Page 107 of Xavier

"She's okay, do you want to talk to her?" I hear him ask the person on the other end. I hold my breath, but then he just taps the phone and slides it into his pocket.

"Oh," he says, finally seeing me standing there with my suitcase. "Um, that was Xavier, he was just checking up on you. He... er, he had to go into a meeting."

I just nod.

I never expected anything different.

"Where to next?" Ram says, with a forced smile.

"Work, it's time to get back to work."

And onto a new chapter of my life.

***

"Isabella! Where have you been? You look a wreck!" Cameron exclaims as soon as I step into our office floor. The sight of his familiar and friendly face breaks through the last layer of bravado I have, and I fall into his arms, the tears bursting from my eyes like a broken hydrant.

I can feel Ram looking behind me and I turn to him. "I'll be fine here. You don't have to stay."

He just nods and drops the suitcase on the floor and heads back to the elevator. Something tells me he won't be far though, and I have to admit that it gives me some comfort.

"Oh, sweetheart, what's wrong?" Cameron says, taking my hand and leading me to my office, closing the door behind us. “Why haven’t you answered any of my calls, I almost sent the police to your apartment!”

Something about the image of the police showing up and seeing the crime scene tape makes me laugh through my tears, and it comes out in an unattractive snort.

“Oh my god, isn’t that always the way? Police showing up when it’s too late.”

I catch a flicker of confusion ripple across Cameron’s forehead.

“What are you talking about?”

I just look up at him, the full impact of what is happening crashing down on me, the sobs returning and I can’t breathe.

“Shhh, I got you, I got you, Iz,” he coos as I fall back into his arms, the vibrations in his chest comforting me.

It’s almost ten minutes before I can finally speak.

“He… he’s back, Cam.”

“Who? Who is back, honey?”

“Him… the… my dance teacher.”

“What?” Cameron jumps to his feet, he knows. He knows what this means to me. “How… how do you know?”

“Yesterday, we went to my apartment…”

“Wait, who is ‘we’?”

“Xavier. Xavier was with me. He took me to… um, pick up some things from my apartment and when we got there, everything was trashed. It… my apartment’s just… just a mess, Cameron.” Relaying it to him is making me walk through it again. I need to get through this fast.

“Oh, Iz. That’s horrible.”

“Yeah, I thought… I thought it was a robbery at first but, then I found… he left a message.” I have to take a breath, reliving the shock of seeing an object from that night in my hand after all these years.

“A message? What did it say?”

“It said, ‘I’m back, did you miss me?’” I shudder, just saying the words. “I’m scared, Cam. I don’t ever want to go back to my apartment again.”