Page 94 of Win My Heart

Epilogue

BERNIE

One Month Later…

I meet Gia at the mailboxes in the lobby of my building. She’s arriving, and I just ran down from my apartment.

“Oh no, did the guys forget to get the mail again?” I laugh.

She rolls her eyes. “Honestly, I took the mailbox key last night and said I would just handle it from now on.”

I pull out the few envelopes in my box while she sticks her arm in and slides out all the stuff into a bag she has hanging in front of the box to catch it all.

“What are you up to today?” she asks.

“I’ve got a session with Liz, then Wade and I are going to visit his parents for the night.” We walk together to the elevator.

“Oh nice,” she replies. “How is everything else going?” Her tone is hesitant, but we haven’t had a lot of time to talk in recent weeks.

“Fine, really. I’m finally starting to feel like I’m back to where I started.”

She smiles warmly at me. “I’m so happy to hear that, Bernie.”

“We need to have a girls’ night, like, really soon. I can host,” I tell her.

“Yes. Let’s get that scheduled ASAP.” She gives me a side hug before exiting the elevator.

The morning after my stalker was found in my apartment, Wade and I spent several hours at the police station. We learned that he was surprisingly forthcoming about everything. He had been a fan of mine for years. He met me at a signing, which had kicked his obsession into high gear.

Turns out my paranoia was warranted. He had been watching me for weeks. He didn’t have creepy photos of me hung up on the walls of his apartment like they often portray on TV, which made me feel better, but knowing that he was watching me gave me chills.

He swears he never had plans to hurt me, that he only wanted to talk to me the night he destroyed my place, and I’m choosing to believe that with all I’ve got, because I don’t want to think about the alternative.

He had gotten frustrated upon seeing me with Wade and my friends at the park that night and had decided he was done with being ignored, so he broke in. We also learned he had been in my apartment prior to the new locks I had requested. Out of anger, he took a baseball bat to all my things. He hacked into my Twitch account and wiped everything. I lost all four million followers that night. But losing the ability to feel safe in my own apartment was the far more devastating loss.

I started seeing a therapist. Ruby had suggested seeing someone in the days after that night, and it didn’t take me long to decide it was probably a good idea.

Turns out, Dex actually does own our building. It was always something I wondered, but when he came to me the next morning, he said there was an empty unit on the fifth floor with my name on it if I wanted it.

I moved in two days later.

Ruby, Link, Simon, Gia, and Wade went through my apartment and packed up anything that was salvageable so I didn’t have to step foot back inside.

I had to replace most of my belongings.

I didn’t replace my Twitch account. I haven’t decided if I’m going to start from scratch. I love gaming. I love my team. I’m not ready to move on from that chapter in my life, but being a popular streamer on a big platform is the reason I was targeted. He watched my streams, and working through that hasn’t been easy.

While I was making about three grand a month from Twitch, I have other forms of income—sponsorships, plus what the team makes winning tournaments. So I’m looking at this as an opportunity to figure out my next step. As for what I want to do next… I’m just taking my time figuring it out.

I always take a breath before unlocking the door to my apartment. New habit, unfortunately. While I feel completely safe in my new place, I still have flashbacks to opening my door and seeing my space and belongings destroyed.

Stepping into my apartment, I take in the yummy smell of maple syrup.

“What are you up to?” I giggle, dropping my mail and keys on the counter. Wade stands in a pair of athletic shorts at my stove, flipping pancakes.

He grins over his shoulder as I come up behind him, wrapping my arms around his waist.

“I was starving after that last romp in your bed this morning, and since you wouldn’t let me go with you to the mailboxes, I decided to make some food.”

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