Nora #2
I stared at the waves for a second, remembering how easy it all had felt in the beginning.
“When my parents were at a wedding in Boston, Becca and her boyfriend drove up from New Jersey and took me. It was actually a great day. I had fun. I laughed. I remember thinking, maybe this is it. Maybe this is the start of us having a real relationship. Like she was a second mom to me again.”
Theo gave my hand a little squeeze of encouragement.
I swallowed. “And then, when it was time to take me home, she suggested we keep the summer fun going.” My voice dipped. “She said, ‘Why don’t you come stay with me for a week?’”
I glanced down at the sand as we walked.
“I hesitated a little,” I admitted. “Because I hadn’t really spent much time alone with her before.
But my parents had just taken my phone and grounded me for two weeks, and I was mad at them.
So with Becca offering an escape and acting like she wanted me…
” I shrugged. “It just sounded like a fun time.”
“Did she just take you?” Theo asked. “Without contacting your parents?”
“No, she actually said she’d call my parents herself to make sure it was okay with them. And when she got back from making the call, she had a huge smile on her face and told me they’d said yes—that they thought it would be good bonding time for us.”
And I was an idiot to believe her.
I stared out at the horizon where the water met the sky, my stomach twisting.
“Anyway, we stayed in a cheap hotel that night. Then we drove to her apartment the next morning.” I let out a short, humorless breath.
“At first, I was weirdly excited. She’d promised all these fun things.
Like it was going to be this big healing couple of weeks where we finally got our relationship back. ”
I stared out at the dark stretch of sand ahead of us for a second before continuing. “But it didn’t take long to realize nothing had changed. She was still doing drugs. And her boyfriend was…” I swallowed. “He was scary.”
Theo slowed beside me, his attention sharpening.
“It took one day,” I admitted quietly, “for me to wish I could go home.”
I drew in a breath, trying to steady the rush of memories.
“But I couldn’t.” I shook my head. “My parents had my phone. I didn’t have money. And when I told Becca I wanted to leave, she said they’d spent all their extra cash getting me there, so taking me back wasn’t possible.”
Theo’s fingers tightened around mine.
“I asked to call my parents,” I went on. “She told me she didn’t have a phone. She said I could wait for her boyfriend to get home from work and use his.”
My stomach turned as I said it, even now.
“And when he got home…” I swallowed again. “That’s when I found out why they’d brought me there.”
Theo’s head angled toward me, his eyes full of dread.
“They wanted money,” I said simply. “Becca and her boyfriend knew all about Ky and his career. The tour. The money. So they were convinced my family would pay anything to get me back.”
Theo gripped my hand tighter.
“Turns out, Becca had never even called my parents to ask if I could go with them. Because they wanted it to look like I’d been taken.”
Theo’s brows pulled together. “What?”
I nodded. “They wanted it to look like I’d been kidnapped.”
I didn’t want to relive all of it because it brought up a lot of emotions. But since Theo had been so open with me about all the hard things he’d gone through, it was important that I shared more of my story with him.
“They needed proof I was scared,” I said, forcing the words out. “So her boyfriend sicced his dog on me. This huge thing that came barreling at me, teeth bared.” My throat constricted. “They recorded me screaming. Sent it to my family.”
Theo went still.
“And then they locked me up so I couldn’t run,” I added, my voice dropping. “In a root cellar.”
I pinched my eyes shut as the memory of being shut down in that dark, dirty hole in the ground with no windows washed over me.
I took a deep breath. “They had a whole plan to make it look like some random person had me. To ask for ransom and keep my family panicked.”
Theo’s jaw flexed, his hand still wrapped around mine like he was the only solid thing on the planet.
“Ky was supposed to perform at a huge charity concert when the message came. But the second he found out, he dropped everything. Cancelled it all and came for me even though he knew he was disappointing a lot of fans.” I stared down at our joined hands.
“I was found a week later, and Ky paid Becca a lot of money to stay away. To disappear and stop trying to touch our lives. I haven’t heard from her since. ”
For a moment, Theo didn’t say anything. He just stood there with me, his thumb brushing over my knuckles, like he was anchoring me back in the present.
“That had to have hurt,” he said, his voice low. “To have trusted Becca and hoped that you were finally getting the kind of relationship you’d always hoped for. Only to have her betray you in such a deep way.”
“It did,” I admitted. “It was crushing. And I felt stupid. Because I’d believed her. I wanted it to be true so badly that I ignored every red flag she waved in my face.”
I blinked hard and forced myself to keep looking at the water instead of letting Theo see how much it still messed with me.
He just stopped walking and pulled me in. His arms wrapped around me, solid and warm, and he pressed a kiss to the top of my head.
For a minute, he just held me there while the ocean moved in and out like a slow breath.
“Thank you for telling me,” he murmured into my hair. “I know that wasn’t easy.”
“Thanks for caring enough to ask…” I let out a shaky exhale and tightened my arms around his waist. “And for listening.” I hesitated and added, “It’s not something I really tell anyone since with Ky’s career being so big, it’s so hard to keep things like this out of the news. But I know that I can trust you.”
Theo’s hold tightened. “I’m honored that you do,” he said, his mouth brushing my hair.
And as I stood there in his arms while watching the sun dip below the horizon, I had the feeling that I could not only trust him with my history, but I was also pretty sure I could trust him with my whole heart.