Chapter 36 Nyah
NYAH
Simon and Sandra invited everyone over for dinner.
When the women eventually joined the men downstairs in the basement while they played pool, Caleb slid his hand around my waist. He leaned in close, his mouth near my ear, and whispered, “Do you think anyone would notice if we disappeared for fifteen minutes?”
A naughty, almost playful look crept into his eyes, and it caught me completely off guard. I had never seen this side of him before—this teasing confidence—and it sent a flutter straight through me. I smiled despite myself and whispered back, “I think they would—”
“What are you two lovebirds whispering about?” Bruce asked, suddenly appearing behind us.
I felt my cheeks heat instantly. With everyone waiting for an answer, Caleb turned toward me, a grin tugging at his lips. “Why don’t you tell them, Nyah?”
I stared at him, incredulous. I can’t believe he just did that. Bewildered and unprepared, I blurted out, “Actually, I think it would be better if you told them.” Two can play that game, mister.
“You sure?” he asked, clearly enjoying himself.
Heads turned back to me, and I nodded, lifting my chin. “I’m positive.”
It felt like a tennis match, everyone watching our glances bounce back and forth.
“Well,” he began casually. “I was asking Nyah if she wanted to go for a dip in the pool, and she said she didn’t have a swimsuit.” He paused deliberately, took a sip of his beer, then added, “So I said her birthday suit would do.”
Laughter exploded around the room.
I stared at him, half mortified, half laughing, and he winked at me—mischievous, unapologetic, and utterly charming.
After dinner, when it was time to leave, we thanked Simon and Sandra and climbed into the car. As Caleb pulled out of the driveway, I turned to him. “Thank you.”
He frowned slightly. “For what?”
“For everything,” I said. “For everyone. For yesterday and today, and the past few months—and for the ones to come. There are no word—”
He leaned in and kissed me before I could say more. It was gentle, unhurried, full of promise.
“Ewww, Mama!” Lucas groaned from the back seat. “Are you guys, like, dating now?”
Caleb and I looked at each other and nodded.
“That’s great,” Lucas said, then frowned. “But don’t do that in front of me. It’s disgusting.”
We both laughed.
“By the way,” Caleb said, glancing at me with that same teasing glint, “I still need to see you in your birthday suit.”
I smacked him lightly on the arm.
“What’s your birthday suit, Mama?” Lucas asked.
Caleb and I exchanged a look. There was no way I was explaining that to a six-year-old. Instead, I asked Lucas to tell me all about his night, and just like that, he filled the car with chatter until we reached Caleb’s apartment.
After putting Lucas to bed and making sure his night-light was on, I rushed into the shower.
When I finished, I slipped quietly into Caleb’s room wearing only my robe.
I’d barely stepped inside when he walked out of the bathroom, a towel wrapped around his waist, droplets of water trailing down his skin.
My heart slammed against my ribs. I let the robe slide off my shoulders and said softly, “My birthday suit.”
We locked eyes.
I bit my lip, nerves and anticipation tangling together.
In seconds, he crossed the room and pulled me into his arms, kissing me deeply. We moved together instinctively, discovering and rediscovering each other until the world faded away and there was only us.
In the morning, I slipped out of Caleb’s room while he was still asleep. I packed Lucas’s bag first, then mine, preparing to return to our apartment.
“Do you have to leave?” Caleb asked later over breakfast.
I held his hand. “I’m not far. But yes—we need to go back. Lucas needs stability, and I’m strong enough now to take care of myself.”
He sighed, clearly wishing the moment could last longer.
When we arrived back at my apartment, Caleb carried the bags upstairs. As I moved around the kitchen, I noticed towels on the floor. Assuming Elle had dropped them, I picked them up and put them away.
I then froze.
There was a smiley face drawn inside the cupboard door.
“Lucas,” I called, keeping my voice light. “Come here for a second, honey.”
He walked in.
“Did you draw this with your markers?”
“No, Mama.”
“Are you sure?” I pressed gently. “You won’t get in trouble.”
“I’m not lying. You bought me crayons, remember?”
My stomach turned to stone.
Someone had been inside my apartment.
I didn’t say anything. I forced myself to stay calm, to keep my breathing even, even though panic was already clawing at my ribs.
I moved casually around the apartment while Lucas played with Caleb, pretending everything was normal.
Entering Lucas’s room, I checked it thoroughly—his bed, his drawers, the closet.
Nothing looked disturbed. That should have reassured me, but it didn’t.
Then I entered my room.
The drawer with my lingerie was wide open.
My chest knotted as I walked toward it. The neat rows I always kept were destroyed. My undergarments were strewn about as if someone had rifled through them with deliberate intent. I turned around slowly and saw it—a bra and underwear scrunched together and thrown onto my bed.
I didn’t touch them. My hands shook, but I kept myself under control. Using a pen, I lifted them carefully and placed them into a plastic bag. I shut the drawer and forced myself to search the rest of the room.
When I entered my closet, my eyes immediately went to the shoebox. I opened it.
The gun and its magazine were still there.
I didn’t mention anything to Caleb, but alarm pulsed through me relentlessly. After he left, I called Larry. “Did anyone enter my apartment?” I asked, biting my fingernails as I waited.
