“Clothes I bought last summer, when I was here with you. When we had our affair.”
“You are my wife. It was what I wanted, and what I want—”
“What you want, you always get,” I say. “Isn’t that right? You couldn’t stand knowing that I was with Aiden. You had to kidnap me.”
“That’s a harsh word,” he says calmly. “You were always mine.”
I take a deep breath. “How did you get away with this?”
“Good old Uncle Theo came in handy.”
“Did you . . . pretend to be Uncle Theo? But how . . .?”
“I couldn’t pretend to be Aiden. The staff at the center knew where he was. In a coma. I don’t know why he didn’t just stay asleep.”
“Uncle Theo . . .”
“Would you like to call him? I know you feel disconnected from family here. But I doubt he’ll remember you.”
I look around for a way out. If I try to open the heavy garage door manually, Jacob will be upon me. But he’s not coming toward me, not trying to grab me and drag me back into the house. “How did you get me out?”
“You agreed to come with me, and they signed you out.”
I’m still crouched behind the car. The garage is cold. “I’m going back to the city.” Even I recognize that this is wishful thinking, but a part of me hopes he can still see reason.
“Why? You love it here. Look, you surprised me when you wanted to give Aiden another chance. He didn’t deserve you. I had to make another plan.”
“I have to get back to him. What did you do to him? Did you tamper with his oxygen?” My voice trembles. I look around for something to use as a weapon. The garden tools are on the other side of the garage.
“With his gas mix, you mean. His air. Who’s been planting these ideas in your head?” He’s coming toward me, running his hand along the hood of the truck.
“Did you try to kill him on the dive?” I crouch behind the bumper. Our dusty scuba tanks sit on a shelf right next to me.
“Kyra, there are so many ways a dive can go wrong. It’s so difficult to pinpoint the cause of an accident.”
“You did something to his pressure hose, or his tank valve, didn’t you?” Slowly, I pull my scuba tank to the edge of the shelf.
“It was an accident. Ask anyone. They’ll tell you. No way to prove it wasn’t.”
“What about Van? His allergic reaction? Did you have something to do with that?”
“Kyra, Kyra. Do you think I am so cruel?”
“I do now. Did you? Was that your doing?”
“Van should watch what he eats, and he should keep an EpiPen around, don’t you think?”
“You have to let me go. This was a mistake.”
“Don’t say that.”
He’s too close now. As he steps around to my side of the car, he reaches for me. I lift the scuba tank and swing it with all my might, with all the force of my body. The tank crashes into his head—I hear a horrible cracking sound, and he crumples to the floor. Blood trickles down the side of his head. He’s moaning, pressing his hand to the wound.
I hit the button to open the garage, and as the door rises, I grab my bicycle, but it won’t move. It’s locked to Jacob’s bicycle. Double locked. “What did you do?” I scream.
He’s still moaning, holding his head.
“Give me the keys to the truck,” I say.
“You can’t . . . drive. You’ll hurt yourself.”
“I know how to drive. Give them to me.”
“Come and get them.”
I’ll never be able to wrestle the keys away from him. I grab my backpack and run out into the wind. I take the steps down to the beach two at a time, and when I hit the sand I break into a sprint. The tide is rising. I look over my shoulder. He’s not coming for me, not yet.
I keep running, and when I reach the final curve of shoreline leading to Doug Ingram’s secluded beach, the tide laps against the embankment. I stop to catch my breath. A voice calls to me on the wind. I can’t make out the words. It’s Jacob. He’s still far away, a mere speck on the beach, but he’s gaining. His wound slows him down, but in the end, I won’t be able to outrun him. I wade into the icy surf, my feet going numb. The dark current yanks at my legs, but I push my way forward, gasping as I stagger onto Douglas Ingram’s beach. I collapse on the sand, gasping for breath. This can’t be happening. There is no boat tethered to the dock. Douglas Ingram is gone.