“She broke in and woke me up out of a dead sleep. I don’t even know how she got in. There weren’t any broken windows or locks, but that isn’t the point. She didn’t stop, Luke,” I pleaded. “She held me at gunpoint for hours. She threatened to kill me, to kill you, to kill anyone that ever tried to get in her way.”
My eyes shuttered closed, but memories flitted behind my lids like they’d only happened yesterday. And I couldn’t stand it. Fear gripped me like it had that day, and my eyes flew back open.
“She tied me up and beat the crap out of me. She even cut my hair.” Reflexively, I reached up and fingered the ends of the shorter strands.
“Are you trying tobeme, Blakely?” Valerie muttered. She’d dropped the gun long enough to grab a pair of shears she’d found in my bathroom. “Is that why you’re fucking my husband?”
She grabbed a thick section of my black hair and yanked it. Hard. I ground my teeth and tried not to make a sound. Without another word, she angrily sawed into it just above my collarbone.
“Blake.” Luke’s voice drew me back to the present, and my eyes refocused on his concerned face.
“She told me not to tell the police. Otherwise, she’d do what she did to me, to you, or to any of them.” My hand swung in the direction of the living room beyond his closed bedroom door. Toward the people I loved most in this world.
“And you didn’t,” he said. “You didn’t tell any of us.”
“I was terrified,” I muttered through a shaky breath.
Luke hung his head and gripped the wooden footboard beneath his thighs. “We could have helped you, Blake. You should have said something. We would have been there for you, at the very least.”
“I wasn’t going to risk it,” I said, loud enough that my voice likely carried down the hallway.
“I’m sorry, Blake, that she did that to you. I’m so sorry. I can’t imagine going through that, but whether she threatened you or us, you should tell the police. This is the kind of information we need to be able to do something about her once and for all.”
“I wasn’t going to risk it,” I repeated through clenched teeth. I knew Valerie made Luke’s life hell, and I would never understand half of what he went through. But he also wouldn’t understand what happened to me. I made the decision that their lives weren’t worth the risk; it was better that they never knew.
That was one of the only decisions I was afforded. Valerie took the rest of them away from me. And used Devon’s mother as her primary leverage.
That thought hardened me as much as it could.
“What do you want me to do then? You must have some idea.” Luke stood and brushed past me. He looked at the door like he was contemplating leaving, but he didn’t. He turned back toward me and crossed his arms over his chest, waiting.
“Break it off,” I said simply.
He laughed and then stopped, an astounded, disbelieving look on his face. He scoffed like he couldn’t comprehend what I was suggesting.
“You can’t be serious.”
“I am. It’s the easiest way to get Valerie to back off, and even now, it’s not guaranteed to work. But it’s worth a shot. I’m not saying it has to stick or it has to be forever, but you have to do something. She’s not going to give up until she knows that you and Hazel are done.”
He rubbed an angry hand over his jaw. “You’re right, shemay not even stop. Blake, I can’t stop living my life because of her.”
“So, you’re willing to put Hazel in danger because you don’t want to hide?”
He reared back like I’d slapped him in the face, but he wasn’t listening to me. Had he not heard everything I’d just said?
“Valerie knows this is serious,” I said, trying a different tactic. “There’s no way she doesn’t, because we can all see it. Which means it probably won’t be like last time. If she didthatto me knowing we were nothing more than a stupid hookup, can you imagine what she’ll do when she realizes you’re in love?”
“Blakely,” he said in a low voice.
“I’m serious. She could hurt Hazel. Shewill.”
“I am doing everything I can to protect her. I will do whatever I need to,” he shouted, and then took a breath and continued quieter. “You need to talk to the police. We wouldn’t be having this argument right now if you had done that in the first place. And just to remind you, I did stay cooped up in my fucking apartment while our divorce was being finalized, and guess what? It didn’t help a damn thing. Shestilldid whatever she wanted to do.”
“So, you’re just going to make it easier for her?” I reasoned. He couldn’t argue with that. Whether they actually broke up or not, I didn’t care. Valerie just needed to believe it.
“Blakely, enough.”
I was so tired. I was so, so tired of arguing and thinking about nothing but this. But Shelly’s face flashed through my mind, sitting content and looking forward to the future in her hospital room.