Page 72 of I Would Die for You

“But then he took me somewhere I didn’t want to go and made me do things I didn’t want to do.”

Hot bile rushes to the back of Nicole’s throat as she can’t help but picture the horrific events unfolding.

She takes the blanket from the car’s parcel shelf and wraps Cassie’s shivering body in it before gently lowering her onto the back seat of the car. She slides in beside her and takes Cassie in her arms as the turmoil of what she’s been through seeps out of her.

“I kept saying no, over and over, but he wouldn’t listen, he was like a man possessed.” She manically rubs at the bloodied skin on her arms. “I can still smell him on me. Can you smell him?”

Tears spring to Nicole’s eyes as she pulls her sister in even tighter. She knows what she’s about to say will have little bearing on the here and now, but she also knows that time is of the essence.

“Cass, we need to go to the police,” she says quietly.

“No,” says Cassie, pushing herself away from Nicole as if she’s reliving it all over again. “No, I don’t want the police involved. You have to promise me that you won’t tell anyone. Not the police, not Dad, not anyone.”

Nicole closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. She knew this would be Cassie’s first reaction, but she has to make her see the importance of telling the police and telling themnow. “I know it feels too raw to go over it again straightaway, but it’ll be too late in a day or two’s time. They need to get the evidence now, so they can lock the bastard in a cell and throw away the key.”

“They’ll say I deserved it,” says Cassie.

“Thisisn’tyour fault,” says Nicole, hating whoever did this to her for making her think it is. “There’s nothing you could ever do to make it your fault.”

“You don’t know what I did,” says Cassie, bowing her head as she sobs.

“I don’tcarewhat you did,” says Nicole. “A man has taken advantage of you, and you have to make him accountable for his actions.”

Cassie shakes her head vehemently. “I’m not going to report him.”

“I’ll be with you every step of the way,” says Nicole. “We’ll do it together.”

“I can’t,” says Cassie, sounding terrified. “My life will never be the same again.”

“He can’t hurt you anymore, Cassie. I promise you that.”

“You don’t know who he is,” she says, making Nicole pull up short. She holds Cassie away from her and looks at her in the half-light.

“Who is he, Cassie?” she asks, careful not to sound accusatory.

“Do you swear not to tell anyone?”

Nicole swallows her indignation at having to make a promise she doesn’t want to keep. And if she’d known the name Cassie was going to drop, she would never have agreed to it.

36

CALIFORNIA, 2011

The doorbell rings, but I make no attempt to move. My mind is too worn out from the conspiracy theories that have been railroading through it for the past day, desperately trying to separate fact from fiction. Despite everything pointing toward Brad being complicit in what’s been going on, I still can’t believe that the man I’ve loved for the past twenty years could be capable of something so hateful. But if the woman he met in the bar is the woman who took our daughter, is as much of a stranger to him as she is to me, then I have to face the very real possibility that itwasCassie who called and spoke to him. And that he’s just as much a pawn in this game as I am.

The bell rings again and I suddenly think of Hannah, a myriad of possibilities flooding my mind as to why I shouldn’t leave it unanswered. What if she’s gone missing again? What if she’s been hurt? What if she’s walked out of school because other kids are being mean to her?

Of the thousand scenarios I dare to imagine, finding Zoe on the doorstep isn’t one of them.

“No, absolutely not,” I say, shaking my head.

“Please,” she says. “Just one minute.”

With her blond hair and impish face, she suddenly looks younger than I remembered, more naive than the savage Rottweiler I’d thrown out of my house and more innocent than the calculated journalist who’d accosted Brad and me in Tino’s last week. God, that felt like another lifetime ago—when I was oblivious to the damage that could be done in just a few days.

“I don’t know what you’re looking to gain, or who you’re working with, but I’m done with it.”

“I understand how you must feel to have this brought to your door after all this time,” she says.

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