I looked at the card and then up to the sign on the door. I didn’t want to ask over the phone. It was too personal not to handle face-to-face. I hoped he was in. I’d thought about calling for an appointment, but I didn’t want to give him the chance to say no.

I took a deep breath and opened the door. The lobby was empty and so was the receptionist desk. Just as I was about to sit down, a woman came from the back and took her seat at the desk.

“Hello, how can I help you?” She took one look at me and stood up. “Oh, he’s been expecting you.”

“He?”

“Yeah, Tim.”

Of course, she meant Tim. “Is he available?”

“Yeah.” She motioned for the door to the back. “Come on. I’ll take you to him. My name is April.”

“Thank you, April.”

She opened the door and held it open until I walked through, but shut and locked it again before taking me down the hall. On the other side of the wall behind her desk was her actual office.

She knocked on the wooden door at the end of the hall. “Tim, are you available?”

“Yeah.” He cleared his throat. “It’s open, April.”

She turned to me and smiled. “Go on in. I’ll be at my desk if you need anything.”

“Thank you.”

I took a deep breath and pushed the door open. Tim was hunched over the desk signing papers. He looked so much like Brody that I closed my eyes and tried to will the tears away, but I couldn’t.

“You look so much like him.”

He looked up at me for a moment and back to his paper. “I used to hate it when people told me that.” He put his pen down. “I see him every time I look in the mirror. I didn’t see it before.”

I hadn’t either. I cleared my throat and tried to pull it together. “I’m sorry I didn’t call first. I was afraid you wouldn’t see me.”

“I have no ill will toward you. You were the innocent party in all of this.” He looked up at me again. “What can I do for you?”

I didn’t want to blurt out that I wanted to go back to the house. Plus, there were other questions I had first. “I’m happy you’re not caught up in it. I expected you to be arrested for it, too.”

“He made sure that was part of the deal before he started talking to Ryan. Ryan didn’t have any reason to not take it when it was your father he wanted.” He looked down again. “Have you spoken to him?”

“I’ve had a few meetings with Ryan. I’ve been avoiding the news completely, so I’ve met with Ryan to get updates.”

He looked at me. “No, I meant your dad.”

“Oh.” I sat down in the chair across from his desk. “No, I don’t want to see that man.”

He nodded. “It’s how I feel about my old man, too.”

I bit my lip, but couldn’t keep my mouth shut. “I know they treated Brody as if he didn’t matter, but I don’t want you to end up like him.”

“Excuse me? I think I’d be honored to end up half the man my brother was.”

“No.” I placed my hand on his desk. “I didn’t mean that. I meant alone. Brody shut everyone out, including you. I don’t want you to be alone. You deserve someone just like Brody did.”

He looked toward the door and back to me. “I’ve been seeing someone, but I couldn’t tell Brody.” He tossed the pen onto his desk and put his face in his hands. “Everything is so fucked up.”

“Tell me about it. I thought everything would be fine when I got back home.”

He looked up and blew out a breath. “How are things with you and Bryce?”

I shook my head. “They aren’t good.”

“Why?”

“He says I’ve changed.” I shrugged. “I guess I have. Brody taught me a lot.”

“So, you’re not with Bryce anymore?”

“No, I am. It’s just strained right now.” I cleared my throat. “He wants to see the place where I was held. He thinks it would be good for me, too. He thinks it will be closure.”

He leaned back in his chair and looked at me. “What do you think?”

“I’m willing to try if you’re okay to take us back there. I don’t want Brody’s death to be for nothing. I have to try everything I can to fix my relationship with Bryce.”

He sat up, placed his forearms on the desk, and leaned forward. “You know, no matter what happens between you and Bryce, Brody died giving you what he wanted you to have more than anything. Your freedom from your father. His death will never be for nothing as long as you’re free of that monster.”

He got up and came around the desk as I cried again. “We’ll get this behind you.” He stood me up and wrapped his arms around me. “When do you want to go?”

* * *

Bryce held my hand most of the way as we followed Tim to Brody’s house. I’d never seen the front of the house. The windows of the car were too dark to see out of when he brought me to his house, and I had to hide in the back seat when I left. I never would’ve recognized the place.

Tim parked on the side of the house and not in the garage as I had expected him to. Bryce looked at me and squeezed my hand as Tim got out of his car. “Are you ready?”

I nodded. I’d lost the ability to talk a few blocks into the drive. I didn’t know what I was afraid of. Tim had never harmed me and Bryce wouldn’t let anything happen, but I felt nervous all the same.

