depending on what was going on. I wanted to leave myself a little wiggle room."
"Tell me some of the possibilities."
He wasn't going to let me go until I told him something. "Burn the house down. With you in it." That had never been the plan. It was always to kill him and hide his body in the lake if it came to that. But I couldn’t do that now. The lake was frozen. Although, I was definitely still leaning toward the killing thing. I couldn't let him walk away with everything he'd found on my phone.
"You want me dead that badly? We could have talked about our problems. We could have worked this out. I don't give up that easily, Ensley. I don't want to give up on us."
"There is no us. You made sure of that." I pulled on the ropes.
"Right, when I stole all your money and slept around with Sophia Tremblay and Dr. Collins? Yeah, I heard you the first time. But that's the thing, Ensley. I didn't do any of that. You did."
"I’m not a lesbian." I love you, you idiot. I pulled against the ropes again, but it was no use. I needed to get free before I let crazy thoughts of love take over my brain. I didn't love Noah. Not anymore. "I told you it's not what it looks like."
"Then explain it to me."
You're crazy. You're the psychopath. Not me. I wasn't sure he wanted to hear any of that.
He reached out and lightly touched my cheek.
I forced myself not to turn my head and bite him.
"I think you fucked up, babe. All this..." he lifted up the phone. "You left a trail. You're in too deep. But we can fix all this together. I just need you to tell me the truth about everything. Let me help you."
You want to help me kill you?
"I'll call Detective Torres right now. We can clear everything up." His finger hovered over the call icon.
"Noah, don't." It felt like all the air left my lungs. He was going to ruin everything. Months of planning. No, it wasn't the perfect crime, but I could still get away with it.
"Why?"
I struggled against the ropes. "He can't know."
"Why?"
"You don't understand."
"Then help me understand! Why can't Detective Torres know that I'm here safe? That you didn't do anything wrong?"
"Because you're not safe!" I pressed my lips together. For just a second, I thought everything might spill out. I pressed my lips together even tighter.
He lowered the phone. "What did you do, Ensley?"
I tried to think of the best way out of this. Lying, stealing, and cheating were his solutions. Not mine. But I didn't see another way. "Noah. I...you're right to be scared of me. I keep having these dreams..." I let my voice trail off. "After I dropped you down the stairs and you hit your head. I keep seeing these images of blood. It's like I want to see the blood. I'm worried I'm going to hurt you."
His eyes softened. Or at least I thought they did. But I guess I was wrong, because he hit Detective Torres' name on my phone to call him.
"Noah, stop!" I reached out with my foot to try to hit the phone out of his hand, but he dodged me.
"It's best if he hears it from you," Noah said. "Tell him I'm home safe."
I tried to kick him in the face but my leg didn't lift high enough.
He grabbed my ankles with one hand and pressed my feet against the mattress. He held me still no matter how much I struggled against his grip. "Behave." He put the phone to my ear. "Tell him to call off the search."
I couldn't do that. I just needed to figure out a way out of these ropes so I could finish my plan. God, what am I going to do? "Hang up. Noah, please hang up. Hang up, hang up, hang up!" I tried to squirm out of his grasp, but apparently his biceps were stronger than my hamstrings.
The phone stopped ringing and I had no choice but to stop begging.
"Detective Torres speaking."
"Hi, Detective Torres,” I said. “I...I need to tell you something. Important. Could you come by the house sometime today?" Please be busy. Please be randomly in Canada again.
"Yeah. I have something important to discuss with you as well."
Oh, fuck. What had he found out?
"Give me a few hours," he said. "I'll be there before noon."
I glanced at the alarm clock on the