Chapter 15 #2
"Why are you calling?" he asks. "Where is he?"
"Abort the mission."
"What? Where the fuck are you?"
"Abort the fucking mission. We're fucked. Ditch the fucking chainsaw and the plastic sheets and get your ass back here. We have a goddamn problem."
I can feel him fuming from the other end of the line. Nolan ends the call without another word.
When he gets back to the house, I fill him in on everything my dad said.
"Do you really think he did this?" Nolan asks.
I shrug. "I don't want to. I hope it isn't true. But…you know, he gets so fucking angry. He's obsessed with Saige. She told me she was worried he'd had a break from reality. I brushed her off."
"We have to tell Saige. Fuck…where's my phone?" He pushes off the couch and frantically searches the first floor of the house. "Where the fuck did you put it?"
"It's upstairs, Nolan," I say. "But we can't call her. She's sleeping…with him. We can't tell her he might have done this while she's sleeping next to him. It'll put her at risk. What's she supposed to do? Run through the streets of Toronto in the middle of the night? Confront him?"
"I put her at risk! I told her to go. I trusted him with her. I should never have fucking trusted him with her."
"We still don't know for sure," I tell him. "There's still a best-case scenario here."
"Yeah? Well, what the hell is it?"
Nolan stops pacing and waits for an answer, and I try to come up with one that might sate my manic psychopath.
I cross the room and take his hands, but he tears them away.
"The best-case scenario would be that Miles is afraid of Elias, so he gave police the iPad he hid from them the first time around to do this—to establish some sort of connection between them, that way if something happened to him, they'd look at Elias.
The police have wanted to pin Saige's attack on Elias for a while, too. "
"But if Miles wants to kill Saige, why would he want to reveal that connection? Why would he want to reveal Isla's affair and give him a motive in her disappearance? And what about the van?"
I sigh, throwing my hands up. "I don't know. I don't know, Nolan. It doesn't make any fucking sense."
"We need to get Saige."
"Their flight leaves in seven hours. We couldn't get there in time."
"So, I'm fucking helpless again. I'm fucking worthless again. I can't do shit for anyone!"
"No, you're not. You're not worthless."
"Fuck!" Nolan shouts before throwing one of the dining room chairs across the room, leaving a hole in the drywall.
"Nolan, that's not going to help," I tell him. "It's not going to help us look fucking sane when the police show up tomorrow."
"Is that when they're coming? Tomorrow?"
I shrug. "He didn't say, but I assume so. They know Elias is gone. It may even be tonight. If it is, I'll deal with them."
Nolan storms up the staircase and into the bedroom, slamming the door behind him, and Arcadia whimpers.
I bend down, petting her head. "What do you think, Arcadia? Did your dad try to kill your mom?"
She licks my hand.
"Yeah, I don't really want to think so, either."
When I get to my room, both bathroom doors are open, so I assume Nolan doesn't want to be alone that badly. I cross through, pausing at the threshold.
Nolan lies in the dark with his back to me, watching the fish tank.
I climb into bed beside him. "Give me a number."
"Three."
"Do you want me to go?"
"No."
"Do you want to tell me what you're thinking?"
"No."
"Okay," I tell him. "So, we'll lay here, and I'll be here, if you change your mind. And tomorrow, Saige will come home; she'll be safe, and we'll figure the rest out."
Nolan doesn't respond, so I continue.
"I love you. My life would be empty without you. You're not worthless; you're not a bad boyfriend. I love you the way you are, and so does Saige. This isn't your fault."
"I just want her to come home. I can barely breathe."
"I know. It won't be long."
"I wanted to fix it," he says. "I needed it."
"Do you really think Elias did this to Saige?"
It's quiet for a minute before he answers. "Maybe he did. Maybe he killed Isla, too, and that was his real revenge, and Miles really did think she just left."
"And what? He really has amnesia now?"
"Or he's stupid."
I still can't wrap my head around it. Is he capable of killing someone else? Yeah—I don't doubt that for a second. Hell, maybe we all are, given the right circumstances. But Isla wasn't Miles; she was innocent.
That's different.
And he says he loves Saige. But the way he loves her has never been normal. It's violent, obsessive. It's always been about control.
Fear is a great way to control someone. Fear is how he kept her in this house.
"What are we going to do? What do we tell them in the morning?" I ask.
"You'll tell Elias that we fucked up—that he missed office hours, and we don't know where the fuck he is. You're a better liar than I am."
Eh, true. Everyone is good at something. I give good head and lie.
"And then I'll talk to Saige," he adds. "I'll text her and tell her to get away from him and call me. She should know what she's coming home to."