My first instinct was to warn her.
Are you still with him? I typed, fingers flying over my phone. Get away! He’s dangerous.
I stopped typing. Aidan couldn’t be with Hannah now. My house was an hour’s drive from her school, and I was ninety-nine percent sure he’d just broken into it and set off the alarm. Maybe this photo was from earlier tonight? But I couldn’t take that risk.
Is he with you now? I texted, and waited for her reply, my heart in my throat.
When she didn’t respond, I started pacing, climbing the walls, my mind racing. I stared at the picture she’d sent me. Aidan looked indifferent, bored, almost annoyed. He didn’t care about Hannah. He was with her to taunt me, using her to get to me. He could end up hurting her—emotionally, even physically. Maybe he wasn’t the one who’d set off the alarm. Maybe he was still with her. The thought was terrifying. I had to do something.
I typed the beginnings of multiple texts, then deleted them. In order to explain why Hannah should fear Aidan, I’d have to confess my one-night stand. I’d be telling her that a guy she liked—the first guy she’d ever liked, as far as I knew—was playing her in order to get to me. To get to her own mother. The very idea was so sick, so twisted, that it made me nauseous. I’d also be confessing that I cheated on her father. Even though Jason cheated first, Hannah would blame me. She loved Jason best. It wasn’t fair, but it was true. He could do no wrong in her eyes. What would it do to Hannah to know all that? Destroy her self-esteem? Destroy our relationship? I had to think this through.
I’d call her instead and make up an excuse get her away from him. Say there was an emergency, that a hurricane was coming, that I needed to come get her and take her home.
The call rang forever and rolled over to voicemail. I called back. Same result. I started to panic. I left a voicemail.
“Hannah, it’s Mom. Call me right away. I’m worried about your safety.”
I hung up, my hands shaking. If Aidan was still there, I had to get her away from him. Even if he wasn’t still there, I had to warn her never to go near him again. I could tell her about his arrest record.
He’s too old for you, I wrote. He has a criminal record—
I stopped myself.
That was saying too much. I’d end up revealing that I knew him. Not just that I knew him—how well I knew him. I should tell her that she wasn’t allowed to date anybody I hadn’t met and vetted. But no, that would never work. Hannah was eighteen years old and away at college. When I was that age, if my mother told me to do something, I’d make a point of doing the opposite. Nothing like forbidden fruit. I could end up driving Hannah into Aidan’s arms.
There was no good way to warn her without revealing the whole truth. And I couldn’t bring myself to do that for fear of destroying my relationship with her. I thought about calling the police. But that meant Aidan’s brother, Tommy. What would I say? Hello, Chief Callahan, I’m the woman who screwed your brother. I need you to get him away from my daughter right now. Tommy would laugh, then he’d probably give Aidan a high five.
My chest was tight with panic. Time was passing with no response from Hannah. I could tell her I was worried about the storm and that I was coming to pick her up. For a moment, that seemed like the answer; then I realized. On the off chance that Aidan was still with her, seeing me could trigger him to act out, even to get violent.
I would send Lynn. That was it. When Lynn told Hannah to do something, Hannah listened. Yes, I would ask my sister to intervene, to get Hannah away from school immediately. There was a terrible storm coming. It was plausible that I would be worried about Hannah in this weather. As a matter of fact, now that I thought about it, I was worried about Hannah in this weather.
I dialed Lynn’s number. She picked up on the first ring.
“I was about to call you,” she said.
“Lynn, I’m worried about Hannah with the hurricane.”
“Me, too, hon. Don’t worry. I’m on my way to get Hannah right now. She told me you were calling. She was on with me, arranging to get picked up.”
“Oh, that’s wonderful. Thank you so much.”
“Don’t thank me,” Lynn said. “You know I love that girl like she’s my own. I don’t want her in that high-rise dorm with all those windows when the storm hits. You need to take care of your house. Let me handle this. Hannah will be safe with us.”
“How long will it take you to get there?”
“I’m fifteen minutes away from her right now.”
“I’m so glad to hear that.”
Then it occurred to me. In my panic, I’d forgotten that Lynn and Aidan knew each other, that they’d had that awful confrontation. What if he was still there? What if they saw one another when Lynn went to Hannah’s dorm? That would be a nightmare.
“Lynn?”
“Yes?”
“When you talked to her, was she alone?”
“No, her roommate was there. That girl Olivia? She’s a bit of a flake, but at least Hannah isn’t alone.”
I breathed out in relief. Aidan had left. He wouldn’t see my sister. Most important of all, Hannah was unharmed. He’d paid her a visit as some sort of sick threat to me, then gone on to break into my house, where he probably lurked still, waiting to hurt me directly. But at least my daughter was safe, and I was free to deal with Aidan as I saw fit. I could no longer dismiss the serious threat he posed to me and my family. Aidan was stalking me. He was getting progressively more violent. Trying to run my sister’s car off the road. Scratching a death threat into the paint of my Escalade. And now, going after my daughter. There was no room for compromise here. I had to stop him, even if it meant killing him.
“Thank you, Lynn,” I said into the phone. “I’m heading out to the house now. Whatever happens, you keep Hannah safe.”
“I will, hon. You stay safe, too.”
She hung up. Stay safe was right. Aidan could be lying in wait for me. I had to be careful. I might have to defend myself. I needed a weapon. I walked into the kitchen and took a knife from the knife block. I didn’t cook much, and it was dull. I got out the sharpener and worked on the blade. When it was honed to a perfect edge, I looked at it, and instead of feeling reassured, I realized what a fool I was. Aidan had a gun. All I had was this stupid kitchen knife. He was bigger and stronger than me. He was a felon, a violent one, with a manslaughter conviction to his name. I was a woman who’d never so much as taken a kickboxing class. If I attacked him, and somebody ended up dead, that somebody would probably be me.
And yet, what else could I do? He was going after my daughter. I put the knife in my bag, grabbed an umbrella, and ran out into the storm.