Page 53 of Only Forever

I went to the drawer where I had hidden all the letters and handed them to him reluctantly. I knew that he was going to be upset I hadn’t shown him earlier when he saw what the letters said.

Jason’s jaw clenched as he read the other letters. When he was done, his eyes glinted with rage. “We have to find out who the hell is sending you these. We need to call the police.”

I shook my head, desperate in my need to keep this a secret. “No, we can’t. There’s no way I can go to the police without telling them what I did. And I can’t claim self-defense. He may have attacked me, but I stabbed him while he was still unconscious. And I lied to the police.”

Jason took a deep breath, but he didn’t dispute what I said. “We still need to find out who’s sending the letters.” His expression turned grim. “And you need to be safe.”

Jason’s expression suddenly turned thunderous. “Wait, let me see the letter you got today again.”

I handed it over to him and watched him as he reread it. It suddenly hit me that I hadn’t told Jason about them breaking into my house. The note I had received today had alluded to it. Jason would read between the lines, and I had a feeling he wasn’t going to handle that well.

Jason looked up from the letter, his expression unreadable. “What does this mean? It says you were so close to meeting and not to leave windows unlocked.”

I decided I was done hiding things from Jason. He already knew what I had done to Keith, and was supporting me. I owed it to him to finally be totally honest with him.

“I think the person who wrote the letters was in my house Tuesday night. I heard sounds coming from upstairs, and I was pretty sure it was the person who had sent the letters. I snuck outside through the backdoor and out through the backyard. I swore I heard them coming after me. Thankfully, when I got to the front of the house, there was a man walking his dog. I think he scared away whoever was following me.”

I bit my lip, knowing that Jason wouldn’t be happy with what I did next. “I was pretty sure the person was no longer in the house, because I heard them outside with me. I had the guy with the dog wait outside while I checked inside the house to make sure they were gone.” My voice dropped. “They weren’t inside the house, but they must have been watching from outside, because they knew I was holding a knife while I was checking inside. The part about the unlocked window, the guest room window was open and the screen ripped. Chloe must have left a window unlocked by accident when she was here to visit.”

Jason’s face had remained expressionless throughout my explanation, but I saw his jaw clench and a muscle twitching spasmodically. He closed his eyes and took a slow, deep breath, as if he were trying to calm himself. When he opened his eyes again, I could see his effort to be calm, but the tension in his face belied his effort.

“Daphne,” he said, his voice tight with emotion. “Do you realize how much danger you were in? Why would you go back inside the house when there was a chance the bastard was still there? You should have called the police. You could have just told them someone had broken into your house, without telling them anything else. At the very least, you should have calledme.I can’t believe you were in this house alone with some creep watching you.”

Jason gripped my shoulders, and I could practically feel the waves of distress emanating from him. “We need to call the police. We don’t have to tell them everything that happened in the past. We need to catch the sicko who’s been sending you letters and watching you. Hell, they even broke into your house.”

I knew Jason was trying to help, but there was no way I was getting the police involved. “I can’t show the police the letters without explaining what it means.” I put my hand up when I saw Jason about to interrupt. “There’s nothing they can do anyway. They’re not going to watch my house 24/7. They’ll just tell me to be careful and to keep my windows and doors locked.”

I took Jason’s hand in mine and squeezed it. “Please, Jason. Just let me handle it my way. I can’t…I can’t deal with the police.”

My mind flashed back to when my mom had died. Police had swarmed the house, and their faces had been sympathetic as I told lie after lie. Just the thought of having to lie again made me feel sick to my stomach.

Jason looked upset, but he changed tactics. “If you won’t call the police, you need to come stay at my place. You can’t be here anymore. Someone is watching you.” He reflexively looked out the window. “Hell, they could be watching us right now.”

I shook my head. “I can’t, Jason. I can’t leave my house.” I felt shame coursing through me. Even with everything that had happened, I was still a coward trapped in my house.

Jason frowned. “But you said you left the house when they were in here. Just think of if the same way. We’re leaving the house to escape danger.”

“I barely made it outside of my house, and then it was just to the front lawn,” I said, my voice soft from embarrassment. “And that was only because I was being chased. One of the reasonsI went back into my house afterwards, even thought I knew it was a dumb move, was because if I stayed outside for one more second, I would have had a panic attack.” I dropped my head, unable to meet Jason’s gaze anymore. “I still can’t leave this house. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to.”

Jason tipped my head up with a gentle hand, and he softly wiped away the tear that ran down my face. “I know one day you’ll be free from the fear holding you inside this house,” he said tenderly. “And until then, I’ll be with you every step of the way. I love you, Daphne. I promise, I’ll never leave you again. You’ll never have to deal with anything on your own again.”

Tears streamed down my face. A mixture of love, relief and fear stirred inside me. I loved Jason so much, and to hear him proclaiming his love to me, to know he would always be by my side, was a balm to my soul. But I was scared that I would never achieve what he was so sure I would. My ability to be free.

“I love you, too, Jason,” I whispered. I couldn’t say anything more than that, as more tears streamed down my face. Jason held me close, stroking my back, as silent tears ran down my face.

“I’ll stay here with you, then,” Jason said. “I still don’t agree with not calling the police, but we’ll leave it for now.”

I was relieved that not only was Jason going to stay with me, but he was dropping the subject of calling the police. I knew this wouldn’t be the end of our disagreement about it, but it was enough that it was put on the backburner.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Jason refused to leave me alone for any length of time. He ordered anything he needed online for delivery, and we became two hermits living in my house. He put all the house renovations to his parents’ home on hold since he couldn’t be there to check on the progress, and he continued to work from my place since he already had brought over his laptop earlier. Even all our groceries were ordered for delivery, because he wasn’t leaving me alone for a second.

Jason hired a security company to watch the house at all times. I didn’t protest when he told me, and I was actually appreciative of it. It gave me peace of mind to know that no one could approach the house without us knowing about it beforehand.

I was on tenterhooks waiting for something to happen, for the other shoe to drop. Thankfully, a week passed without incident. But I was still on guard. It would be foolish to think that this had passed, that whoever had sent me the letters had lost interest in me. If they were watching me, they knew that not only did I have Jason with me, but we had security outside.

Jason tried to act naturally, but I saw the way he tensed whenever he heard a sound. He routinely walked around the house, checking all the locks and making sure no one had somehow entered without being seen.

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