49

49

STACEY

Two hours later, after Kade and I finished what we started and showered, we stand in the driveaway and wave off Base and Barry. The latter will call us once he’s dropped Base off, then he’ll send pictures of his girls as soon as he gets home.

Tylar and Dez leave too, so it’s just me, Kade, Ewan, Aria and the dogs in the sitting room.

Kade and Ewan are at the laptop. Ewan is still looking into how they might rebuild the manor, but Aria rather likes how much smaller this house is. She even asks Ewan if he’d be open to selling the grounds and buying a three-bedroom house.

“Oh, sweetheart,” Aria says to Kade. “We were able to recover one thing from your room. I think maybe it was in the back of the cupboard.” She rushes over to a large box and pulls out another smaller metal one – badly dented but intact – that has my eyes widening. “It’s locked.”

Kade’s spine straightens as she rests it in his lap. “I thought it might be important.”

Kade inputs the code, there’s a faint beep and the lid pops open to reveal a damp sketch he did of me when we were eighteen. He lifts it, and I can see the emotion in his eyes. He won’t want to fall apart in front of his parents, but the relief is there as I rub his back.

He sets aside all the drawings of me, the dogs and what he thought our daughter would’ve looked like, then lifts the princess dress with a shaky hand.

“I thought it was all gone,” he says quietly. “Everything’s here.”

Aria lowers her head to Ewan’s shoulder. “Your little girl will be proud of you,” she says, and it stabs me right in the heart. “Both of you.”

Kade’s chin dimples as he holds in his emotions. His eyes go red, and he fights against the sound threatening to leave his throat before nodding and going through the rest of the box.

The Greatest Showman live theatre tickets – our first date that led to our first time; all the little pieces of memorabilia we collected – they’re all here. And now we have time to fill it with more memories.

Kade takes my hand, curling his fingers around it, linking us. “We’ll stay here for a few more days, like you suggested,” he says to Aria, “then we’ll need to tell everyone we’re alive.”

The world still thinks we’re dead, and Nora hasn’t once tried to arrange a funeral for me. It was Kade’s family who was doing it all. Kyle was in contact with them too.

He knows I’m here – he’s flying home in three days.

“There’s something else you should know,” Aria says, glancing at Ewan. “I think you should tell them.”

He sighs and rubs his face. “Giana is pregnant.”

Me and Kade frown before he asks, “What?”

Ewan nods, his eyes on the wall behind us. “She said it’s Jason’s, but we won’t know until we get tests done. She swears there wasn’t anyone else. I’ll use my DNA and see if there’s a match.”

“Did Jason know?”

He shakes his head. “She found out the day after the funeral.”

Jason told me they were trying to work on their relationship, but I had no idea they’d slept together.

Kade’s hold on my hand tightens. “When is the baby due?”

“In four months,” Ewan replies, getting to his feet. “She doesn’t want it to get out because of how crazy things are though. The last thing she wants is the media bombarding them.”

“But we’re allowed to be in the kid’s life?”

“Of course – once everything dies down anyway.”

“Right,” is all Kade replies. He’s blinking, his right eye twitching, and I run my thumb over his hand.

Milo and Hopper nudge their noses against Kade’s leg, and he pats them, scratching their ears, then turns to look at me. “Can we go back to bed?”

I nod. “Of course,” I reply, knowing he needs to just lie and cuddle and talk. “We can put a movie on.”

As we walk up the stairs, Kade’s phone buzzes in his pocket. He takes it out and sees it’s Barry. “Please tell me you haven’t killed Base and he’s safely on the flight?”

“We’re surrounded,” he says, and we both stop on the stairs. “They ambushed us on the way to Sebastian’s manor.” We can hear yelling in the background, faint sirens and Base swearing. “We’re in the car. The police have us surrounded, and they’re aiming right at Sebastian. I can see on their database right now. They have warrants out for your arrest, and Sebastian’s, and details on your location. I suggest you run before they come for you.”

We’re frozen in place as we hear more yelling – Base telling the police to go fuck themselves – before Barry clears his throat. “I’m sorry, Boss.”

The call cuts out just as we hear a door being thrown open and more yelling – they’re being ordered to get out with their hands behind their heads.

Kade keeps the phone pressed to his ear, his eyes wide.

“What about the protection order?” I ask, panicked. “We need to leave.”

Aria and Ewan run to the bottom of the stairs. “What’s going on? Sebastian is on the news. They arrested him live on TV.”

While I rush to the bedroom and pull out clothes for us both, I somehow repeat everything to Aria and Ewan. She cries and grabs Kade as he silently walks in, but he’s still not speaking – expressionless.

I rush around while Kade thinks. I can see the gears turning in his head – I have to pack for him. My heart is in my throat that everything is going so badly. We need to run, again, and hide. Why does this keep happening to us?

