Chapter 119: The hidden witness
Evelyn's call came at the break of dawn. Her breathing was ragged, shaking over the speaker like a bird in air. "Lily, there was someone in my apartment."
My stomach dropped. I pushed myself back in my chair, cradling the phone more tightly in my ear. "What are you saying? Are you okay?"
"Nothing's missing," she said quickly. "But someone rummaged through my things. And my computer. it was open. The webcam light was on. There was a picture on the screen. Just one."
I had already guessed what she was going to say before the words ever escaped her mouth.
"It was you. Sleeping. In your bed."
Shivers ran down my spine. I said nothing for a breath too long.
"Lily?"
Evelyn's voice was trembling. "He was at your house. He sent that picture and left it on your doorstep. What the bloody hell is happening?"
I mouthed a reassurance I wasn't certain I'd even intended to make. And then I hung up the phone, hands trembling.
Caspian emerged from behind the edge of the kitchen, shirt rumpled, mug in hand. One look at me and he set the cup down.
"What is it?"
"Evelyn's apartment was broken into," I said to him. "And she found a picture of me sleeping. On her computer. That wasn't there before."
His jaw locked. "He's escalating."
"He's playing games with us."
"It's worse than that," Caspian said, pacing. "He wants us to feel cornered. Helpless. Like we can't protect ourselves or the people we care about."
I shivered, feeling the eyes again. Always watching. Always one step ahead of us.
"And there's more," Caspian said to me. "The PI I had hired. He was supposed to check in last night. He didn't."
I gazed up at him, wide-eyed. "What are you saying he didn't?"
"I called him. Nothing. Then this morning I received one message from a blocked number." He extended his phone. Just five words lit up the screen:
He knows you're looking.
The heavy silence that followed was worse than anything either of us could have spoken. It clung to us like fog, thick and paralyzing.
"He's not looking anymore," I said. "He's removing pieces from the board."
Caspian hung up the phone on the counter and raked a hand through his hair. "We need to leave. Now. Somewhere he can't find you."
"And hide all over again? Let him control what we do out of fear?"
His eyes flared as he spun around to face me. "You don't get it, Lily. He does not play by the rules. If he was in Evelyn's apartment, in your bedroom while you were sleeping, then we are beyond playing by the rules."
"Then we need to call the police."
"No."
The single word was brutal, icy, absolute.
I crossed my arms. "Why not?"
"Because guys like Nathaniel don't get caught. His family buries things deeper than concrete. If we give this to the police, it'll disappear."
"So what's the other option?" I was on my feet now, my voice growing hot and shaking. "Wait for him to break in again? Wait for him to hurt Evelyn? Or me?"
Caspian took two steps and bridged the distance between us. "I would never let him hurt you."
I looked up at him, and for a moment the anger broke under the stress of something else. The fear. The exhaustion. The betrayal.
"You can't always be there, Caspian. You weren't there."
His face fell as if I'd punched him.
"I didn't mean it that way," I panted.
But I had. Deep in me, somewhere, I had.
He recoiled a step, rubbing his jaw, eyes distant.
"Do you think I don't know that?" he growled, his voice low. "Every night I sit and watch you sleep and wonder if tonight is the night he comes back. I replay every security measure, every deadbolt, every camera, and I still feel like I am cheating you."
His vulnerability cut through me like glass.
You're not letting me down," I said to him, softer now. I grasped his hand. "But we need to trust someone. We can't do this anymore ourselves."
He looked down at our entwined hands. And then at me.
"You're never alone. Not ever.".
We stood there in the still kitchen, two racing hearts in the midst of the wreckage of fear. The world outside was collapsing, perhaps, but here, now, he belonged to me. And I to him.
He inched closer, slow, deliberate, searching my face for permission. And I gave it.
The kiss wasn't hasty or desperate—it was something else. A promise stitched between breaths. A grounding force in the chaos.
When we pulled away, I rested my forehead against his.
"Let's see who else he's watching," I said. "Let's get the better of him."
Caspian nodded. "Then we need new eyes. Eyes he has no clue we have."
"And Evelyn?"
"She goes with us until we know she is safe."
I breathed. For the first time in days, there was a plan.
The rest of the morning passed in a haze of anxious phone calls and hushed, coded conversations. Evelyn visited at noon, pale and shaken. I hugged her close, and she clung to me like a lifeline.
We didn't speak much. Words seemed insufficient. But afterward, when Caspian reset the security system, I ended up sitting beside her in the guest room.
"I'm so sorry," I said.
Evelyn looked up, her eyes rimmed red. “You didn’t do this.”
“But he did. Because of me.”
“Because he’s sick,” she corrected firmly. “And because he can’t stand not having control. But you’re not his anymore, Lily. That’s what scares him.”
Her words settled like stones in my chest.
Then, in the darkness, I was in bed next to Caspian, unable to sleep. His arm thrown across my waist, his breath calm and warm on my shoulder.
"I hate that he is still present in our silence," I whispered.
Caspian rolled over. "He won't be. We'll override him."
"With what?"
He pulled me in, his mouth on the back of my neck. "With truth. With love. With noise so loud he can't hear his own obsession anymore."
I turned around. His eyes met mine, never blinking, never looking away.
"You don't have to be brave every second," he said. "You're allowed to be scared. I just want to be the one standing next to you through it."
I pushed my hand against his chest. His pulse was strong. Real. Alive.
"Then never let go," I whispered.
His lips touched mine again, more slowly now, reverent. As if he were memorizing every inch of me. And perhaps I was, too.
For the storm had only just begun.
But we weren't going into it alone.