He said no.
“Did you notice anyone unusual or anything abnormal at all over the past couple of days?” I pressed.
Again, the answer was no.
I called Alex, and he came over immediately. I handed him the bag with the undergarments and asked him to have them tested at the lab. Then I sat Lucas down and went over the rules about strangers, my voice calm even though fear throbbed beneath every word.
“What will you do if someone you don’t know grabs you?”
“I’ll scream for help.”
“What do you do if someone says that I sent them to pick you up?”
“I’ll ask them for the code word.”
“Good boy. And what’s the code word?”
“Flores, Mama.”
I hugged him tightly and patted his back. I’d taught him well. I had to believe that.
At 5 a.m., I woke up in a cold sweat. My dream had petrified me, leaving my heart pounding as if I were still trapped inside it.
I went to the bathroom and splashed water on my face, staring at my reflection until my breathing slowed.
Then I went to my laptop and pulled up the recordings from the previous few days.
That was when I saw him.
A man dressed in overalls with a cap had entered my apartment.
How did I miss that?
He looked like a maintenance worker.
My stomach dropped as the words repeated in my mind. Look up, look up.
I called Larry downstairs. “Did someone enter the apartment for maintenance work?”
“Hold on. Let me check.”
I could hear him shuffling through papers. My heart began to pound harder with every second.
“Yes. My apologies. There was maintenance on your floor while you were away.”
While he was giving me the details, my eyes stayed locked on the laptop screen.
I paused the image.
What I saw frightened me.
It was Jeremy.
He looked straight at the camera and smiled.
A wave of sickening fear surged through me, so strong it felt as though he were standing right in front of me. His evil grin paralyzed me. He had changed his appearance—his beard was scruffy, his hair grown out. He wore glasses and false teeth, but I recognized him instantly.
Everything came rushing back. The abuse. The yelling. The horror.
I emailed the clip to Alex and then forced myself to watch the rest of the recording.
Jeremy moved from room to room, entering the kitchen and throwing the towels on the floor. He smiled after drawing on the cupboard door. He didn’t go into Lucas’s room.
Then he entered my room.
I felt sick as I watched him rifle through my clothes and drawers.
He took one of my undergarments and stuffed it into his overalls.
Then he took a bra and underwear and sat on my bed.
I couldn’t look away as he pleasured himself, releasing himself onto my delicates.
After scrunching them up, he threw them onto my bed and left.
The past had come back to haunt me, crushing any hope I had for a peaceful sleep.
I changed the sheets on my bed first. Then I cleaned the entire house.
I scrubbed and sanitized every surface. Every corner.
I needed control. I needed clarity. I told myself again and again that I would not let him get to me.
I exercised. I moved my body until exhaustion dulled the fear just enough.
Then I messaged Alex, asking for an update on Jeremy.
While dropping Lucas off at school, I spoke to the principal. “I want you to make sure that no one—absolutely no one—besides Caleb or me picks him up from school. If there are any changes, I will call you myself. But I mean it. No one.”
I was scared. Paranoid, maybe. But I had a right to be.
Alex called me later. “Nyah, we’ve lost track of him.”
Terror surged through me. “How is that possible, Alex?” I yelled into the phone.
“I’m sorry, Nyah, but I can’t request that my boss keep a tracker on this guy for no reason.”
“But what about what I sent you this morning?” My voice shook as the fear built.
“You need to come down to the station and press charges. That would help.”
I drove there immediately and filed the charges with Alex’s help.
From that moment on, I became hyper-vigilant. I constantly looked over my shoulder. I began meeting Tyrone every week. I changed the locks without telling Larry and gave Caleb and Elle spare sets of keys.
Caleb had picked up on my stress. I could see it in the way his eyes followed me, and in the way his hand lingered a second longer on my back. Every time he asked what was wrong, my throat closed. I told myself I was protecting him by staying quiet, but the truth was more selfish than that.
I was afraid.
Afraid of what telling him would change.
Jeremy wasn’t just a man from my past—he was the past I had clawed my way out of, the version of myself I had buried so deeply that even I pretended she no longer existed.
Telling Caleb meant resurrecting her. It meant admitting that danger had followed me here, into this life I was trying so desperately to keep intact.
What if knowing made him look at me differently? What if love turned into caution, into distance, into a quiet calculation of risk? Would he stay with me, or would he decide that being with me was too dangerous?
Caleb had a family. A life. People who depended on him. If I told him, would he start watching over his shoulder, too? Would he wonder if being with me meant putting a target on all of them?
The thought made my chest ache. I didn’t want to be something he had to survive. And yet, keeping this from him felt like a betrayal of its own.
He had been gentle with my scars—both the ones he could see and the ones he couldn’t. He had stood beside me without asking for explanations I wasn’t ready to give. If anyone had earned the truth, it was him. But truth had consequences, and once spoken, I couldn’t pull it back.
One afternoon, I studied his face, the quiet strength in it, the steadiness that made me feel safe even when my world was unravelling. I wondered if this was the moment everything shifted—if this was where I either trusted him fully or lost him entirely.
I drew in a slow breath, feeling the weight of the words pressing against my ribs.
“Caleb,” I said finally, my voice steadier than I felt, “I need to tell you something.”