“What about Luciella?” Aria asks, more to herself since no one has answers. “If Sebastian’s been arrested, how can he help her?”

“We need a way to reach out to Tobias,” Ewan says. “Which one of them has a phone?”

“I… I don’t have his number. We couldn’t risk saving it and reaching out in case it was tracked. He’d call us when he had to.”

He’ll see the news and run. He won’t risk it.

Aria presses her hand to her chest. “Kade,” she says, grabbing her son’s face to make him look at her. He’s still blank. “Run before they get here. Please,” she says, shaking her head as she sobs. “This can’t be happening.”

“I can’t breathe properly,” I say, pressing my hand to my chest too, turning to Kade, who’s watching me without a word. “We won’t let them catch us; I promise. We’ll go to the safe house and get Lisa and Eva. We can stay there until… until we figure it out.”

My hands are shaking, and I fist them as I try to fill my lungs, my heart racing in my chest.

Aria and Ewan run to sort the dogs. We can’t leave without them.

I walk past Kade and grab his phone charger, shoving it into the bag.

“Stacey.”

“Do you know where I put my shoes?”

“Stacey, look at me.”

I grab the dogs’ harnesses. “Your mum and Ewan will be looking for these. Can you look for my shoes?”

Kade moves in front of me as I try to walk out the bedroom. “Think about this.”

“What’s there to think about? We don’t have time to talk this out. Why aren’t you getting ready?”

I don’t wait for him to reply. I grab the door handle then run down the hallway and hand the harnesses to Ewan.

The dogs are barking, not understanding the panic as I run back into the room. Kade’s sitting on the edge of the bed now. His elbows are on his knees, his hands clasped, his head bowed.

“Why are you just sitting there?”

Everything within me is close to shattering as he looks up at me, because I know what he’s thinking. He’s not doing this to me. He won’t do this to me. He can’t give up.

“No,” I snap. “Don’t say what I think you’re going to say.” I grab our bags and leave the bedroom, relieved when I hear his footsteps behind me, following me to the sitting room. For a second there, I thought Kade was going to—

“I’m not running.”

I turn to him, my hair whipping my face. “What are you talking about?” I ask in unison with Aria.

He scrapes his stubble with his knuckles. “If I don’t run, then you don’t need to either.”

I drop my bag. “What?”

“You’re not in any trouble. If I stay and let them arrest me, then you don’t need to hide. It’ll be done. All of this will be over.”

“No…” I step towards him, searching his face – he’s serious. “Don’t do this, Kade. Don’t. They’re going to arrest you for multiple murders. I’ll be lucky to ever see you again as a free man.”

I wordlessly move my mouth, glancing from Ewan to Aria. “Do something!”

Kade shakes his head. “I’m not running,” he tells them. “What’s the point? I’m not going to do that to Stacey. I’m not going to make us hide for the rest of our lives. This is what I deserve. I fucking deserve this.”

He paces, grabbing his hair. “Fuck. I can’t. I can’t keep running from this. I was thinking about it the other day. If this bit me on the ass, I wouldn’t drag you down with me.”

I shake my head. “No.” My face contorts with how much pain I’m in. I grab his top in a fist. “You can’t leave me. Please just run. Just… come on. We have time to run. We can run to the car, drive and hide.” I tug him. “Please.”

“Having a normal life with you was all I ever wanted, but I don’t have that luxury. I don’t have time. All I have are the memories with you, and they’ll keep me fucking going. But you need to let me do this. You need to.”

I stare at Kade, at the seriousness on his face. “Please,” I beg him, my free hand reaching up to cup his cheek, my jaw rattling. “Please don’t. You’re giving up. Please don’t give up. Please, Kade. Please.”

Ewan rushes to the window at the faint sound of sirens in the distance. “Fuck,” he blurts. “They’re coming.”

My heart feels like it’s splitting in two. I don’t have enough time to change his mind. I’m the only one begging him to run. Why has everyone given up? Why is no one else yelling at him to get the hell out of the house while he has the chance?

“I’m not giving up. I’m giving in. I’m not innocent, Stacey. I’ve killed hundreds of people. Some of them were innocent. I’m tired. Exhausted even. I’m not going to allow you to ruin the rest of your life for me. I’m staying and surrendering. I’ll accept the punishment. I’m not dragging you through all of this.”

I let out a strangled cry, dropping my head to his chest. “Please don’t leave me. Please, please, please. Run. Please. Run with me. I don’t care about freedom as long as I’m with you.”

“You need to let me do this, okay?” Kade kisses the top of my head, wrapping his arms around me. One last hug while he’s in the outside world.

I sob into his chest. My own feels like it’s cracking open. There’s pressure behind my eyes and in my head, and I’m dizzy. “Please run with me.”

