Epilogue

I look through the window with tears in my eyes, watching as Kelly breaks the news to my daughter that I might be dead because they found all the blood in our house. In my mind, I apologize to Kelly for putting her in this position, for forcing her to deliver this heart-wrenching message. We had this exact conversation just a few hours ago, discussing what she should do if I didn’t come back. And now, it seems that’s exactly what’s happened—I’m never coming back. Because Ezra King has officially murdered me…

A few hours earlier…

I wake up groaning, and at first, I don’t know what has happened to me. Where am I? Why… am I still alive?

My head is pounding, and I grab the throbbing spot. I feel a bandage and don’t understand what has happened to me. Gradually, fragmented memories piece themselves together in my aching mind, and the full picture of what happened becomes clear again.

I jerk up and look around in panic, only to let out a hiss of air as this jerky movement triggers a sickening pain in my head. But at least now I know where I am.

I’m lying in Ezra’s bed. Naked, I realize. As I glance down at my exposed body, I see the redness on my nipples. You… raped me while I was unconscious?!

I quickly grab between my thighs because I don’t want to believe that he is so sick and disgusting. But when I can feel his sperm leaking out of me, I’m overcome with nausea and have to fight against vomiting.

Filled with fear, I look in all directions and search the dark room with my eyes, but there is no sign of Ezra anywhere. Only then do I hear water. He’s in the shower.

I jump out of bed in a panic and want to run out of his bedroom. But suddenly, I’m rooted to the spot and look over my shoulder at the closed bathroom door. It will never stop if I don’t stop him. He’ll either kill me and then take June as a replacement, or he’ll just never let me go again. Either way, I can’t just leave now because he’ll never stop chasing me or being a danger to my daughter. And in the worst-case scenario, June and I will end up like all the other poor girls, and he’ll get away with it again. I can’t let that happen!

An idea matures in my head within seconds, and I don’t hesitate for a moment to put this plan into action. I hastily sneak through his bedroom in search of a pair of scissors. I finally find what I’m looking for in the third drawer. Without thinking twice, I cut off a thin strand of hair, put the scissors away, and sneak back to his bed. I take my wedding ring off my finger and wrap it around the strand, hiding both in the book he was reading last and lying on the bedside table beside his bed.

One look at the sheet, and I see all the blood from my head wound. So my DNA is sufficiently spread throughout his house, and when the police find my strand of hair with my wedding ring as a souvenir here in his bedroom, they will have no doubt. But to make sure that he never gets off this time, this time, he needs a murder weapon. The same weapon he used to kill me.

I creep through his house and into mine to waste no time because I know he’ll be finished showering any minute. I ignore the fact that I’m completely naked because it’s no longer important. The main thing is that no one sees me. That’s all that matters now.

Once in my kitchen, I glance around for the item that will make or break my plan because I can’t remember if I cleaned it up when I moved in with Kelly a week ago. But when I see the knife Ezra used to make June and me a stew lying untouched on the board on my kitchen counter, I exhale in relief. I’ve got you now, you sick fuck!

I grab a kitchen towel, holding only the outermost edge to avoid smudging his fingerprints with mine. Carefully, I walk into the hallway where I hit my head earlier, making sure to preserve the evidence. Some of my blood is already there, but that’s not enough. There has to be more. So, without thinking twice, I generously cut my arm to spread more dark red liquid on the floor. Then I hide the knife on his property. He cannot talk his way out of it this time.

Tears flood my face as the enormity of my plan and the sadness of having to leave my child behind almost overwhelm me. But it has to be done. I have to make everyone believe Ezra murdered me in cold blood and made the body disappear. He won’t be released if they don’t find me. Maybe they’ll reopen Jenny’s case and all the other unsolved cases. June and other women who might cross his path are safe. He’ll never be able to hurt a girl or a woman again.

Even if it means breaking my child’s and my own heart, I will do it because that’s the only way to keep her safe. I will live in the shadows and never return to my old self so that Ezra King will finally be punished for all he has done and locked away. I have won by losing everything…