Chapter 40
Cooper
When I get home,the house is empty, and I drop my bags before I collapse in the entryway. I pull out my phone and sit on one of the steps. There’s a message from the security team letting me know they’ve disabled all the security cameras, and they’ve done a sweep of Lizzy’s room and bathroom, and it’s come up clean. It gives me relief to see it in black and white, even though Trix and Madison already told me, and I passed the message on to Lizzy’s mom.
I send another message to her, thanking her again for keeping Lizzy until we decide on what the next steps should be and reiterating the information about the cameras that I passed on to her earlier. She responds shortly after expressing her own relief, and I close the chat for now.
I groan as I stand. My whole body still hurts from the fight Rob and I had, one I’m sure is going to continue when we’re on speaking terms again. The stress isn’t helping and I collapse at the counter in the kitchen with a bottle of water. The heaviness of everything finally hits me so hard I feel like I might crumble under it, especially in this dark, empty house.
I stare down at my phone, scrolling through the messages I’ve sent Bea that have gone unanswered. I glance at the dozen or so messages of support I’ve gotten from teammates and friends and open the one from Madison again, where she assures me Bea’s safe with her.
Madison told me she was upset, not wanting to talk to anyone, and not leaving bed. She asked Madison to keep her phone so she didn’t have to know about anything else happening for a while. I can only imagine that she’s been inundated with messages. I was torn about whether I should go straight to Madison’s or not when I got home, but I told myself to give her a little space first. I don’t want to be another voice overwhelming her, even if I’m also desperate to comfort her.
I make my way to the kitchen and grab a bottle of water from the fridge. The light illuminates the room and catches on a white envelope sitting on the kitchen counter on top of a pile of mail. “Beatrix” is written across the envelope, and my heart bottoms into my stomach. I walk toward it slowly, turning it over to see it’s partially unsealed—the corner is torn up at the side. I can see there’s a letter inside, handwritten, and my heart feels like it’s going to pound out of my chest. Thank fuck I told them to get out of the house.
I finish opening it, not thinking about the potential consequences until I’ve already gotten it torn open. Then, I slide the small piece of paper out and unfold it the rest of the way so I can read it. In for a penny, in for a pound.
Beatrix –
I hope you know I’m only trying to help you. I know you’ve been struggling lately. I can see it when I watch you. I know you need help, and I’m here for you. I can be there for you in every single way you need if you just let me.
You’re making a mistake. One brother after the other. He’ll fuck up just like the last one. I don’t know why you can’t see it.
You being here in my city is a sign. It’s meant to be. We’re meant to be. I don’t want anyone to get hurt, least of all you.
Leave him. Be with me. I can fix everything for you.
I’ll find you wherever you are. This would all be so much easier for us if you just let me in.
I feelsick all over again. But I take pictures of the letter and set it back down. If there’s any chance there are fingerprints on it besides mine, I want the cops to have the evidence. This whole house could be full of it. But I need to talk to Bea first.
Before I know what I’m doing, I’m hurrying to grab my keys and race for my car. I can’t stay away from her tonight. I want to be with my girl. I want to hold her and tell her everything is going to be okay. Then, I want to get to the bottom of this. I want us to figure out who this is and have him behind bars before he ever even thinks about touching her.
When I get there,it’s late, but the lights are still on, and I ring the doorbell. Quentin appears at the door a few moments later, looking worse for wear from being on the road but still dressed like he isn’t ready for bed. Madison appears behind him and gives me a sympathetic look.
“I need to see her.”
Quentin nods for me to come in, and Madison shows me upstairs. She knocks softly on the door and opens it. I hear the soft exchange of voices, and then Madison motions for me to go in. The room’s dark, and I can barely see any details other than her form curled up on the bed.
“Trixie? You okay?”
“Coop.” She holds her arms out, and I join her on the bed, wrapping my arms around her and holding her tight.
She starts to cry again, something I can tell she’s been doing most of the day from how hoarse her voice is and how swollen her eyes and cheeks are, and my vision starts to adjust to the dim light. I just keep holding her. Telling her I love her and that everything’s going to be okay. She squeezes me back, and finally, after a few minutes, we sit up. She leans back against the pillows and headboard and shakes her head, staring down at her hands as she plays with her nails.
“It’s awful. I don’t know how we fix it.”
“What if we could figure out who it is?” I pull the images of the letter up on my phone.
She sees her name at the top, and she frowns.
“What’s this?”
“It was on the countertop when I got home. It was unsealed, so I opened it and took photos.”
“From who?” she asks as she reaches for it.
“The stalker,” I answer, even though we both already know.
“They were in the house again. Holy fuck.” The tears form again at the corner of her eyes, glistening in what little light there is in this room. I reach out and wipe one away as it starts to fall.
“That’s why you’re right about you and Lizzy needing to be away to be safe. But I think there might be clues in this that could help us.” I nod to the phone.
She looks down and rubs her breastbone as she reads it, her lip worrying between her teeth and her brow furrowing. I reach out and take her hand, and she squeezes mine.
“This is so unhinged.” She shakes her head, lifting her eyes as she finishes, and her hand and the phone drop to her lap.
