48. Blake
BLAKE
This moment was always going to come, I tell myself.
We couldn’t have kept him hidden for too much longer.
He’s been trying to reach out to her, to connect with her.
I know he’s been doing the best he can to restrain himself, but it can’t be easy for him.
I’d have been killing myself if I hadn’t been able to hold her, inhale the scent of her hair, touch her skin, if only in a platonic way, over these past few weeks.
All I’d asked was that he stayed hidden until the snow falls, and I guess he did his best. Is it enough, though? When she finds out who he is and what he’s capable of, will she still run?
I hope not. I want to think she’s stronger than that, and he won’t frighten her away.
As I’d expected, I find her in the east wing, coming down the stairs. She looks unharmed.
I stop at the bottom of the stairs. “I thought I told you to stay out of the east wing.”
“Why?” she throws back. “So you could hide some weirdo who’s been spying on me all this time?”
I can’t deny anything, so I shrug.
“I saw all the screens,” she continues. “I know there are cameras all over this place, including in my bedroom. I know whoever that man is has been watching me, and, not only that, he’s been coming into my room at night and touching me in my sleep.”
I freeze. “He’s been touching you?”
I’d suspected he’d gone into her room at night, but not that he’d taken things so far.
“I’ve felt his hands on me while I’ve been asleep, or at least half asleep.” She closes her eyes briefly. “I thought I was dreaming… No, not dreaming. I thought this place was haunted and I was being visited by a ghost.”
I grind my teeth. Looks like I’m not the only one who’s been struggling to keep away from Aspen. I know Levi’s been sniffing around her, too.
“So, do you want to tell me exactly who this man is?”
I hesitate, my instinct to protect him, but I can’t, not any longer. “He’s my son.”
Her pretty, pale blue eyes go round. “Your son? Levi is your son.”
“He’s Levi’s older brother. You remember how I told you that your dad and I fought about my parenting, how I was handling my son?”
She nods, and I drag my hand through my hair and shake my head.
“It was never Levi we fought over. It was his brother. Just before he turned eighteen, there was an… incident, and he got hurt. He received a punch to the head, and the force of the blow affected his brain.”
“What are you saying?”
“My son had a TBI—Traumatic Brain Injury. I guess he got lucky in that it didn’t affect his speech or motor skills, but it did affect his ability to control and regulate his emotions.
It’s made him violent and withdrawn. He doesn’t like being around people, and he hates the daylight now, too.
It hurts his eyes and makes his headaches worse.
He finds being around people and busy situations to be incredibly frustrating, and like I said, he can’t control his emotions.
When he gets frustrated, he gets angry, and, because of his size, people get hurt.
I knew I had to get him away from others if he was ever going to be safe.
So when I saw this place for sale, so far from anyone or anything, it made sense for me to buy it.
I thought he could have his own space then, and he wouldn’t harm anyone else, but it wasn’t that easy. ”
“Wouldn’t harm anyone? Who has he harmed?” she asks.
I don’t want to answer that question. “He takes what he wants. He doesn’t understand boundaries.”
“You mean, like he’s been doing with me? By sneaking into my room?”
“Not exactly, but yes, something along those lines.”
She opens her hand to reveal an object she’s had hidden beneath her fingers. It’s a little doll stick figure. “He’s been making these for me.”
I nod. “It’s his way of trying to connect with you. It’s unusual for him to want to do that. Like I said, he doesn’t like people, but I guess you’re different.”
She presses her lips together. “Do I need to be frightened of him?”
I can’t answer that either, and her question hangs heavily in the air between us.
“So, what now?” she asks. “Will I get to meet him?”
I nod. “Yes, but it’ll need to be on his terms.”
“What’s his name? I assume he has one.”
I allow a small smile to touch my lips. “Dov.”
Her brow furrows. “Dove, like the bird?”
I spell it out for her. “D-O-V. Like the bear.”
“The bear?”
“Yes, it’s Hebrew for bear. When you see him properly, you’ll understand why. He was huge, even as a newborn.”
She sighs and drags her hand through her hair. “This all feels crazy. I don’t see why you couldn’t have just told me from the start instead of making me believe I was nuts or being haunted.”
“We needed to be sure you wouldn’t run and talk about who lives here.”
“I’m not going to run,” she insists.
“Maybe not now, but what about when I first met you again on the day of your father’s funeral? If I had told you that you can come and stay with me, but you’ll be sharing the place with a huge man who’s more than capable of hurting you, what would you have said?”
She at least has the decency to take my words seriously. “I guess I’d have been worried. I might not have come.”
“I couldn’t take that risk. I couldn’t see you being homeless.”
She thinks for a moment then says, “So that’s why you lied to me about there being a prepper who lived in the cabin in the woods?”
I bite my lower lip and nod. “I needed cover, I guess. I knew you’d figure out pretty quickly that we weren’t the only ones here, so I needed you to believe someone else had access to the grounds.”
“I wish you’d have just told me the truth from the start. I had the right to know what I was getting into.”
“You’re right, you did.” I stare into her eyes. “So, what are you going to do now? Do you want to leave?”
She glances away, as though embarrassed. “This place is the closest thing I have to a home.”
It warms me to hear her say that. I want her to think of Windridge Hall as her home.
But her words also weigh down my heart with unease.
She’s writing off everything strange she’s experienced to being down to Dov, which I completely understand, but when the snow falls and the days grow short and the darkness takes over, she’ll learn that not everything at Windridge Hall can be explained.