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“I know. I know. Now you can decide what you want to do, but I think I already know.”
“You do. I do, too. But what happens now?”
“Bethany is trying to call you. They’re bringing him to New York tomorrow once they’ve crossed all the t’s and dotted all the i’s, so she’ll probably go through the process of pressing the charges with you.”
“Okay. I’ll call her. In a minute. I need to process this.”
“I know. Meanwhile, you want me to get movers for your apartment?”
I smiled, even though I was shaking. “Yes, please. I know what I’m doing.”
“So do I. I might rent a U-Haul and move it all myself to come and see you.”
“No, you wouldn’t. You’d let the company handle it and then get on a plane.”
“True. Okay, look, I’m gonna go. I’ll tell Bethany you’ll call her today but you need some time.”
“Thanks, Em.”
“No problem. Love you.”
“Love you. Bye.” I hung up and stared at my phone.
They had Mitch.
They’d arrested him.
It had all worked out.
“Elle?” Theo slowly stepped into the living room. “You’re as white as a sheet. What’s wrong?”
I tried to smile, but I couldn’t.
I burst into tears instead.
“Come here.” Theo sat down next to me and wrapped his arms around me, pulling me into him. Together, we sank back into the sofa cushions, and I buried my face in his chest while the tears fell.
He said nothing the entire time I cried. With every tear that fell, I felt a bit of the stress I’d held for weeks leave me. It disappeared entirely until I was an exhausted, loose mess, who’d cried and snotted all over his white t-shirt.
“They found him,” I said in a low, thick voice. “They’ve arrested him. They’re charging him as soon as he gets to New York.”
He held me even tighter, and that was all the response I needed. I peered at the glass doors, but Ari was so busy filling the bigger pots with new soil that she had no idea I’d been crying, or if she did, she was doing a fantastic job at not panicking.
We stayed here for a few moments until I’d calmed down enough that he could let me go. I sat up straight and he fetched a box of tissues, and I smiled as I took a few from him.
“Thank you.”
“I think you’ve needed to do that for a long time.”
I blew my nose and nodded. He was right. I really had. It was too easy to keep everything locked inside, though. Not to mention I’d been busy over the past few weeks.
The whole situation had resulted in me actually seeing a bump in my earnings. My views went up and so did my subscribers, and I’d spent hours mapping out my future vlogging career with my team.
We were about to finalize a deal with a national charity that supported victims of revenge porn. I was going to use my platform for good, use my experiences for good, but I was still going to do what I usually did, just at a slower pace.
And then, eventually, when I decided if I wanted to go back to school or not, I would have so many options for the future.
Mitch’s arrest had opened one of those for me right now.
“Phew, okay. I feel better now.” I dabbed under my eyes one last time. “It was Emily. Apparently, I have like a thousand missed calls.”
“That’s about how many times it buzzed,” he said dryly, reaching up to wipe some mascara away from the corner of my eye where it’d smudged. “Are you just waiting now to hear from the police?”
“I have to call Bethany soon, but Em is telling her I need some time. Besides, one call will morph into six, and I promised I’d replant Ari’s seedlings since you won’t.” I tapped his nose and got up, giving my face a good rub so it didn’t look like I’d really been crying.
“Go make your calls. I’ll help her.” He moved to get up.
“If you want to help, help us both. Do you know how many times I’ve watered the twenty-five tomato plants on my deck? Those are practically my babies now.”
Theo rolled his eyes and followed me. “Do you know how many times I’ve watered all the others? She’s not good with the maintenance.”
“I know. That’s why at least ten of the tomato plants are going to die,” I finished on a whisper. “Freak accident with a gentle breeze.”
“Won’t be that freak if you stay much longer,” he muttered. “Damn hurricanes really will kill them.”
I dipped my head and smiled to myself. The last three weeks had been so much fun. For the first time in years, I’d cultivated real relationships with people that were based on mutual interests and not what one person could do for the other.
