Chapter 30
Sarah
There was something therapeutic about returning to work and back to my schedule.
In the sixteen days since Gabriel had broken into my home, nothing had changed.
Well… nothing with the investigation. We still didn’t know who he truly was or what his motivations were.
They had dusted my house for fingerprints, but he wasn’t in any system they could access.
They weren’t sure where he had gone after leaving my house, but he hadn’t been seen since—and I hadn’t been home.
My days were spent at Nate’s house: in the living room, watching movies and reading books by the fireplace; in the kitchen, watching Nate utterly fail at cooking while Scarlett laughed; or in that guest bed, wrapped in Fai’s arms, the only place that felt safe these days.
While nothing had changed with the investigation in the last sixteen days, everything had changed between me and Fai.
While I wasn’t in my house, I was finally home.
I was with him—the man I had fallen in love with all those years ago.
The man I had watched wither away. He had found himself again and seemed stronger than I had imagined he could be, after everything.
In the midst of the chaos—with Gabriel’s attention focused on me—the fact that Fai had lost a brother was being forgotten. The grief that I knew was crushing him was pushed to the shadows as we focused on me. It wasn’t fair to him, but he acted as if he didn’t mind.
Maybe he didn’t. In the last few months, he had gained and lost a brother…
but he also found his family again. His real family.
The one that was based on more than simply the blood in our veins.
The family that was chosen and, in Fai’s case, desperately fought for.
It would take time for the hurt to fade, for his betrayals to stop stinging, but damn, was he putting in the work.
He was facing Nate’s glares, Jackie’s questioning tone, and even my hesitation.
He was facing it all head-on, without fear.
The scariest thing in the world was the unknown, and Fai finally knew what rock bottom was. He wasn’t scared of it anymore, but he was determined to never go back.
We had talked about what would happen if he were to relapse again.
While neither of us wanted it to happen, his current sobriety didn’t make the alcoholism disappear.
It would live in the recesses of his mind for the rest of time.
Every day he had to choose to be sober, and it was possible that someday, he wouldn’t make that choice.
While neither of us could predict the future, we both agreed that no matter what happened between us, from this point on, we would only be honest. What is a relationship without trust?
I couldn’t tell the future. But I did know that I was willing to fight for the future I wanted, and that future was Fai.
I smiled to myself as I leaned back in my chair.
Even the thought of having a future with Fai again was enough to send butterflies through my veins.
He was at his office today—Goldie practically dragging him in, as the next edition of the journal was set to be published next week, and he had neglected it in recent weeks.
It was also the first day I was at my temporary office without him.
Nate was my current chaperone as I took up an office at the local university.
It helped that both Nate and Will were professors here; it was the most secure location we could find for me to do my work.
The patients who were currently incarcerated could see temporary psychologists in the meantime, but my regular clients had been working with me for years.
I could take a week or two off if needed, but I didn’t want to be away any longer than that.
I had just finished my second-to-last appointment for the day and was blissfully grateful for the short break I had between it and my final appointment.
I was looking forward to meeting with Mark.
He was one of my longest-standing patients and was a true image of recovery.
While he did have multiple felonies on his record, we had spent nearly a decade rehabilitating him into society, and he had integrated fully.
We only met once a month now, and I always looked forward to his stories of his husband and young daughter. They were truly a perfect family.
A quick knock sounded on the door, and Nate leaned his head in. “Your next client is here. Want me to send him in?”
I shook my head. “I have a couple of notes I need to wrap up first.” I glanced at the clock. Mark was five minutes early. He was usually five minutes late. “His husband must have their daughter today,” I muttered to myself.
“What?” Nate asked as he stepped fully in, closing the door behind him.
“Nothing,” I waved him off. “Just talking to myself.”
He sighed and sat in the seat across from me.
I raised a brow. “You know this isn’t an appointment for you? If I remember correctly, I’m not your psychologist anymore.”
He rolled his eyes. “I am acutely aware. I wanted to check on you while I had a minute. I haven’t gotten a moment alone with you, and I have a feeling Fai will be here the moment your next appointment is over.”
