Chapter 25
It didn’t take a mathematician to put two and two together.
Saul knew Dallas Johnson had put in a good word for Sadie at a time when it was fortunate the board of directors had been considering whether having a therapist on the team would be beneficial since many of their employees were cut off from their families by working on the island.
Luca had reminded him recently that while Sadie had cashed in the favor Dallas owed her, she had also been prepared to take any available position, even if that meant throwing away years of education and an excellent salary to work as a chambermaid.
The timeline fit. She’d come to work at the resort two years ago. That she was running was obvious.
“Are you in any danger from this guy?” he asked, holding his breath as he waited for the answer.
“I…” Sadie paused and swallowed. “When he got out, he went back to my mother. Yes, they were technically still married. But I always thought it was because he had nowhere else to go. And also, because I’m certain he wanted revenge.”
She sighed and flopped back against the headboard.
“Despite throwing me out, I always hoped my mother would come to her senses, that she’d realize…
” She trailed off, but after a small pause, Sadie seemed to collect herself.
Her tone became businesslike, imparting nothing but facts.
“So after college, when I got settled in my first job, I sent her all my contact details. Address, phone number, job location. She didn’t bother using any of it, and I never thought anything of it until I was informed Ned Smith had been released on parole. ”
Saul felt a chill run down his spine as he processed Sadie's words. The implications were clear, and his protective instincts flared.
"Did something happen? Do you think your mother gave him your information?” he asked grimly, his jaw clenching.
Sadie nodded, her eyes hard and angry. "I think so. Or, at the very least, he found them. At first, I just started getting hang-up calls. I reported them to the police, who said there was nothing to link it back to him, so having done my civic duty, I ignored them. It’s not like they were the worst thing in the world. ”
She worried her lip between her teeth, her eyes unfocused, like she was looking back on the past. “Then I started getting that feeling like I was being followed. Watched. But I never saw anyone, so again, there wasn’t a lot I could do…
I still logged it all with the police department and asked them to keep it on record, which my lawyer advised me to do, so there was a paper trail in case anything more serious happened. ”
Saul was gritting his teeth so hard, he was surprised he didn't break a molar. He’d never before had the urge to hurt a layman he didn't even know, but he did right now. He couldn’t believe what Sadie had been through because of that man. What she had survived.
“Did anything else happen?” he asked, trying to keep his voice even. Even without her telling him, he knew it had.
Sadie still had that detached look about her. He guessed it helped her cope. “It was a few months later that I started noticing things had moved in my apartment.”
She picked at her fingernails. “At first, I thought I was paranoid because it was little things, silly things. A picture frame slightly askew or my toothbrush in a different spot. The kind of things people might brush off, or say I’d imagined, or find another explanation for. Nothing I could prove."
Saul covered her hand with his, stopping her after she’d made her cuticles bleed.
“I couldn’t even report the individual instances to the cops, it sounded so ridiculous. I just told them I thought someone had been in my apartment, but I did change the locks.”
She cuddled closer to him, her voice dropping to a whisper, and that alone told Saul just how defenseless she was feeling right now.
"Then one night, I came home and found a pair of my panties on my pillow. They were... arranged… with one of my kitchen knives placed over the top of them. A threat… or a promise."
Saul's blood ran cold. He wanted nothing more than to pull Sadie into his arms, to shield her from the horrors of her memories. But he sensed she needed to get this out, to finally unburden herself of the weight she'd been carrying.
"That's when I knew I had to disappear because he was escalating, and the next time I was certain he’d be coming for me," Sadie continued, her voice barely above a whisper. "I called Dallas that night, cashed in the favor he owed me, although I’d never, ever intended to do so. Within 48 hours, I was on a plane to this island. I didn’t even tell my boss I was quitting in case it tipped him off. I just took all my accrued vacation time and acted like I was off on the holiday of a lifetime. I used it as my notice period and tendered my resignation while I was waiting at the airport for the plane to Miami, so the messages couldn’t be traced. ”
Saul's arms ached to squeeze her tight, but he forced himself to remain still, sensing she wasn't finished.
"I left everything behind," she said, her eyes glistening with unshed tears.
"My apartment, my job, my friends. I couldn't risk him finding me through any of them.
I didn't even say a proper goodbye." She took a shuddering breath.
"For the past two years, I've lived in fear that he'd somehow track me down.
I know the island is absolutely the safest place I could possibly be, but still every time I see a new guest, my heart stops for a moment, wondering if it's him. "
Saul couldn't hold back any longer. He gathered her into his arms, cradling her against his chest.
“And I don’t ever dare to leave,” she whispered against his chest, sounding so vulnerable it made his heart break.
"I won't let anything happen to you," he murmured into her hair.
He meant it.
Ned Smith’s days were numbered.