Chapter 8 - The Person I Trusted
The photograph was traced to a public Wi-Fi network.
No useful camera footage.
No identifying metadata.
Luke denied sending it.
His attorney called the accusation “paranoia.”
My protective order was expanded.
Two patrol cars drove past my sister’s apartment each night.
Rebecca begged me to stay somewhere Luke did not know.
I refused at first.
Then someone tried to access my medical portal.
That changed my mind.
I moved into a secured extended-stay apartment arranged through a victim advocacy organization.
Only five people knew the address.
Rebecca.
Detective Hale.
My sister June.
My physical therapist.
And my closest friend from work, Mia Grant.
Mia and I had worked together for six years.
She brought me coffee after surgery.
She washed my hair when I couldn’t stand in the shower.
She sat beside me during one of the worst panic attacks I had ever experienced.
So when she called three days after I moved, I answered immediately.
“You okay?”
“I’m tired.”
“Can I bring dinner?”
“No. I’m not supposed to have visitors.”
“I know.”
She paused.
“Just checking.”
I smiled despite everything.
“Thank you.”
That evening, a dark SUV remained parked across the street from my building for almost an hour.
Security called police.
The vehicle left before officers arrived.
The following morning, Detective Hale asked me a question.
“Who knew where you were?”
I gave him the names.
He wrote them down.
Two days later, he called Rebecca.
Then Rebecca came to me.
She looked furious.
Not worried.
Furious.
“What happened?”
“Your friend Mia has been talking to Luke.”
I stared at her.
“No.”
Rebecca handed me printed phone records.
There were seventeen calls.
Some less than a minute.
Others longer.
The most recent occurred forty minutes after I gave Mia my temporary address.
I felt something collapse inside me.
“She wouldn’t.”
“She did.”
“Maybe he called her.”
“He did.”
“So maybe she didn’t tell him anything.”
Rebecca looked at me.
“Hale interviewed her this morning.”
My mouth went dry.
“What did she say?”
“At first, nothing.”
“And then?”
“She admitted giving him information.”
I felt physically sick.
“Why?”
“She says Luke threatened her.”
“With what?”
Rebecca sat across from me.
“Your company.”
I frowned.
“What?”
Luke had discovered that Mia altered an internal expense report six months earlier.
Not to steal money.
To cover a mistake that could have cost her job.
Luke somehow obtained a copy.
He told her that if she didn’t tell him where I was and what I was doing, he would send it to management and accuse her of fraud.
“So she chose herself.”
Rebecca didn’t answer.
“She gave him my address.”
“Yes.”
My eyes burned.
“What else?”
“Your physical therapy schedule.”
I looked away.
“And?”
“Information about our strategy.”
I snapped my head back.
“What strategy?”
“She overheard you mentioning the Willow Creek hearing.”
I stood impulsively.
Pain shot through my leg.
I grabbed the table.
Rebecca rushed toward me.
“I’m fine.”
I wasn’t.
Not even close.
Luke had spent years teaching me that everyone eventually betrayed me.
Friends.
Family.
Coworkers.
Lawyers.
I had believed he said it because he wanted me isolated.
Now Mia had handed him exactly what he needed to make the lie feel true.
My phone rang.
Mia.
I stared at the screen.
Rebecca said nothing.
I answered.
“Clover.”
Her voice broke immediately.
“I’m sorry.”
I said nothing.
“He said he would destroy my career.”
“You gave him my address.”
“I didn’t think he’d hurt you.”
“He already broke my leg.”
“I know.”
“Then what exactly did you think he would do?”
She sobbed.
“I panicked.”
“So did I.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I was on a kitchen floor for hours with no phone.”
“I know.”
“And you gave the man who did that the address where I was hiding.”
“I didn’t know what else to do.”
“There was one thing.”
“What?”
“Tell me.”
Silence.
“I would have helped you.”
Her crying grew louder.
That made me angry.
Not because she didn’t deserve to cry.
Because I was tired of being expected to comfort people after they failed me.
Barron cried.
Mia cried.
Luke used to cry after arguments.
Everyone had tears after the damage.
I was the one who lived inside it.
“I can’t do this right now.”
“Clover, please.”
I ended the call.
Rebecca waited.
“You don’t have to forgive people on their schedule.”
“I know.”
For the first time, I believed it.
But Mia’s betrayal had one unexpected consequence.
She had saved Luke’s messages.
Every threat.
Every demand.
Every time he asked where I was.
Every time he told her what he needed.
One message changed the investigation.
I only need her out of the way until the house closes.
Another:
Once Willow Creek is sold, none of this matters.
And another:
Mom took the fall. Now I need time.
Rebecca read that one twice.
“Mom took the fall.”
Luke was distancing himself from Celina.
Exactly as he had distanced himself from Evan Cole.
Exactly as he had left Erin behind.
He was preparing to sacrifice his mother.
And Celina had no idea.
Rebecca smiled without humor.
“This might be useful.”
“How?”
“We don’t tell Celina.”
I stared at her.
“You want her to think Luke is still protecting her.”
“For now.”
Detective Hale agreed.
Luke’s communications with Mia were added to the evidence.
Mia received legal counsel and began cooperating.
I did not forgive her.
But I allowed the truth she possessed to matter.
Two days later, something more important happened.
Celina requested a meeting with prosecutors.
Apparently she had begun asking why Luke wasn’t visiting.
Why he wasn’t paying certain legal fees.
Why he wasn’t answering her attorney’s calls.
Then she learned Northgate had moved money the morning after her arrest.
Almost everything.
Luke was preparing to run.
May you like
And the mother who had helped him control women for more than a decade suddenly realized her own son considered her disposable.
She asked to speak.