“I’m… I’m processing—adjusting,” I explained, filling out the last few lines of my report from the last appointment. “Once Gabriel is behind bars, I’ll be able to fully work through all that has happened. Until then, I may be in a state of limbo.”
Nate nodded slowly. “What about with Fai?”
I raised a brow in question. “What about Fai?”
Nate looked at me incredulously. “You know exactly what I’m talking about. You’re dating your ex-husband, are you not? Is your ex-husband your boyfriend now?”
I laughed lightly. “You make it sound crazy.”
“It kind of is,” Nate mumbled.
I set aside my notebook and leaned forward, reaching across the divide between the couches and taking Nate’s hand in mine. “What are you worried about when it comes to Fai and me?”
“You being hurt again,” he answered immediately.
“He probably will hurt me…” Nate opened his mouth, probably to agree or question why I would be with Fai if I was planning on pain, but I continued to speak.
“And I will hurt him. It’s the nature of humanity.
No matter how hard we try, we’ll hurt those we love.
Just as you’ll hurt your wife or your siblings.
You won’t mean to, but someday, you’ll say something that causes pain. ”
Nate rolled his eyes, breaking our hold and leaning back into the couch. “What makes it different this time? You and Fai were together for sixteen years and it still ended. It’s only been, what? A year and a half since you broke up? Almost a year since you divorced? How is it different this time?”
I smiled, understanding his apprehension was due to his care for me. “There’s a lot that’s different, but this time… this time I’m not trying to fix him, and he’s not relying on me to hold him together.”
“Is he fixed? Did he fix himself?”
I shook my head. “No, but he’s working on it. He’s no longer putting the responsibility on me to do the work. He also knows what it means to no longer have me, and that was his rock bottom. Do you remember rock bottom?”
Nate nodded. “I was alone. I had no one… nothing.” I gave Nate a knowing look, and he closed his eyes and let out a steadying breath. “Okay, I get it now.”
“You don’t need to be his friend, but can you try to be cordial… for me?” I asked.
Nate rolled his eyes but smiled nonetheless. “You could really get away with murder, you know? But yes, I can be cordial, and I’ll support you fully.”
“Thank you. Now skedaddle; I have another appointment,” I motioned him away.
He laughed but listened, standing and opening the door.
“Mark?” he called into my office waiting room. I reached down to grab a new notebook as Mark entered and took a seat across from me, the soft clicks of his shoes echoing on the tiled floor.
“You’re early today. Is Vanessa with Harold—” My question was cut off as I sat upright, my new notebook in hand, and was met with the barrel of a gun pointed at me. I followed the gun up the arm holding it toward me and to his face.
Gabriel.
I opened my mouth to yell for Nate, but Gabriel cocked the gun, shutting me up before I could get a word out. “Let’s not do that, shall we?”
I took a deep breath, and then another. “What are you doing here?”
“I thought it was obvious. I’m here for you.”
“And who are you today?” I asked calmly.
He tilted his head to the side and contemplated.
“Everyone… no one. Whatever you would prefer.”
He was different today than I’d seen him before. He was well and truly himself—not that I knew who that was. “What’s your real name, then?”
He took a deep breath, a sickly smile stretching across his features, though it didn’t reach his eyes. “Levi.”
I had no way to know if it was true, but my mind flashed back to the old notebook in his office back at the cabin.
L. S.
Levi Silvia.
I wanted to believe him, but doubt lingered, sharp and unshakable. There was always the chance he was lying again. Or worse… that he believed it himself. That this ‘Levi’ was just another mask, another name he’d slipped into so completely it had begun to feel real.
My mind spiraled through every possible outcome—every escape route, every risk. How could I get away from him without anyone getting hurt? How could I warn Nate without tipping Levi off? How could I reach anyone at all… before it was too late?
“Is Mark okay?” I asked, suddenly remembering the patient I should have been meeting, terrified for his fate.
“He’s okay,” Levi answered calmly. “A flat tire, but nothing else. I just needed to delay him for a while.”
I breathed a sigh of relief, knowing at least someone was okay.
“You need to let me go,” I insisted.
