Chapter 44

Layla

The minute I walked in, Michelle knew.

“Call your cousin right now,” I said. She nodded and grabbed her phone. Within five minutes, Tyler was standing in the shop. I looked at both of them.

“My name isn’t Samantha Russo. My name is Layla Tavers, and I have a stalker. I ran from New York and from the two people that love me and would do anything for me, just to keep them safe.”

I told them everything from college to how I ended up here. I pulled my shirt off and looked at Tyler.

“I woke up looking like this. Now I know my stalker is a man. That bastard raped me,” I said, looking at him. I pulled my phone out and opened the recording. I pressed play and couldn’t believe my eyes. He was wearing a mask.

“Michelle, use your phone to record this; we can use it to find the bastard. You’re filing a rape case,” Tyler said. She nodded and held her phone, recording everything. He raped me for hours. When he kneeled beside me and pulled the mask off, I fell to the ground.

Dean

Every time that fucker raped her, he called us; he was taunting us, and it made us lose whatever sanity we had left. Mac and Deigo couldn’t trace the call. Some days we stayed locked up in the apartment; some days we dragged ourselves out of bed because we had to go to work. It was a hectic day today; we spent all day in meetings.

“What do you want for dinner?” I asked him.
“Not in the mood to eat, Dean,” he said quietly.
“Me neither,” I said.

When we stepped out of the elevator and into the apartment, the lights were off, which was weird. “Aleck, didn’t we leave the lights on this morning?”
“Leave them off,” she was here.
“Layla” Aleck asked.

“Yes. Leave them off.” Her voice… Something said something happened. Did she find out what was happening to her?
“Princess, what happened?” I asked cautiously.

I heard that first sob, and my heart broke. I saw the light of the phone, then she slid it across the floor. It stopped at Aleck’s feet.

“Baby girl, please, we know, and it has been destroying us because we couldn’t protect you,” he said.

“No, you don’t. It’s not what he did; it’s who he is,” she said, fully crying now. I took the phone from Aleck and pressed play. I turned the volume down. I sped it up. When he took off the mask, I lost my shit. I flipped the lights on and showed it to Aleck. She was sitting there crying. She no longer looked like our Layla.

“I will fucking kill him! Chris? Is the one fucking with us? I will fucking murder him!” Aleck yelled. I walked over to her and knelt and took her hands.

“Now that we know who it is, we can deal with it. I’m sorry, princess. I’m sorry we failed to protect you again. What did you do to your hair?” I asked her as I caressed her face. That only made her cry harder.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry, he had a video of us and threatened to post it online. I didn’t want it to affect your business. I’m sorry,” she said between tears.

Aleck came over to her. “Baby girl, it’s okay. We’re not mad or angry at you. Chris is the one to blame for this. Are you leaving us again?” He asked her.

She looked at us. “Please don’t. We spent the last two months being miserable without you. If you want out, then we’ll accept that, but just stay with us, please,” I said, holding her hands.

She started shaking her head. “I don’t want out; I never did. I can’t go back there because I told them everything. He’s there, where I was. I didn’t connect the dots because it’s Chris. I didn’t think he would do something like this. I… I’ll stay if you both want me here, but I’ll need to go back to take care of the house,” she said quietly.

“Okay, all your stuff is still in your room. Go take a shower, eat, and get some rest. Dean will stay with you. I need to go somewhere,” Aleck said, brushing her hair.

After Aleck left, I took her back to the room that was hers and left her there. I was in the kitchen making dinner when she came in and sat down. I placed the pasta in front of her, and she started crying.

“Princess, it’s okay. Stop crying.”

“He… he pretended, all this while he pretended to be a friend when that was truly his intention. He killed Macy and Rea, Dean. He hid that side of him for so long. Pretending to be happy for me and concerned when he had been plotting since we were in college. He raped me, Dean. He FUCKING RAPED ME. He stood right here and pretended to care about my well-being when he was the reason behind it all,” she said, looking at me. I walked around the counter, picked her up, walked over to the couch, and sat down with her in my lap.

“Look at me, Layla.” I waited until she looked at me. I wiped the tears from her face.

“I know, and I’m trying really hard right now not to lose my shit and go looking for him because I’ll probably strangle him with my bare fucking hands, but we will handle this; we’ll deal with him accordingly, okay? After this, no one is getting anywhere near you ever again, okay?” I said, looking at her.

She nodded. “Good girl, now come eat, and I’ll take you to bed. You need to sleep. Stop thinking about it for a while; we’ll be right here,” I said, caressing her face.
“Okay,” she said quietly.

Aleck

I headed straight to Nella’s place. When I got there, I calmed myself down and knocked on the door. When she opened it and saw me there, she was surprised.

“Hey, Aleck. I didn’t think you guys knew where I lived. Where are the others?” She asked, looking behind me.
“It’s just me. Umm, is Chris around?” I asked her, and she looked at me confused.

“He didn’t tell you guys? Umm, Chris and I split up about two months ago, shortly after Layla disappeared. He was transferred for work, and, well, I couldn’t go because of my work, and we got into a really heated argument. Some things were said. The icing on top was him saying he made a mistake by being with me and packed his stuff up and left,” she said.

“Why didn’t you tell us or Mallory?” I asked her.

“Layla is running from a psychopath, and we don’t know who it is. I know you and Dean were more hurt than you let on. I didn’t want to bother you guys, and Mallory and Andrew are now settling into a somewhat normal married life. I just didn’t want to bother anyone,” she said quietly.

I wanted to tell her, but at the same time, if Chris could hide that side of him, then she could too. If it’s one thing I’m sure of, it’s Andrew and Mallory.

“Okay then, I’ll try calling him again. We need him to do some work for us,” I said.

“It’s okay, Aleck. Be careful and try to keep going. If I know anything, I know Layla’s probably miserable without you and Dean also. Hopefully, she comes back soon. Say hi to Dean for me.”
“I will. Night, Nella.”

When I got back into the car, I sat there for a moment. I headed back to the apartment. When I walked in, Dean was on the couch, sitting with her head in his lap; she was asleep.

“She’s scared to sleep alone. What Chris has done has traumatized her, Aleck; she’s fucking terrified of being in any room alone, especially in the dark,” he said, looking at me.

I told him where I was and what Nella said. I kept looking at her to make sure she was asleep. That’s when I noticed she had Dean’s shirt fisted in her hands. I looked at him.

“I tried removing it, but she immediately woke up,” he said with a sigh.
“She needs to see a therapist,” I said. He nodded.

“This fucker. All this while, Chris was using Nella. He used her so we, neither Layla, would suspect anything. Now I remember when we had just started college, Chris was into computer science but changed majors after a while, or maybe he never changed it. That would explain the messages,” I said.

“Can we trust Nella? Who can we trust, Aleck? If the people we call friends have bad intentions towards us, then can we really trust anyone around her?” He asked me.

“I don’t know, Dean, but no one is getting anywhere near her unless I’m a hundred percent sure they have no ulterior motives,” I said.
Suddenly, she opened her eyes, sat up, and looked at us. “It’s okay, we’re here. Go back to sleep,” I said, looking at her.