Chapter 3
THREE
Blakely
With his agreement, I turned on my heels, walked down the hallway, and into his room. It was the farthest room away from everyone else. And what I was about to tell him, if everyone knew, I could only imagine the chaos it would cause.
I stopped in front of his window and wrapped my arms around myself. Only a few feet away was Hazel’s house, or her old house. And from Luke’s bedroom window, you could see directly into hers.
I wasn’t sure what had happened between Hazel and her now-ex-fiancé, but from the impression Luke gave us, it wasn’t good. And she was better off without him.
Lost in thoughts of the sweet woman I barely knew yet whose life I was bound to ruin, I didn’t hear Luke walk in or the door close. I felt him walk up beside me and was startled at his closeness.
“What’s going on, Blake?”
I didn’t turn to look at him as I braced myself and contemplated what to say. I should have done more preparation, maybe made a script or practiced the conversation. But there was no right way to tell him what I had to.
“You’re endangering Hazel by being with her.”
He scoffed, turning away and shaking his head. The frustration rolling off him was enough to fill all the empty spaces in the room. It was likely the wrong way to start, but it was the main point I’d wanted to make.
“Seriously? You still haven’t let this go?”
“No.” I turned and faced him straight on, dropping my arms and balling my hands into fists. I’d tried to talk to him not too long ago, but he hadn’t listened. He’d blown me off immediately and without a second thought. “Of course I haven’t let it go. Valerie is still out there, and you know as well as I do that she’s going to come back.”
“I talked to Hazel. We are prepared to deal with Valerie. I’ve already gotten the cops involved, but neither of us are going to hide because my vindictive ex thinks she still has some claim on me.”
“Luke, please think about?—”
“Think about what?” he yelled, and I reeled at the volume of his voice. Luke and I butted heads often, but he usually didn’t yell. He noted my wide eyes and startled reaction, so he quickly backpedaled. “I’m sorry. But this is insane, Blake. Why are you continuing to question this? I mean, after the thing with us”—he motioned between us—“she gave up eventually. She’ll get bored.”
He turned around and paced to the other side of the room, hands gripping his black hair in frustration.
“You don’t really believe that,” I argued.
“If she doesn’t, we will find her.”
Done with arguing when I knew it wouldn’t get us anyway, I finally told the truth. “It didn’t happen the way I said it did.”
He turned back around, and some of the fight had vanished from his eyes. “What do you mean?”
“Valerie,” I said, my voice shaking a little just saying her name. “Didn’t stop at texts and veiled threats. She…she…” I brushed a shaking hand over my mouth. “She broke into my apartment.”
“Blake, what?—”
I raised a hand and shook my head. “If you don’t let me finish, I’m never going to get it out.”
Luke leaned back against the edge of his bed and stayed quiet. His dark eyes softened, but the change didn’t do much to settle my nerves.
“She broke in and woke me up out of a dead sleep. I don’t even know how she got in. There weren’t any broken windows or locks, but that isn’t the point. She didn’t stop, Luke,” I pleaded. “She held me at gunpoint for hours. She threatened to kill me, to kill you, to kill anyone that ever tried to get in her way.”
My eyes shuttered closed, but memories flitted behind my lids like they’d only happened yesterday. And I couldn’t stand it. Fear gripped me like it had that day, and my eyes flew back open.
“She tied me up and beat the crap out of me. She even cut my hair.” Reflexively, I reached up and fingered the ends of the shorter strands.
“Are you trying to be me, Blakely?” Valerie muttered. She’d dropped the gun long enough to grab a pair of shears she’d found in my bathroom. “Is that why you’re fucking my husband?”
She grabbed a thick section of my black hair and yanked it. Hard. I ground my teeth and tried not to make a sound. Without another word, she angrily sawed into it just above my collarbone.
“Blake.” Luke’s voice drew me back to the present, and my eyes refocused on his concerned face.
“She told me not to tell the police. Otherwise, she’d do what she did to me, to you, or to any of them.” My hand swung in the direction of the living room beyond his closed bedroom door. Toward the people I loved most in this world.
