I was sitting out by the pool when I heard the knock. I bolted from my chair, knocking over a side table, my ice water falling to the ground, the glass shattering around my feet. With shaking hands, I tiptoed around the broken glass, then sprinted back inside the house and towards the back bedroom. I picked up a crying Alex and ran to the front door, peeking through the peep hole and avoiding the large window next to the door.

My heart jumped into my throat when I saw Luke standing there.

I ran away from the door, a barking Chester dancing around my feet. Alex kept crying, no matter how many times I tried shushing him.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” I mumbled, shaking and terrified. “It was him!”

“Scarlet,” he called out, banging on the door again. “It’s Luke!”

I stayed out of sight of all the front windows, just around the corner, my body pressed against the wall as my eyes searched around the living room for a weapon. There was a heavy ceramic lamp I could use as a last resort, but I couldn’t see anything else at all.

As Luke kept banging on the door, Chester and Alex became more upset, both of them making more and more noise, making it impossible to pretend we weren’t here. I thought about putting Alex back in his room, but the thought of leaving him alone and crying, let alone out of my sight, seemed like an impossible decision. I was hoping like hell that Luke would leave, but his increasingly loud knocking told me that wasn’t going to happen.

“Scarlet,” he shouted. “Open the goddamned door. I saw you. I know you’re in there. I can hear the baby.”

I looked down at Alex in my arms, tears running down his face as he fussed and wiggled, and fear gripped my heart.

“Jason,” I murmured, running through the house and back to the pool, where I’d left my phone. I almost burst into tears when I saw it had fallen into the pool when I’d jumped up from my chair.

“Shit!” I shouted. I put Alex on the chair I’d been sitting in and fished it out of the water, hoping I could at least salvage it long enough to find Jason’s phone number. I could call him on the land line but unless my phone turned on to give me his phone number, I was screwed.

I shouted with joy when it flickered to life. Ignoring Alex’s outstretched arms, I pushed the buttons to find Jason’s number. Just as it came up, my screen flickered and died.

“No!” I shouted, throwing it back in the pool in anger. Alex jumped and started crying again and Luke continued to bang on the door. Chester was at the door now, growling and barking frantically. I swallowed hard, trying to gain my composure amongst the chaos surrounding me.

I had to think.

Alex was fine, only scared. In fact, we were all three fine. Luke was outside of the house, the doors and windows were locked, he couldn’t get to us.

All I needed to do was call the police and they would come and handle him.

Staying as calm as possible, I scooped up Alex and held him close.

“Shh, baby, it’s okay, it’s okay,” I said. He settled down a little, his cries becoming softer as I carried him back to the bedroom. I set him down in his crib and kissed him quickly, before running back to the kitchen, where Jason’s phone was. Chester was scratching and growling at the door, yearning to get to Luke on the other side.

Luke was still knocking, his knocks turned to loud banging quickly.

“Scarlet!” he yelled. I cringed hearing that name. I wasn’t Scarlet anymore and I never wanted to hear anyone call me that ever again. Ruby chose that name for me and I hated it from the beginning. “Let me in! I know you had a baby. It’s mine, isn’t it? You’ve got my boy in there? Let me in, sweetheart! I just want to see my baby boy.”

My stomach dropped at his words.

Alex was mine. Not his.

Alex would never be his.

I picked up the phone and with trembling hands began dialing 911. But nothing happened. I hung up and picked the phone back up, remembering to listen for a dial tone. It’d been years since I used a land line, hell I couldn’t even remember the last time.

But there was no dial tone at all.

This phone was dead as a doornail.

“Fuck!” I cried, my eyes darting to the door.

“What now?”