Levi shook his head, the gun still pointed at me.
“You know I can’t, Sarah. We have business to discuss.
In fact… it’s better we don’t discuss it here,” he explained, motioning toward one of the windows in the office that led to the courtyard.
“You had me go through a window; it’s time I return the favor. ”
“I won’t go with you,” I said suddenly, resolutely.
“If you value your life, you will,” Levi sneered, his cool demeanor beginning to disappear.
I shook my head. “You won’t shoot me.”
I could have been wrong, but I doubted a man who had spent as much time and energy as he had would simply shoot me. No, he had to have other plans, and they were plans I didn’t want to participate in.
Levi studied me for a moment, trying to decipher if I truly believed that he wouldn’t kill me. Finally, his gaze went dark, and his smile dropped. “You’re right; I won’t kill you.” He turned the gun to his own temple. “But you wouldn’t be able to live with yourself if I killed myself.”
My eyes went wide, wanting to argue, but he was right. He needed help, real help… not death and I couldn’t be the one to sign his death warrant. I swallowed deeply, knowing he had won this. “Fai won’t stop looking for me. The real Fai.”
Levi practically growled and stood, yanking the phone off the receiver and tossing it onto the couch next to me, “I know. If I had known he was going to be such a problem I would have found a different way to you, or had gotten rid of him earlier. Call him… it’s time we take care of this now.”
I shook my head, “You can’t hurt him.” I argued.
Levi leaned down, his voice quiet but menacing, “Sarah, I will kill anyone and everyone who gets in my way of you. That blonde fucker in the hall? He’ll be first, and then every person who tries to keep me from you.
Now call Fai and you will tell him exactly what I instruct or your friend out there will be made into an example of just how far I will go to get what’s mine… you. “
Fai
I checked the clock again and groaned when I saw I had another thirty minutes before I could pick up Sarah. She had made me promise to stay at work until she was ready—desperate for some sense of normalcy. I hated being away from her, every part of me longing to be in her presence.
I looked around the office. I loved my company, but I couldn’t help but wonder if maybe it was time to step away. I wouldn’t leave Fibonacci Files fully; I would simply step down as manager. I sighed, pulling the documents I had put together months ago out of my desk.
They were promotion papers for Goldie. She had already become the company’s true leader, it was time to make it official. I wasn’t ready to walk away completely, but it was time my priorities changed. My sobriety—and Sarah—had to come first.
“Fai!” Goldie yelled from her office. “Sarah is on line two for you!”
“Thanks!” I yelled back, picking up the receiver. “Hey, honey. You done early?”
“Fai?” she asked, her voice shaking. “Are you alone?”
“Yes… what’s going on? Are you okay?” I asked.
“No,” she answered immediately. “You need to meet me on the bridge. You know the one between our house and Will’s?”
“Yes, what’s happening? Where’s Nate?” I asked, trying to make sense of her call.
“Goddamn it,” I heard in the distance, and there was a brief struggle over the phone; then he spoke. “You will be on the bridge in twenty minutes or I start killing people. Do you understand?”
Ice flooded my veins—sharp, sudden, and paralyzing—at the thought of Gabriel being with her.
It wasn’t just fear; it was something colder, something that crept in and settled deep, refusing to let go.
My mind twisted around the possibilities, each one darker than the last, each one more suffocating.
“Don’t you fucking touch her,” I growled into the receiver.
“Twenty minutes,” he barked. “If anyone else comes, Sarah will suffer. Do you understand?”
“What do you want with us?” I demanded, my body vibrating.
“Twenty minutes!” he yelled.
Everything in me wanted to refuse, and I nearly did… until…
“No, Fai, don’t!” was yelled in the background, and I heard the sound of a hit, then her grunt. Sarah’s whimper, while quiet, was evident through the phone call. A haze went over my vision, nothing mattering anymore but getting to Sarah.
The phone abruptly hung up, the sound of the dead line ringing through the office. My hand shook as I tried to hang it up, my stomach churning at the sound of Sarah hurting… hearing her cry out in pain. I had to stop him. I had to save her.