AllFreeNovel
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This building is taller than the one in Ravenshoe, and the steelwork is flimsier.
I couldn’t look down even if I wanted to.
“It’s one floor,” I assure myself when fear takes hold. “One floor, and you’re free.”
I consider chickening out, but the roar of the crowd my hotel hasn’t been without the past week leaves me no choice. They haven’t spotted me scaling the edge of a building built long before Ravenshoe was founded. They’re screaming obscenities at the man they believe is my stalker, warning him to stay away.
Laken has arrived, which means he’s eighty-seven floors from disaster.
Confident this is the right thing to do, I climb the rickety ladder as if it is part of the swing set in Noah and Emily’s backyard. I race up like a monkey climbing a tree before I hook my leg over the ledge of the rooftop and drag myself to safety.
After the quickest pause to catch my breath, I sprint for the sound equipment the road crew left after today’s performance. They said they’d be back in the a.m. to dismantle it.
Once all the switches are at the right setting, I grab the microphone and press my lips to the fluffy material keeping the static charge at a minimum.
In my fear, I almost make a costly mistake. I was seconds from screaming for help. But mercifully, before I make a mistake I could never take back, I remember that Knox is only one floor below me, so my fate is already decided, but Laken could still be freed of this madness.
He could still escape.
So, instead of using my voice to announce Knox’s insanity to the world, I use it to free a man of the burden he should have never had.
I give Laken back his voice.
The first line of my impromptu performance is rickety, but I push through my nerves before reminding myself the best songs are the ones that come directly from the heart.
“Even though it had only been a week,
I should have given you the chance to speak.
I was scared and frightened and unsure who to trust.
But that burden didn’t belong on your shoulders, Laken,
and I’m so very sorry I stuffed up.
You gave me back my voice as I was about to give up.
Picked me up when I was certain I’d run out of luck.
In under a second, you had me believing it was more than fate.
That saw us meeting on that rooftop where I thought you’d taken your date.
You’re not the man your false criminal record makes you out to be.
Not close to the menace Knox will forever be.
You’re honest and truthful and everything he’s not.
Because you didn’t just teach your brother how to love.
You made him everything Knox is not.
He’s the reason you need to walk away.
To take back the power that tried to lead you astray.
Only then will he understand the pain he forced on you that day.
