Page 37 of Safe With Me

“One night, I’d gone out to dinner with that same friend from college again, and Ted emailed me, describing exactly what I waswearing and how it would bea shame if my friend couldn’t make it out of Philly.”

My body went rigid against the back of the chair. “Did you report it?”

“I tried, but the police blew me off.” She lifted her shoulder. “Ted hadn’t touched me or threatened me per se, so the cop just told me to talk it out.”

“Jesus,” I hissed. “There are anti-stalking laws to protect people from unhinged assholes like that.” My skin crawled, thinking of Lila being watched and followed and the local cops doing nothing about it.

“Well, this cop didn’t seem very interested in finding out what they were.” She scoffed. “Then I went out to dinner with different friends and came out to the parking lot to find one of my tires slashed. Ted was waiting for me in the dark two cars over and saidmaybe nowI had time to talk.”

I fell back in the seat and nodded.

“That’s why when you had a flat tire?—”

“I freaked out, yeah. It made no sense. Ted wasn’t hiding in the bushes behind me, but…” She trailed off, her gaze drifting out her tiny kitchen window before coming back to me.

“That feeling of fear. Of being trapped with nowhere to go after I came all the way here to get away from it.” She rubbed her chest. “I couldn’t breathe. Had you not been with me that day, I have no idea what I would have done. So, thank you for that.”

“You don’t have to thank me,” I told her, squeezing her hand before I could help it. “I’m glad I was there. Did you press charges?”

She shook her head. “I couldn’t prove anything. He denied it, and my car was right out of view of the parking lot camera, so it was my word against his. I kept wishing for him to just move on. Meet somebody else to obsess over and forget I existed.”

“I’m guessing he didn’t.” I dropped my eyes to our still-joined hands. I was about to slip my palm away from hers when she flipped her hand over and squeezed tighter.

“A few days after that, he showed up at my job, acting like a madman, and insisting on speaking to me, refusing to leave until the security guards had to drag him out. I happened to be by the front desk at the time, so everyone knew the Lila he was coming to see.”

“Jesus, what would?—”

“Make him do that?” She lifted a brow. “I’d stopped asking myself that question at that point, although blocking him and continuing to throw out the gifts he’d sent so he’d see may have sent him over the edge, but I honestly don’t really know.”

“Still, that’s not normal behavior under any?—”

“But wait,” she said, holding up a finger. “That’s not even the worst part. It was the same day we had this huge company-wide meeting, with upper management and people in from different offices across the country.Everyonewitnessed it all, and whoever didn’t see it later saw the viral video someone waiting in reception filmed and posted. My company was even tagged.”

“Fuck, Lila,” I breathed out. “That’s how you lost your job?”

A humorless laugh escaped her.

“They didn’t actually let me go. They couldn’t after the outpouring of sympathy for the poor girl this crazy guy was coming to harass. So they put me on a leave of absence totake care of the situation.” She held up her fingers in air quotes. “How, they didn’t tell me, and I honestly had no idea how to prove that Ted wouldn’t come back to the office. And at that point, I was too humiliated to show my face there. I couldn’t file for unemployment, and I couldn’t see anyone in Philly hiring me for anything after that.”

“And then you ended up in Kelly Lakes.”

She shut her eyes and nodded. “This was in the works before that happened. Steven had been talking to Claudia about me staying here for a while. His original plan was to have me stay with Claudia and Jude until things calmed down. My parents live outside of Philly, but my brother lives in their downstairs apartment and Ted still comes back and forth, from what I know.”

My jaw went slack. “You have got to be fucking kidding me. He’s still welcome there?”

“Yep. In fact, my parents suggested that we all sit down—me, Ted, and my brother—andjust get everything straightened out. But there is nothing to straighten out. They live in deep denial, especially when it comes to their son.”

“But you’re their kid too, and you went through hell because of this asshole. Sorry,” I said, finally letting go of Lila’s hand to pinch the back of my neck and get ahold of my anger.

“I am, but I don’t really think they understood what I was going through, or tried to. To them, I just broke up with Ted, and refused to talk to him after. They’d even told me that Ted had some kind of traumatic past and he latched on to me. As if that made it all okay.”

“It sure as hell doesn’t.”

What kind of family would do this? My father would never stand for anyone hurting his kids, no matter what kind of past whoever it was had had. She really had no one, and I finally understood why she’d headed up here so fast.

“Aside from dating him in the first place, my biggest regret is not breaking up with him sooner. I was delaying the inevitable fight with my brother, but I honestly don’t think sooner or later would have mattered.”

She fell back against the chair and crossed her arms.

---