Page 92 of Unbearable

My mother?

My confusion must have been written all over my face.

“Yes, your mother. She pleaded for her life in her last moments too, you know,” he replied.

My brain tried to compute what he was saying, but the ache in my head made it hard to put the pieces together.

“What… what do you mean, my mother?” I asked, my voice hoarse and unsteady.

“Come on, Dotty. I know you are smarter than that.” He tapped his temple repeatedly. “How could I possibly know about your mother’s last moments?”

Realization dawned on me, all of it hitting at once.

“You… it was you. You were the one that hit her car.”

“Bingo. Turns out she is a little smart after all,” he mocked, unveiling the tarp covering a wrecked truck.

“I was eighteen at the time. Went to a party, drank a little too much, and decided to drive back home. I woke up in the ditch with your mom’s car next to mine. I got out, and she pleaded for me to call 911, but what could you expect me to do? I was drunk and young. I wasn’t going to go to jail.”

He shrugged as if it wasn’t a big deal to leave my motherdyingon the side of the road.

He continued, “So I drove home. My dad caught me and beat me worse than ever before, but he kept my secret, hiding the truck out here all these years.” He pointed to the wrecked truck.

The truck that killed my mother.

Hekilled my mother.

Bile rose in my throat again at his admission.

“My family is not going to stop until they find me.” I tried to keep the fight alive and needed to say the words aloud to convince myself they were true.

Enough time had passed that they would know I never showed up in Seattle. They would be looking for me already.

I believed it. I had to.

Chris let out an evil chuckle. “You think they will find you now? No one even found this truck in the last twenty years. They won’t find you,” he snarled.

“What the hell does this have to do with me? Why come after me? Why now?” I asked.

“Ah, ah, Dotty. Be careful how you talk to me.” He lifted his hand in a threat. “You see, I was always fascinated by you. I’d be lying if I said that night didn’t bother me. I don’t regret it per se, but I did feel bad about leaving you without a mother. I started sending you notes because I didn’t like that you had left Woodstone. I couldn’taccidentallyrun into you out and about anymore, so notes were a way to bridge the gap, still keeping an eye on you.”

He stood back up and paced, and I was grateful for the distance. “But then you come back after all those years lookingexactlylike her. All I see when I look at you isher.” Chris’s eyes softened, which made me sick.

When I moved to Seattle, I began receiving the notes almost immediately, leading me to believe they came from someone I had met in the city. It never crossed my mind that they could be from someone in Woodstone, but it made sense once I realized he could no longer keep an eyeon me in the same town as him anymore. The realization that Chris had been watching me all this time made my skin crawl.

“You moved away, and I followed you when I could, but I couldn’t move to Seattle full time. I always kept an eye on you. What didn’t exactly go to plan was your relationship with Trent, of all people. I thought that had ended before it really even started years ago,” he said.

Trent.

I remembered our time together, the way he made me feel safe and loved, and how we’d left everything. I knew he would be the first to fight to find me, and I only hoped he already knew something was wrong.

“I watched your mother die, Dotty, and ever since that night, I was haunted by her memory. I watched you grow up. You are so strong, so resilient. I knew you were my key to redemption. I know marrying you, making you my wife, will be the key to solving all of it.”

“You are obsessed with me because of what happened to my mother? Because I look like her?” I yelled, attempting to keep the tremble out of my voice.

“Obsessed, yes,” he agreed. “But also in love. You see, Dotty, you are not just the woman I desire. You are the key to my salvation, the one who can make me whole again. You either leave here as my wife or not at all,” he said, flashing his gun in a clear threat.

Tears welled in my eyes, threatening to spill over, but I refused to let them.

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