Thunderous footfalls chased me. I fled down the beach, tears frozen and snatched by the wind. I splashed in the shoreline and his grip seized me, spinning me around.
“He was there, Belle!”
“Carter!”
“He was real!” Huge, manic eyes filled my vision. “Tell me he was real!”
“He was!” The scream tore from my throat. “It all happened! Exactly how you remembered it! I lied, okay?! I lied!”
Carter staggered back like I struck him. Feet tangling, he tripped and fell in the surf. I dropped in front of him, taking his stricken face in my hands.
“I lied.” My voice was the barest croak fighting to be heard above the ocean. “That day your nanny took us to the park. We snuck away from her like we knew we weren’t supposed to do, and we went to the big rock where we weren’t supposed to go. I didn’t know we were being followed. That he had f-found me again.”
I stopped, taking in a shuddering breath. Carter was pale and immovable before me.
“When he appeared, emerging from the woods like creeping fog, I froze. I couldn’t speak even to tell you to run. He grabbed me and you flew at him. My best friend,” I whispered. “Trying to save me.”
Years and years of struggling to forget, and my mind supplied the memories as if it was yesterday. Mal’s arm a bind around my stomach, crushing me breathless against him. The pungent scent of his sweat and favorite Creed cologne. His lips on my ear as he growled not to scream.
My eyes pinched shut as it all came back. “He backhanded you, slicing your cheek with his spiked ring. He was known for that back home. Most of his men walked around with scars on their faces—forever marking them... and you.”
“Who is he?” Carter rasped.
“What he is, simply and honestly, is my stalker. He’s pursued me for years. Followed me across the entire country and will stop at nothing to get me back. He’s sick, Carter. He believes he’s in love with me. Raised in blood and warped by violence, he’s gotten everything he’s ever wanted by taking it with force. Mal thinks I should be no different.”
His face crumpled. “In love with you? But we were attacked by a grown man.”
I said nothing. Just nodded.
“Oh my god.” Carter sunk his head in his hands, face bleaching whiter than the moonlight. “I don’t understand, Belle. Why did you lie?”
I couldn’t look at him. “He threw you and you smashed your head on the boulder. I saw you lying there still and bleeding, and I screamed. I screamed and screamed. The nanny heard me and called out for us.
“Mal panicked. He tried to run off with me, but I bit him and made him let go. He dropped me and I rushed to you. Mal came after me, skidding to a stop when Nanny called again, closer that time. He lost his chance to get away with me clean. He had to run before she saw him, and she didn’t. She walked into an empty clearing and found me crying over you. When they asked what happened, you told the truth, but I—”
“Told everyone I fell climbing the boulder, cut my cheek on a rock, and was lying to get out of trouble. You swore there was no man.”
I cried. Great, hiccupping sobs that made it almost impossible to speak. “I’m sorry, C-Carter. I’m so sorry.”
“Why?”
“I told you.” I stroked his cold cheek. “I did it because I loved you.
“I loved Hawk’s Bay. I loved my school, and my friends, and my life. If my parents had known he found me again, they’d have packed me up and moved the next day, and I couldn’t stand to lose you.
“In my stupid, selfish, twelve-year-old mind, my only option was to lie,” I said. “I lied to your parents. My parents. The police. The doctors. Everyone. I lied until I almost believed it myself... but you didn’t. I j-just wanted us to go back to how we were. I was so desperate to convince you your head trauma made you imagine him, that I argued and fought you. I called you crazy.
“By the time I truly understood what I’d done, I was afraid. The betrayal of a lie spreads deeper the longer you let it go on. Telling the truth would’ve broken my parents’ trust in me. It would have sealed your hatred. I was afraid, Carter, that once I told the truth, we couldn’t go back.”