”
“Like what?”
“Well, I used to study with a small group. One of the people in my group was this guy Mark. One night, we were the last two of our group to leave the library, and when we walked outside, Braden was there. He said he was going in to do some late-night research, but I suspected he’d been following me again. He was polite when I introduced him to Mark, but I could see how angry he was underneath. A few days later, Mark was attacked.”