I took a deep breath and opened my door. Tim was waiting with the door unlocked already. “I always go through the kitchen. I know he used the garage with you, but the kitchen was what I always used.”

“It’s fine.” Bryce took my hand again and led me up the stairs. “Thank you again for letting us be here.”

“Sure. I’ll just hang out in the kitchen in case you need something, so I can give you two some privacy.”

I looked at Tim. “You haven’t been through the house yet?”

He shook his head.

I nodded once and turned to Bryce. He held my hand, but let me lead the way. I didn’t have much to go on. I was blindfolded when he let me go outside, kissing him when we went upstairs and had sex, and we were running out when he took me home.

I didn’t remember much about anything I was looking at. I walked over to the back door on the other side of the kitchen and looked out. I remembered the backyard. There was no doubt I was back in Brody’s house.

I walked through the kitchen and out into a dining room. I ran my hand along the table as we walked through. The next room was the living room. I smiled when I looked around. It looked as if it hadn’t been updated since his mom lived there. Brody wasn’t the type to care about furnishings or style. As long as it gave him a place to stay out of the rain, he couldn’t have cared less. It was more proof he was living in the past.

The stairs that led up to where I was kept were on the right, but I wanted to see the room to the left of the living room. Bryce had started to go up the stairs, but I pulled him the opposite way.

It looked like a reading room with books, but it looked empty. There was something missing. I thought back up to the room I’d stayed in and the table where we used to eat. He had to have taken it from that room.

The window seat was ajar, and I tilted my head as I looked at it. He said he knew where his mother hid her puzzles. I reached for it and lifted the seat. It was filled with different puzzles and games. I closed my eyes and shut it.

I walked back out to the living room with Bryce following close behind, but I still didn’t go up the stairs. I took the hall next to it. There was an office with his computer at the desk. I imagined him working there late at night, and my chest tightened. I wanted to see if he kept journaling on the computer or if he gave it up after he got out of prison.

I turned and left before curiosity got the better of me. If he did journal, it would be his private thoughts. No matter how much I wanted to know what they were, he deserved his privacy.

“You haven’t seen any of this before?”

I shook my head. “No, he didn’t let me leave that room.”

I took his hand and led him upstairs. The closer we got, the more my hands shook. He pulled me to the side before we reached the door and held my face.

“Nothing will happen to you. You’re safe with me.” He kissed me, and I clung to him. I believed him, but it was still hard to face that room.

I took a step back and turned toward the door. Bryce came up behind me and placed his hands on my hips. “I’m right here.”

I nodded and reached for the doorknob, taking a deep breath before I pushed the door open. It was as if nothing had been moved. The puzzle I glued was still sitting on the table along with the can I put back together after Brody crushed it. I smiled and walked over to it.

“This is what I was telling you about.” I held it up. “He was angry with me one night, and he crushed it. He was really crushing us.” I ran my fingers over it. “I knew we couldn’t be crushed. I wouldn’t allow us to be. We may not look the same, but we’re still here.”

He walked over and took the can from me. “This is why you had those little cuts all over your fingers when you first got home.” He looked at me. “Why the can, though? Why is that a symbol of us?”

“I didn’t have anything when I came here.” I knew what I was going to say would sound insane, but it was the truth. Unless you’re in that situation yourself, you don’t know what you’ll cling to. My last thread of hope was a soda can.

“He mostly brought milk for breakfast and water the rest of the time, but for some reason, he brought soda for us one night. I guess maybe it was a treat because I’d been good and hadn’t fought him or something. I really don’t know. I fought every chance I could in the beginning.

“I purposely didn’t drink it all because as soon as I saw it, I thought of you. I hoped he kept it behind since he was the type who didn’t like to waste anything. I just wanted something to remind me of you.”

“Soda?”

I wasn’t sure why he didn’t get the connection. “It’s how we met.”

He smiled. “You’re right. It is how we met. Go on.”

“Well, the night he showed me photos of you and that brunette on our sofa—”

“What?” He shook his head. “There was no girl.”

“He showed me the photo of you and that woman in our living room, Bryce. She was sitting on your lap.”

“Nothing happened with her.”

“First there’s no girl, and now nothing happened?” I shook my head. “Relax. He told me you shoved her off when he was taking me to the police, but that night my world had turned upside down.

“I said mean and cruel things to him that I will never get the opportunity to take back. He had every right to crush this can.” I held it up and looked at it.

