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CHAPTER FOUR
“I’M SO SORRY, Julie.” Aaron’s words echoed in her head. She glanced up and was caught by the contrast of his multicolored eyes. Back when she’d been seventeen, those eyes had been beautiful, beguiling, almost otherworldly. She hadn’t been able to stop staring into them. Now, there was compassion in their depths, flashes of old connections they’d once shared.
Right at that moment, it was almost as if no time had passed between them; as if he’d never left her. She sketched his familiar, straight nose, leading down to firm, confident lips. Lips that’d claimed every part of her body. She shuddered at the memory.
“I’m sorry you had to go through…that.” His voice broke through her contemplation of his features. He didn’t say the word, for which she was grateful. But even so, it still hung between them like a shadow.
Abortion. It was such a harsh word. And one that Julie had tried on so many occasions to define but failed every time. It was a word that held power. Power over minds, and power over women’s bodies. Power over life and death. What did Aaron think of her choice? And did she care?
“Yes, so am I. But what’s done is done, and life goes on,” she declared, then tried to raise a smile. It was a ghost of her normal smile, and she knew it. The jokes and her flippant humor she always relied on seemed to have deserted her over the past few days.
“Yes, let’s not dwell on the past,” Daniella broke in, saving Julie from any more embarrassing shows of weakness. “Can we focus on this deranged individual and how we’re going to deal with him, please?”
Steve shot her stepmother a grateful glance. She knew he was just as uncomfortable with the topic as she was.
“Of course.” Aaron shuffled a small, black notebook in front of him.
The compassion she’d seen in his eyes was replaced by that cool demeanor from when she’d first run into him in the hallway. A man in charge. A man not to be trifled with. Aaron had always been responsible, and dependable, even at nineteen. But now he exuded an air of boldness. Of danger. If she hadn’t known better, she might almost be intimidated by him.
“Tell me how this stalker has been contacting you. I need to know everything he’s done and said, no matter how small or insignificant you think it might be.”
“Mostly, he’s just sent me threatening letters. Both the old-fashioned kind, as well as by email,” Julie offered. “They started appearing in my mailbox about a week after I went to the clinic. But I hadn’t received anything from him for well over a year. Not since I moved out to Stormcloud. Then out of the blue, the letters started arriving again, about three weeks ago.”
“Here’s a copy of the latest letter.” Steve leaned over and dropped a folded piece of paper onto the tabletop. He’d obviously been carrying it around in his back pocket. Daniella shot him a strange look, a mix of sympathy and exasperation.
“Great.” Aaron scooped the paper off the table and smoothed it out and began reading. “He hasn’t signed a name, which isn’t unusual,” Aaron said quietly, almost as if he were musing to himself. “Do we have a name?” Aaron asked, suddenly looking up from the letter. “Do you have any idea who this guy might be?”
“If we did, do you think we’d be sitting here talking to you right now?” Julie quipped. Then she pursed her lips, regretting her sharp words.
“No, I guess not.” Aaron went back to perusing the letter, as if her comment hadn’t affected him.
Julie couldn’t describe how she felt at that particular moment, as she watched Aaron read her stalker’s letter. She wanted to know what was going on in his head. Wanted to know how he truly felt about this whole sordid affair.
“Have you got copies of the other letters, as well?” He looked her squarely in the eye.
“No, I threw the other two recent ones out,” Julie said. Aaron’s face turned incredulous. “I didn’t want to be reminded about them, so I threw them in the fire,” she added, trying not to sound as sheepish as she felt. In hindsight, it’d been a stupid thing to do. But she’d been so angry. So disgusted by this creepy asshole. How dare he think he could threaten her?
“Okay,” Aaron replied, but before he could control the look in his eyes, Julie saw a flash of exasperation.
“And before you ask, no, I didn’t keep any of the other letters he sent me while I was in Brisbane, either.” There’d been ten or twelve over the space of three months. At first, Julie had dismissed them as the ravings of a nut job. He quoted verses of the Bible at her and told her she needed to repent; to find God and He would help her see the light. But his notes had become progressively longer and more threatening, and a couple of times he’d mentioned that she’d got away with it before, but she wouldn’t get away with it this time, which just confused her.
“What about the emails? Did you keep them?”
She shook her head. “I deleted my whole email account when I left Brisbane.” It’d seemed like the sensible thing to do. All she wanted was to move on and forget about her stalker; about everything she’d been through over those past few months. Never in her wildest dreams did she imagine he’d continue to hunt her. It’d been a year and a half since she’d last heard from him. Why would he keep following her?
“The emails didn’t start up until about a month before I left Brissy. He sent me a couple of links to Facebook pages, you know the ones where pro-lifers expound on all the reasons killing unborn babies is a form of murder. Or he’d send me invitations to church services being held nearby, saying that he’d meet me there and together we could beat this scourge of humanity. I just ignored them.”
Steve shifted in his seat. She hadn’t revealed the full details of the deranged man’s contact with her last night, and she could see her father’s face become darker the longer she spoke.
Aaron didn’t perceive her father’s growing outrage. It was noticeable to her because she’d spent a lifetime observing and distinguishing her father’s moods. To most people, it would seem as if he coasted along on one even plane, never letting anything ruffle his feathers. But Julie knew better. Steve felt things deeply, he was just of the old school, where they never showed too much emotion; simply kept soldiering on, no matter what.
“Did he contact you via phone, as well?” Aaron asked, and Julie could tell he was holding in the sigh of exasperation that wanted to leave his lips.
“Not recently,” Julie admitted. “When I moved out to Stormcloud, I got a new number, and that seemed to stop him texting me.”
“So, he was texting you before?” That seemed to surprise Aaron. “Any idea how he got your old cell phone number?”
She ran a hand through her hair. “No. But back then, I had no reason to hide it. I was pretty much an open book.”
