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NOW THAT SHE HAD A PLAN, SHE NEEDED TO FILL IN THE DETAILS.There was no good way to do this. Every minute of research made Lila heave. The first day, she choked and swore and broke two mugs before getting a bit more control.
All told, it took her four days of looking through high school yearbooks and studying social media to find the girls she’d seen in the videos. And those were only the girls she saw... she knew there were more. She suspected this went back to North Carolina, probably before.
Of the faces she recognized, one girl was still in school. A senior and not in Aaron’s class. She’d dropped out of field hockey, and Lila feared Aaron was the cause.
The other two women graduated from high school last year. One went to college out of state. She kept the photos from her time on the team and in Aaron’s class in her history online. Smiling photos, seemingly innocent. Whatever time Aaron stole from her appeared not to be problematic becauseshe even referenced him in comments. All positive, with perky little emojis.
The third woman went to the community college nearby. Eighteen. That put her at seventeen when she made the video, maybe younger. Lila remembered being that age and not being nearly as savvy and wise as she thought she was.
This young woman recorded every moment of her life in photos and videos. Up until the month before, she showed off products she bought and modeled new clothes. She had big group photos and some with her and a few friends. None of her older high school photos or information suggested she was on the field hockey team. She never mentioned Aaron or popped up in photos with him.
There were comments on some of the clothing photos about going out with her “secret” boyfriend. She would have been a senior at the time. Last year. In her world, likely the equivalent of decades away from where she was now.
Over the last few weeks, the photo subjects changed. She posted inspirational quotes almost daily, along with pictures of her school apartment and complaints about the cost of textbooks.
Regardless of when the posts were dated, in every photo she wore her straight blond hair down, flowing over her shoulders. The realization made Lila wince. She could hear Aaron’s voice talking about how women should have long hair, not short. They should let it grow... as if their hair were for his pleasure only.
Lila tried to ignore that as she sat in the driver’s seat of her car with her hair pulled up in a bun. The college had a few visitor spots close to the admissions building, and she parked in one. The position gave her a front-row seat to watch.
Lila knew from the other woman’s posts that she often came here and sat by this tree. Today the surveillance worked. Sitting this far away, Lila couldn’t really make out her face. Not when she was looking down, reading or studying but definitely not paying attention to the two guys behind her who kept glancing her way. But it was her. Blond and very pretty. Big brown eyes and a round face that Lila knew could light up with a smile.
The live version seemed more serious, more involved in school. This was the second time Lila had come looking for her, and both times the woman had sat alone. Gone were the big crowds and high school T-shirts.
Lila debated talking with her. Going up and introducing herself and assuring the woman none of what had happened was her fault. Because this wasn’t about adultery or making Aaron pay in a divorce. This was about ensuring he took responsibility for hurting this woman, for playing with her emotions and taking advantage of her.
On some level, Lila also needed to know the younger woman was okay. That she hadn’t been too late to notice something terrible happening from inside her house like she had been all those years ago with her father and Amelia.
She opened her car door but then shut it again. The womancould be angry or, worse, think she was actually in love with Aaron... or vice versa. She might not want help or revenge. There were so many “ifs” and worries and things that could go wrong.
Aaron would pay. Lila just had to figure out if she needed this woman to make that happen.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Present Day
BY THE NEXT MORNING, TELEVISION TRUCKS AND REPORTERShad camped out at the end of Lila’s driveway. She was surprised it had taken them this long.
She could see her neighbors scurry away from the fray if she watched out her front window, so she closed the curtains and didn’t look. Instead, she sat at her kitchen island and tried to think of a new plan. The not knowing what came next plagued her. She had allies she’d never expected, like Cassie, and doubters that took her by surprise, like Brent.
Through it all, Aaron hovered in the background, waiting to pounce. She didn’t understand the delay. Even if he weren’t close enough to watch every moment, the notes suggested he was nearby. He had to know she was under siege. He’d relish that. Seeing her squirm and panic.
Tobias stayed with her. He grabbed groceries to save her from a potential battle with the public. Jared came by, butnow, seven days out from disappearance day, she’d become a shut-in with the alarm set, the news permanently off, and a makeshift weapon nearby at all times.
If Aaron’s goal was to slowly make her unravel, that she could understand. Only by force of sheer will did that not happen. She focused all of her energy on staying up and moving. Anxiety crashed over her, sending her to the floor of her closet last night, but she rode through it. He would not win by pounding her mentally and physically into the ground.
If he wanted to pop up and insist she tried to kill him, she’d bring out the videos. The extra set sat in a safety deposit box at a bank thirty miles away in an institution she otherwise didn’t use for banking. She had made arrangements for them to automatically be released to the police and press if anything happened to her.
Mutually assured destruction. That was the plan. It might not be perfect, but if she was going down, then people would know why. After every single piece of dirty laundry got aired, they could decide if her vigilante justice was so wrong after all.
What she really wanted was for his body to turn up and for the games to stop. She’d planned this to give herself an out, and she wanted to take it. Running without answers would leave everything undone. But a part of her thought it might be time to hand over the videos and tell the truth.
She glanced over at Tobias. He lounged on the couch with a mountain of paperwork around him. He’d suffered through meetings with other lawyers in the area about strategy. He’d met with Jared. Tobias had even managed to sweet-talk Brentinto admitting Aaron had never said anything that would suggest Lila did something to him.
His meeting with Ginny was, as he described it, bumpy. Lila would have been disappointed in Ginny if Tobias had any other reaction.
“The police aren’t telling us what, if anything, they’ve found.” Worries about Aaron getting in the house and planting something incriminating swam in her head from day one.
Tobias snorted. “You haven’t been arrested. Take that as your answer.”
