Chapter 74
KAI
I couldn’t sleep. Not a wink.
Alex lay curled against me, breathing slow and heavy, finally peaceful for the first time all night - and my mind was racing so fast it felt like it might tear itself apart.
When I was sure he wouldn’t wake, I eased myself out of the bed, moving slowly, carefully, like any sudden noise might shatter him. I slipped out the door and closed it behind me with a soft click.
The hallway felt colder without him in my arms.
I walked into my room and stood by the window, staring out at the trees swaying in the wind, the stars scattered across the sky like they were watching me. My reflection in the glass looked tired. Haunted.
My mind kept drifting back to that phone call.
How could Erin have put him on the phone like that?
How could she care so little for her own son?
How could she hand him over to someone who spoke to him like that?
Who hurt him like that?
The whole thing made my skin crawl.
And Connor’s voice - the threat, the venom, the certainty - it replayed in my head like a loop I couldn’t shut off.
An hour had passed now. More than an hour and Alex wasn’t home. Obviously.
So what was waiting for him the next time Connor saw him?
He’s safe here. But Connor could come to the school. He could find him anywhere.
And the guilt twisted in my stomach like a knife.
If Connor found him and hurt him again…If he took it out on him because he stayed here…Because of me…
It would be my fault.
And Alex had begged me not to tell anyone. He’d been adamant. Said he wouldn’t speak to me again.
And the thought of that - of losing him - hurt more than I wanted to admit.
But the thought of him getting hurt again?
That would actually destroy me.
My hands shook as I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone.
He said not to tell anyone about the abuse. But there was something else Connor could be reported for. Something that wouldn’t break Alex’s promise.
I hesitated, breath catching in my throat.
Then dialled 999.
The ring felt like it lasted forever, my heart in my throat, my palms sweating around the phone.
“You’re through to the Emergency Services. Which service do you require? Police, Ambulance, Fire…?”
I exhaled a long, shaking breath and cleared my throat, knowing that once I said this, there was no rewinding, no pretending I hadn’t crossed the line.
But Alex’s face kept flashing behind my eyes - the way he’d finally softened in my arms, the way he’d breathed like he trusted me, the way that promise had settled in my chest like a brand.
And suddenly I realised I’d been drifting my whole life - weightless, lost - until Alex Taylor pulled me into his orbit.
And now that I knew what it felt like to belong to something, to someone, there was no universe where I’d ever choose to float alone again.
My fingers tightened around the phone.
My eyes shut.
My heart steadied.
“Police,” I breathed - and with that one small word, the world shifted.