Chapter 21
Cullan
A s the garage door closes behind me, I get out of my truck, and a thought crosses my mind that has become familiar ever since Elena moved in with me. It’s good to be home.
I smile to myself as I open my truck bed and rearrange the contents, throwing things away and restocking others, as I always like to do at the end of a big job.
Music plays on the radio, and I hum along to Interpol.
As I finish, I check my phone for any messages I’ve missed.
There’s a notification that someone has opened the front door twenty minutes ago.
Quickly, I pull up the video that was recorded by the cameras. Elena left by the front door and vanished into the night. I check my messages from her, but there’s nothing. That’s not like her.
My thumb hesitates over the dial button.
I need to speak to her, but I want more information about what made her flee my house.
If she’s discovered something about me, I’d like to know what it is.
I search through the security footage for several minutes, looking from various cameras in my house until I find her in the master bathroom.
She stands still for a long time staring at something in her hands.
She sits on the closed toilet for several minutes.
There are things on the floor. I can’t make out what’s going on, so I head inside and upstairs to look.
The first thing I notice is Elena’s “contraceptives” have been scattered everywhere.
The box of pregnancy tests I bought in hopeful anticipation a few weeks ago has been torn open and is sitting on the vanity.
There’s an unwrapped pregnancy test face down on the floor as if dropped there in surprise.
Or shock.
I didn’t notice any pregnancy symptoms, like queasiness in the mornings or her breasts being tender. Maybe she saw the tests sitting in my bathroom cabinet and felt she had reason to, like she’d missed a period. If so, did she take the test with joy and hope in heart, or fear and anxiety?
Why did the results make her flee instead of waiting here or calling me on the phone?
With my heart in my throat, I reach for the pregnancy test, and turn it over. Two lines stare back at me. Elena is pregnant with my baby. This is what I’ve been hoping for, but a cold sensation creeps down my spine.
My mask is slipping. It’s slipped so far that it may as well have come off. Does she like the man she sees beneath the mask, or does he horrify her?
The empty, silent house is answer enough. Elena fled without a word.
I push my hands through my hair with a groan, and then whirl around and slam my fist against the wall.
Fuck. Fuck . This isn’t happening. I can’t give her up. I won’t. I need to get her back, no matter the cost.