Kade’s chest shakes. “I’m so sorry, Stacey. I’m sorry for everything. For not seeing what was happening at home, for leaving you, for taking so long to get away from Bernadette. If I could go back to being eighteen and carefree with you, I would.”

“I can’t do this without you. You’re all I have, Kade. Please.”

Kade’s shaking against me, his own tears wracking his body. “I love you, Stacey. So fucking much. I love you. I’ll never stop.”

I screw my eyes shut, a shock of pain in my heart, my head already aching from the pressure there. “I’ll never stop loving you either.”

I back away so Aria and Ewan can hug Kade. It’s a long hug, and Kade trembles as they both tell him repeatedly that he’s a good kid, that they’re going to try to get him out and that he has a heart of gold.

Rage overtakes me as I hear tyres screeching outside, and I fist my hands, turning and running out the room and down the steps, throwing the front door open. I don’t falter at the number of officers surrounding the house. All of them have guns – they’re pointing them right at me as my footsteps carry me to the middle of the garden.

I throw my arms out to the sides. “How can you all do this?” I yell. “How dare you all stand there with your guns knowing what he’s been through?”

“Hands behind your head!” one shouts at me.

“He’s innocent! He was forced to do everything, and you all know it!”

The officers’ aims shift to behind me, and I sob as Kade drags me behind him. He keeps me caged as he backs me away from the police, Aria and Ewan standing on the porch with tears streaming down their faces.

“I love you,” he says, breathless from running after me. “I’ll love you for the rest of my life. I love you more than fucking anything, but I need you to walk to the porch.”

My head buries into his back as the officers yell at Kade to back away from me, to raise his hands, to kneel and put his hands behind his head. “I can’t lose you,” I cry.

“Let go and walk to my mother, Stacey,” he demands, his throat cracking. “Please.”

“I can’t let go.”

The dogs are barking inside, and more cars are speeding towards the house.

“I’m yours, and you’re mine.”

My jaw trembles. “Forever,” I say shakily. “I love you.”

He turns and smiles down at me, and I can see how tired he is as he wipes my tears with his thumb. I can see officers in my peripheral vision approaching. “So beautiful, even when you cry, my Freckles. You’re amazing, do you know that? I was lucky to have you for even a short space of time. There aren’t any threats left. No Chris, no Bernadette. You can dance and sing and live.”

More tears fall down my cheeks, and I can’t stop them. It’s the strong connection between us. The love. The possessiveness of what we have. We’ve belonged to each other since we were fifteen, in a way. I’ve always wanted him, and now I’m about to lose him – the boy who sat at the pool, whose cigarette I stole; the innocence of him as he used to watch me, as I’d watched him throughout the years. Until that first kiss, and the second, and every kiss after. We fell harder than I thought possible. We lost. We fought. But after so many hurdles, we were so close.

“I was supposed to be your forever,” I sob, and it’s as if the world around us has slowed enough to let us have this last conversation. “You asked me on the beach in Greece if I’d be your forever, and I said yes.”

We were going to get the happy ending we wanted. Where I’d give him children, marry him, build a home and grow old with him. I was going to fall asleep in his arms safely every night and wake to his, Good morning, Freckles, and laugh at his, You are a terrible singer, Freckles.

The dogs would have sat on the porch while I read, and Kade would have been building a tree house and attaching a swing for the kids. He’d be chasing them across the grass as their dark hair flopped in the wind, their tiny legs barely able to carry them away from their loving father.

We were supposed to have it all.

Kade and I stare at each other, holding tightly to one another, and he grabs my face and kisses me – a bruising kiss I hope to feel forever – before he’s tackled away from me.

“No!” I scream, but it’s no use. I’m outnumbered by at least twenty and dragged out of the way by Ewan as they pile on top of Kade like ants. One tasers him, even though he isn’t fighting back, and I scream as I see the baton drop on his head.

I’m held back by three officers, as are Aria and Ewan. They’re hitting him with their batons, and I can see blood splashing on one of their faces. Ewan gets tasered too, then Aria and I end up pinned to the grass when we try to get to Kade.

“He isn’t resisting!” I scream, but they aren’t listening.

An officer kicks Kade in the side, and I can taste dirt as the woman restraining me pushes my face further into the grass.

Through the sea of bodies, I notice an officer shoving his knee into Kade’s back before handcuffing him and reading him his rights.

When Kade’s yanked to his feet, he struggles against the four officers holding him, managing to turn and see me. “Get off her!” he yells, his face bloodied. “Get your dirty fucking hands off her!”

“Little bitch,” the officer sneers in my ear as Kade vanishes from my vision.

I can’t do anything but stay pinned to the ground, wincing as she pulls my hands back and cuffs me too. “Stacey Rhodes,” she says, “you are under arrest for the kidnapping and murder of both Christopher Fields and Bernadette Sawyer. You do not have to say anything. But it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence.”