“And you didn’t,” he said. “You didn’t tell any of us. ”
“I was terrified,” I muttered through a shaky breath.
Luke hung his head and gripped the wooden footboard beneath his thighs. “We could have helped you, Blake. You should have said something. We would have been there for you, at the very least.”
“I wasn’t going to risk it,” I said, loud enough that my voice likely carried down the hallway.
“I’m sorry, Blake, that she did that to you. I’m so sorry. I can’t imagine going through that, but whether she threatened you or us, you should tell the police. This is the kind of information we need to be able to do something about her once and for all.”
“I wasn’t going to risk it,” I repeated through clenched teeth. I knew Valerie made Luke’s life hell, and I would never understand half of what he went through. But he also wouldn’t understand what happened to me. I made the decision that their lives weren’t worth the risk; it was better that they never knew.
That was one of the only decisions I was afforded. Valerie took the rest of them away from me. And used Devon’s mother as her primary leverage.
That thought hardened me as much as it could.
“What do you want me to do then? You must have some idea.” Luke stood and brushed past me. He looked at the door like he was contemplating leaving, but he didn’t. He turned back toward me and crossed his arms over his chest, waiting.
“Break it off,” I said simply.
He laughed and then stopped, an astounded, disbelieving look on his face. He scoffed like he couldn’t comprehend what I was suggesting.
“You can’t be serious.”
“I am. It’s the easiest way to get Valerie to back off, and even now, it’s not guaranteed to work. But it’s worth a shot. I’m not saying it has to stick or it has to be forever, but you have to do something. She’s not going to give up until she knows that you and Hazel are done.”
He rubbed an angry hand over his jaw. “You’re right, she may not even stop. Blake, I can’t stop living my life because of her.”
“So, you’re willing to put Hazel in danger because you don’t want to hide?”
He reared back like I’d slapped him in the face, but he wasn’t listening to me. Had he not heard everything I’d just said?
“Valerie knows this is serious,” I said, trying a different tactic. “There’s no way she doesn’t, because we can all see it. Which means it probably won’t be like last time. If she did that to me knowing we were nothing more than a stupid hookup, can you imagine what she’ll do when she realizes you’re in love?”
“Blakely,” he said in a low voice.
“I’m serious. She could hurt Hazel. She will. ”
“I am doing everything I can to protect her. I will do whatever I need to,” he shouted, and then took a breath and continued quieter. “You need to talk to the police. We wouldn’t be having this argument right now if you had done that in the first place. And just to remind you, I did stay cooped up in my fucking apartment while our divorce was being finalized, and guess what? It didn’t help a damn thing. She still did whatever she wanted to do.”
“So, you’re just going to make it easier for her?” I reasoned. He couldn’t argue with that. Whether they actually broke up or not, I didn’t care. Valerie just needed to believe it.
“Blakely, enough.”
I was so tired. I was so, so tired of arguing and thinking about nothing but this. But Shelly’s face flashed through my mind, sitting content and looking forward to the future in her hospital room.
“She’s not going to survive it, Luke,” I said, trying to hold back tears. “You’ve put her in the worst possible situation because you’re being selfish. Flaunting your relationship, or whatever the fuck this is, is just going to bring Valerie’s wrath down on her harder. Don’t do this to her or your?—”
A throat cleared behind Luke. He turned around, and Hazel stood in the doorway. Neither of us had heard the door open, so I couldn’t be sure how much she’d heard.
The heartbroken look on her face told me enough.
“Dinner’s ready,” she said in an even voice that didn’t belie any of the feelings I was sure were simmering below the surface.
I opened my mouth, ready to apologize and tell her that I wasn’t actually the bitch I’d come across as. That I was just scared for her life and for so many others.
But she didn’t give me an opportunity. “Dinner’s ready,” she said again, and my argument died on my tongue.
I walked past Luke, then past Hazel, and went straight back to the bathroom. I fumbled with the lock and turned the faucet on before a sob broke free.