Page 47 of If You Love Me

“You can talk to her. She’s right here.”

“Hello?” I said.

“Evenie, how are you? Are you settled in back at home?”

“Everything is… it’s decent. Not what I was expecting, but at least it’s not where I was. I appreciate you calling to check in. I know you’re probably busy, and you didn’t have to do that.”

“You were on my mind. Listen, you left before I could give you some information.”

“What kind of information?”

“I know PTSD can be a common result of being kidnapped along with nightmares and other things. Maybe you feel that, maybe you don’t. Maybe being home is a harder adjustment than you anticipated. I don’t know. I just wanted to offer you the number to a counseling service should you need it. If you can’t talk to your friends or family, you should talk to someone.”

I was quiet for a moment. I hadn’t allowed myself to think about my time in that basement. I’d blocked it from my mind so I could give my all to my child, but I knew it wouldn’t last. All it would take was one thing to trigger me and send me back to that place. Maybe talking to a professional would do me some good.

“I appreciate that. I’ll take the number.”

She rattled off the number, and I stored it in my phone. We spoke for a little while longer before disconnecting the call. I turned my attention back out the window as silence fell upon thecar once more. If being in his presence didn’t depress me first, the silence was going to drive me insane.

Yeah… it was time to go.

15

Iona

Isat outside of Tyrion’s home, trying to relax my nerves before I went inside. All week long, he’d been quiet on me. His responses had been dry. I’d barely seen him, and I was getting fed the fuck up. Every day this week, I’d watched him drop Summer Rose off to school. If I didn’t meet him at the drop-off, I didn’t see him at all. He didn’t ask me to take her, even though I had to pass his house to come to work. I didn’t know what was going on with him, but I was going to get to the bottom of this shit.

Getting out of my car, I headed up the front steps. Using my key, I went inside. It was about five thirty, so I knew he couldn’t have been too busy. When I walked in, the house was eerily quiet. There was no TV on, no music playing… not even the sound of anybody talking. The living room and kitchen were empty, so I walked down the hall to Tyrion’s bedroom.

Empty.

I checked Summer Rose’s bedroom. Empty.

Every room I checked, there was no one there. It was weird because his car was out front. I circled back around to the living room. After standing there a minute, I went to check out back where I found Tyrion drinking liquor and smoking a cigar, still dressed in his work clothes. I walked over to where he sat and took a seat in front of him, catching a glimpse of the nearly empty bottle at his feet. He looked over at me, then took a sip of his liquor.

“Tyrion.”

“Iona.”

I shook my head. “I guess it’s not only your text messages and phone calls that are dry.” I motioned to the liquor bottle. “Why are you sitting out here like this? Where is everybody?”

His words slurred slightly. “They’re gone.”

“Gone? What do you mean, gone?”

“Evenie moved out. She’s with her parents, and Summer Rose is with her for a little while.”

I frowned. “So she took her?”

He shook his head. “No, she didn’t take her. We talked to Summer about it, and she agreed that she wanted more time with her mom. I respected that.”

“And what about you?”

“What about me?”

Again, I motioned to the liquor. “This is depressing.”

“Honestly, Iona, I don’t feel the best about anything right now.”

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