“But it confirms it’s you they’re after. That they knew about Rob. It sounds like they knew you before. Any guesses?” I frown as I look back down at the letter.
“No. I really don’t know. I had some boyfriends in college and high school, obviously, but none that would write something like this. Most of them are married too. Of the rest… I don’t know of any who live here.”
“What about something unrequited? Maybe someone similar to the situation with Craig?”
“I can’t think of anyone. But… we should take this to the cops. Maybe it’ll help them. Whoever took the photos and wrote this obviously had access to the house, and they were in it multiple times. Maybe there are fingerprints.”
“That’s what I was thinking. But I wanted to come here first and show you, prepare you before I started all that. Madison told me it’s been a rough day for you, and I wanted to come see you first. Are you okay?”
“I feel guilty for putting Lizzy at risk. Your career. Your reputation. Your family and parents…”
“Lizzy is okay. Nothing happened to her. She’s safe with her mom. We’ll figure things out, and it’ll all be fine. As for the rest of that… I don’t give a fuck about any of it.”
“I don’t think it’ll all be fine. Lizzy’s mom was furious. She was polite, but I could tell. I felt like a complete fuckup who should never have been put in charge of a child in the first place.”
My heart twists for her. After all her worries with Rob and kids, I know this must be hurting her. None of it’s her fault, but I also can’t blame Evelyn for being upset. I would be too if the tables were turned. I just wish she’d taken out her frustration on me instead of Trix.
“She was upset. I was upset. You were upset. We were all just worried about Lizzy. Lizzy’s mom has never had a bad word to say about you, Trix. She was just scared and worried. I’m sure we can all talk and work through it.”
“Lizzy can’t move home as long as I stay with you. Whoever this stalker is, they don’t want us together, and clearly, they’re willing to do anything to keep us apart. They could go after her next. You know that’s what her mom is thinking. It’s what I’m thinking. I’m sure you’ve thought it too.”
I can’t argue. I am worried about it. That whoever this psycho is knows that Lizzy is a soft spot for Trix and will press it for leverage over her. I’m not sure how this is going to work, but somehow, I hoped we could figure it out.
“That’s what I thought,” she says softly.
“I am worried about Lizzy. I need to talk to her mom and work things through about how she wants to handle this. But we’ve always figured things out before, and we’ll figure things out again. As far as my career and my reputation, I don’t give a fuck. That’s the least of my worries. We were attacked—violated in our own home. If people can’t understand that, fuck them.”
She squeezes my hand again. “You’re a good man, Coop. I’m glad you think you, Lizzy, and her mom can work through everything. But I can’t be in a relationship with you, Cooper. I can’t do that to you and Lizzy. I love you both too much. I can’t be the reason problems start happening with your co-parenting. I can’t live with Lizzy resenting me because I moved in, so she had to move out. None of that is okay.”
“We’ll catch the stalker, and then it’ll be over. This letter has clues.” I’m desperate for her to see it my way, for there to be some way out of this for us.
“Not many.”
“It tells us he’s here in the city. From here. That he’s someone you knew.”
“That doesn’t narrow it down much. He could be one of thousands of people. If we open it up to anyone I could have crossed paths with.. who knows how many? I was with my father at a lot of political events. Politicians and their families have issues with these kinds of parasocial relationships. People think they know us when they don’t.”
“Once the police are involved—”
“It’ll help. But it’ll get more complicated. Bureaucracy and red tape. My dad’s had to report enough things over the years that I know how this goes.”
“You’re resigned to this then,” I say, almost bitter.
“Not resigned. I just want us to be realistic about what this means for us. I was hopeful before that it was just some fan of yours that didn’t like our relationship. That they’d find someone else to crush on soon enough and move on. But this is obviously not that, and now, who knows how deep it runs or how long it’ll take to unravel.”
“Just don’t give up on us yet. At least give me that.”
“Coop, I told you. I’m in love with you. I’m not giving up that easily, but I’m scared. This letter scares me even more. What if they go after you next?”
“I’ll be fine.”
“You can’t know that.”
I know she’s right. Half of this battle is going to be keeping her mind at ease. Making sure she knows Lizzy and I are safe. I know what that means for us, but I’m still struggling to accept it. Tears burn at the back of my throat.
“We can wait and see,” I try to bargain.
“We can’t. They’re escalating. Taking photos in your home, Coop. Following us to your family’s home. Who knows what they’ll do next. We can’t wait.”
“I’m not okay with this. I’m not doing this. There has to be a way,” I say the words even as I’m accepting that she’s right. She usually is.
“I’ve been lying here for hours trying to think of a way. Any possible way it can work. But…”
I can see the desperate way she looks at me, and I know in my heart if this woman thought there was a way to fix it, she’d do it in a heartbeat. She’d fight for me—for us. So if she’s not, I can’t fight her. I can’t make her hurt even more for trying to do what she thinks is best. I take her hand in mine, lacing our fingers together. I close my eyes and try to just appreciate the fact that I have her at this moment. For this fleeting bit of time we have left, she’s mine.