Page 84 of Only You and Me

CHAPTER29

TRINA

Oddly, it’s been almost two weeks since the last contact from the person who’s been harassing me. After the “whores die” incident, everything just stopped. All of it. No more texts. No more photos. Nothing.

It’s like my stalker disappeared into thin air.

I’m torn between thinking he’s just screwing with me temporarily and letting myself feed that bit of hope blooming inside that maybe he’s gone.

Finally, I’m able to breathe easily again—at least sometimes—and the constant weight of the worry I’ve been carrying for the last few months is slowly lifting.

Or it was until I couldn’t reach Emily for a while this evening.

Add in that Fitz took the past week off work at the last minute and I haven’t seen him. Hence, no amusing updates about what it’s like having my sister for a roommate and now I’m worried again—but about her this time.

Emily finally answered her phone and when I heard the sadness in her voice—and that she and Fitz are no longer living together—I didn’t hesitate and got in the car and headed to her rental. It will piss Ben off if he gets back from the store and finds me gone, but it doesn’t matter. This is a priority.

So, here I am, standing at my sister’s short-term rental door, waiting for her to answer.

A minute later, the door creaks open and Emily stands on the other side. Her eyes are red and swollen, the swelling you only get from crying a lot.

I say nothing and pull her into a hug, holding her for several long seconds before I squeeze her shoulders and release her. Then we head over to her couch to take a seat.

“Are you ready to talk about it now?”I ask.

“Do you want to go sit on the balcony and have a glass of wine?” Emily is wringing her hands, and her voice is hushed while her eyes divert away from mine.

She’s stalling. Classic Emily when she’s trying to avoid telling me something.

A few minutes later, we each have a glass of chardonnay and we’re sitting on the two outdoor rockers that were provided with the rental. It’s a warm, late August night, so it’s not nearly as hot as it has been. The sun is going down, and it’s a perfect late summer evening.

“I’m glad to see that you’re in a second story unit. It makes me feel better about you being here alone. And the parking area seems well lit.”

“Yeah, it’s a nice little place. I have it rented for two weeks and then I have the option to renew for two weeks at a time until mid-October. I need to look for my own place again.”

I turn to look at her, feeling my brow furrow. “It seems like you’d stopped house-hunting. I’m kind of surprised to see you suddenly living in a rental and resuming the search.”

Emily opens her mouth like she’s going to say something, then closes it after a few seconds.

“Did you have a big fight? He hasn’t been at work this week to tell me, but it doesn’t seem like you could’ve argued about anything big enough for Fitz to kick you out of his house.”

“He didn’t kick me out. I left. It just wasn’t ideal for me to be staying there anymore.” She wastes no time trying to change the subject. “What did you mean about Charlie not being at work all week?”

We spend the next few minutes with me telling her about Fitz’s last-minute time off request, and then she tells me all about the incident at his parents. For probably the one hundredth time, Mr. Fitzgerald came home accusing Fitz’s mom of cheating on him. Then he used it as an excuse to abuse her.

It’s not uncommon for Mr. Fitzgerald to get physically violent with his wife on top of the emotional and verbal abuse he regularly doles out. But this time, she called Fitz, and since Fitz and Emily were out together, Emily witnessed first-hand a physical altercation between Fitz and his father.

I cringe on the inside. Fitz will hate that she saw that. Hell, even though there is no love lost between him and his father, Fitz has somehow limited the physical altercations with him now that he’s an adult. Still, one of Fitz’s biggest fears is that, deep down, he’s just like his father.

I can’t help but grimace. “It probably embarrassed him you saw that. He’s almost as bad as me with wanting to protect you and not have you see the ugly things of the world.”

A deep, almost frustrated sigh escapes Emily.

“I’m twenty-eight years old. You can’t protect me my whole life, and neither can Charlie. Bad shit happens to everybody. None of us can escape it. You took wonderful care of me growing up. It should never have had to be your job, and a lot of siblings wouldn’t have taken that on. But you made sure I had a childhood full of love and security. I felt cared for and that was because of you. It’s not your responsibility to keep doing all of it. I’m not a child anymore. Just be my sister.”

A single tear rolls down my cheek and I quickly wipe it away.

Damn it, Ben. The man’s got my emotions all out of whack.

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