He followed me and grabbed me from behind, covering my mouth with his hand. “Now be a good girl and do as I say. Connor will never have to know about this, because if you say a word to him or the police, you’ll never see that precious baby girl of yours again.”
My eyes widened when he said that, and I struggled to get out from his grip. “That’s right, Ellery. I know she means the world to you, and your love for her is stronger than any other love on this Earth. Do you promise not to scream?”
I nodded my head as I tried to formulate a plan. He slowly removed his hand from my mouth and ran it down my cheek. Suddenly, I went ballistic.
“You mother fucker! There’s one thing you don’t do and that’s threaten a mother with her child!” I screamed as I rammed my knee into his crotch. He doubled over in pain, and I ran to the door. As I tried to open it, he slammed it shut.
“Please, Ellery, don’t make this difficult.”
“You’re crazy.” I started to cry as I slowly backed away from him.
“Not crazy; just in love. You know that it’s a proven fact that love can make a person crazy. Look at what it did to Ashlyn. Now, she’s one crazy bitch. But I didn’t blame her after everything Connor did to her. The way he led her on, took her out, and then fucked her brains out every chance he got. No wonder the girl was messed up.”
I could barely swallow. It felt like my throat was closing up. I needed to get to my phone that was in the kitchen. As I turned around and tried to run, Phil grabbed me from behind and threw me on the floor.
“Please stop struggling and enjoy what I’m about to do to you. I promise you’ll love it and then all this struggle would’ve been for nothing.”
I lay there, kicking and trying to hit him before he held my wrists above my head with his hand, and he fumbled with the button on my jeans. The tears were falling from my eyes as I looked around the room. While I was struggling, thoughts of Connor and Julia flooded my mind. Suddenly, the door flew open and Connor pulled Phil off of me and punched him as hard as he could. Phil went down and Connor got on top of him. He grabbed Phil’s shirt and continuously punched him in the face, again and again as he screamed.
“You son of a bitch! How dare you touch my wife?” he said with each punch.
Detective James ran in and pulled Connor off of him. Justin followed behind and handcuffed Phil.
“You’re nothing but a piece of shit, and I’m going to make sure you rot in jail for the rest of your life for what you’ve done!” Connor yelled.
He turned and looked at me and was instantly by my side, wrapping his arms around me and holding me tightly. “Are you okay, baby? I’m so sorry we weren’t here earlier. Did he hurt you?” he asked as he looked me over.
I stood there, shaking, unable to wrap my head around what had happened as I stared at Connor in a daze. The only words I could muster up were, “What are you doing here? I thought you were in Chicago?”
He looked at me and pulled me into him, holding my head against his chest as Justin escorted Phil out of the penthouse. Detective James walked over to me and asked if I was okay. I nodded my head as I looked at him.
“You can relax now, Mrs. Black. He won’t be bothering you anymore.”
Connor led me over to the couch and continued to hold me. “Baby, I’m so sorry he did this to you,” he kept saying as he kissed my head. “Why didn’t you tell Justin you left your art studio?”
“I was going to, but he wasn’t there,” I said, still shaking.
I lifted my head from his chest and looked at him as I began to calm down. “How did you know I was in my studio?” I asked.
Connor stared at me and started to speak with apprehension. “There never was a business trip.”
“What?” I said in confusion. “I need a drink.”
Connor got up from the couch and walked over to the bar. He took out a glass and poured some whiskey in it. He couldn’t hand it to me fast enough as I grabbed the glass from his hands and threw it back, letting the soothing burn take over my body.
“I found out Phil was the one responsible for sending you the messages. That night he came over to have me sign those papers, he was acting strangely, and I could tell by the way he was looking at you and watching you, something wasn’t right. The next morning, I had Paul do some investigating, and he found the phone Phil used to send you the messages. Apparently, he bought it and had it activated in Chicago so it couldn’t be traced here to New York. I called Detective James and showed him the evidence. He said it wasn’t enough to put him away for a long time, and if he physically tried to harm you, he’d go away for many, many years. So, we came up with this plan to get him here alone with you, knowing he’d try something. But it wasn’t supposed to get as far as it did, Ellery, and I’m so sorry.”
As I sat there and listened to how Connor and Detective James set this up, tears started pouring from my eyes. “Why didn’t you tell me or warn me?” I asked.
“Baby, please, don’t cry,” he said as he sat down and grabbed my hand.