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When I told Wren it hadn’t been difficult to find her, I’d been truthful. Three years ago, I asked my cousin, James, a tech genius, to trace her IP address, which led me to her parents. They were too happy to inform me their ‘slutty daughter’ was living with her aunt because she was no longer welcome in their home. It didn’t take much digging to track down Jenny Malkovich in Queens.
Three years ago, I sat outside Wren’s townhouse in my car and saw her for the first time. Sunlight loved her. It rested on her copper hair like a halo and flushed her cheeks rosy. I’d nearly swallowed my tongue when I’d caught sight of her swollen belly. She was so short, she had been pretty much all tits and baby.
She was the most beautiful girl I’d ever laid eyes on, even with another man’s baby in her belly.
Betrayal had burned through my blood that day, but once I had found my little bird, I couldn’t stop watching her. She hadn’t been mine anymore, and the evidence growing inside her body reminded me she never really had been.
I was there the day she brought her son home from the hospital after a month-long stay in the NICU. I’d watched her take her stroller on endless walks through her neighborhood, and I’d witnessed her sit down on park benches and sob her heart out. There were times I almost stepped in because it became too much even for me to bear, but she always pulled herself together and moved on.
Over the years, I considered taking her and keeping her. More than considered, I’d planned it in my head. It wasn’t rational, but it soothed me and allowed me to keep my distance.
Wren made it easy to watch her. She was a devoted mother and student. When she wasn’t in school, she was with her child. Her shadow had finally found her, and she was so busy with her life, she’d never once checked behind her to notice.
As time passed, our connection should have withered, and maybe it did on her end. My obsession calmed, but it wasn’t ending. Wren was mine to protect. Always.
Helping her find a job at Good Music had been a small part of that. Putting her in my path had been another. What I hadn’t expected was my own reaction to being in the same space as her and letting her finally see me. That first day, I couldn’t even look at her. It took seeing her in Adam’s arms to break me out of the chains that had been holding me back, and finally, after years of watching, to claim my little bird as my own.
Wren’s light turned off in her bedroom. I laid my head back on the rest and closed my eyes. She was safe and secure. For now, that would be enough.
“Take me home.”