“He was mean and cruel to you. You had the right to lash out.”

I shrugged and put the can back onto the table. I touched the puzzle and smiled when I thought about hiding the two pieces down my shirt. It wasn’t all terrible with Brody.

I walked over to the bench at the end of the bed and sat down. “This is where it all started.” I took my spot as Brody had shown me so many weeks before and lifted myself down and back up a few times. I looked at Bryce and smiled. “This is how I spent my time here.”

He looked at the bench and turned to the puzzle. “Just this and the puzzle?” He looked back to me. “Nothing else happened?”

I stood and crossed my arms. “Why don’t you just ask me whatever it is you want to know?”

“You know what I’m asking.” He walked over to the bed and picked up the vibrator I had packed. “Why is this even out? Did you use it with him?”

“No, I didn’t. He pulled it out of the bag because he knew the police would search the bag when we got there. He didn’t want me to be embarrassed.”

“You have an answer for everything. You defend the man who ripped you from your life every chance you get.”

“I’m not defending him. I’m stating facts. Defending him would be reminding you that we packed that bag for our getaway wedding that you talked me out of.”

“So, now this is my fault. We didn’t leave when you wanted to, so I’m to blame?”

“No.” I shook my head. “That isn’t what I’m saying. He had nothing to do with it being in my bag. I never used it or any other toy in this room. Never.”

He took a step toward me. “What about Brody?”

“He didn’t use them, either.” My attempt to lighten the mood didn’t work.

“Did you use him?”

“That’s exactly what I did. I used everything I could to try to get out of here. I became his friend. I became someone he enjoyed spending time with. I thought it would be my way out if I convinced him that I was on his side.”

“But you were in the end. You were on his side. Aren’t you still?”

“He did right, Bryce. I can’t condemn a man who brought me back to you regardless of the fact that he was the one who took me. He saved my life to make sure I had one to live with you.”

“If he were still alive today, would you live that life with me?”

“What?” I gripped the bottom of his shirt. “What is that supposed to mean?” I wasn’t prepared for the anger that spilled out of Bryce. I’d never seen it before. I never wanted to see it again.

“You kissed him!” He ripped my hands off his shirt. “You fucking kissed him. I heard you. Your wire was on. You forgot about that, didn’t you?” He backed up and ran his fingers through his hair.

“I was trying to give him something to live for. He told me that he never had any reason to love. He never had any reason to live.”

“And you think one magical kiss from you would save his life? This isn’t a fairy tale.”

“No, I . . .” I sobbed. “I don’t know what I was thinking, but it was all I had at that moment. I didn’t want him to die!”

“Because you’re in love with him. Did you cry this much when we were apart? Did you?”

“I cried all the time in the beginning. I cried every day until he dragged me from that bed and made me work out. He taught me how to take care of myself for the body I wanted instead of starving myself to stay thin. He taught me I was a stronger woman than I gave myself credit for and that I could withstand anything anyone threw my way.

“He taught me I was not my father’s daughter, but more my mother’s. He taught me the greatest gift in the world is to love someone and to never let that love go when you find it.

“So, yes, Bryce, I did fall in love with someone new while I was here. I will love that person until the day I die, and if you can’t handle it, then my father was right and you’re not the man for me. The person I fell in love with was me.”

I dried my eyes and squared my shoulders. He’d never hurt me before, but his words cut deep that day. I told Brody what happened in that room stayed in that room, but Bryce needed to know the truth. It would make us or break us, but he needed to know.

“And if what you’re really wondering is if I fucked Brody, the answer to that is yes, as well.” I turned and pointed to the wall. “He finger fucked me against that wall the night he hooked you up with that brunette, but as punishment, he didn’t let me come.”

I pointed to the floor. “I dry humped him to orgasm right where you’re standing and went to the bathroom to finish myself off.”

I pointed to the bed and took a step closer to him. “He ate me out while I sucked him dry in that bed, and a week later, he fucked me every which way I begged. Is that enough information for you, or do you want to know how big his dick was, too?”

“I knew it.” Bryce’s shoulders dropped, and he looked at the floor. “I didn’t even palm myself, and you fucked him. I guess you got experience with other men after all.” He looked at me. “What about Tim?”

“I never touched Tim.”

He scoffed. “Well, don’t let me stop you. Love the new you all you want. I doubt your bed will be cold now.”

I sat on the bed and cried as Bryce stormed out.