I didn't stop at any of the other bedrooms. There was only one place I needed to go. My bedroom sat at the far end of the hall, the door already open from when Duke and the officers had come through earlier. I stepped inside and immediately understood why his jaw had been so tight when he came back to the car.
It was the worst room in the house.
My clothes had been pulled from every hanger and violated in a way that made my stomach turn. You could tell it hadhappened more than once, over what must have been multiple visits, the fabric stiff and discolored in places. I kept my eyes moving and didn't let myself sit with it.
I released Duke's hand and moved toward the closet. I already knew what I was looking for. Tucked at the very back, behind everything else I had left behind in my rush to disappear, was a trunk my mother had left me. It was the one thing I hadn't been able to carry when I ran. It was also the one thing I never stopped thinking about.
The closet looked like everything else in the house. Old photos of me from when I had red hair were pinned or taped across every inch of the walls. My clothes were thrown in every direction. But the trunk was sitting undisturbed in the far corner, partially hidden behind a row of coats that had been shoved to one side. Either he hadn't noticed it or it hadn't meant anything to him.
Either way, I was grateful.
I kicked a path through the mess and pointed toward it.
"Can you grab that? That's all I want from in here. Everything else can go. We might need to wipe it down before it leaves the house just to be safe."
Duke stepped around me without a word, pulled the trunk from the back of the closet, and lifted it like it weighed nothing. I turned and walked out ahead of him, not looking back at the room again.
We made it back outside into the late afternoon sun and the driver popped the trunk so Duke could slide my mother's trunk inside. I stood on the driveway for a moment and let the air settle around me.
I turned back to the officer. "Do you know anyone who can clear this place out by end of day tomorrow? I know it's too late to start tonight."
He nodded and pulled a small notepad from his breast pocket, wrote down a name and number, and tore the page free before handing it to me. "They're good people. They'll take care of it."
I thanked him, shook his hand, and slid into the back seat. Duke got in beside me and pulled the door closed. I leaned into him and let my eyes close as the driver pulled back down the long driveway toward the gate.
I didn't look back at the house. There was nothing left there for me to hold onto.
I stoodoutside the car as Solana slipped inside. I walked over toward the driver and pulled my phone from my back pocket. I didn’t want Solana trying to figure out what to do next. I knew all of this was a lot for her to take in, even if she was giving me the brave face.
I knew she had been stalked, but seeing the lengths someone would go to just to get to her was something else entirely. I would have left all of it behind too, without a second thought and without needing anyone to talk me out of it.
“Can you take us here?” I turned my screen toward him.
He glanced at it and nodded, then made his way around to the driver’s side.
“We can head there after she lets us know what she wants to eat.”
“Understood,” he replied.
I pulled open the back door and found Solana leaning against the opposite side with a frown sitting heavy on her face. I had plans to lift all of that tonight, once I got her somewhere that I hoped felt nothing like what we had just walked out of.
“Sweets, come here.” I wagged my finger.
I held my arm out and she slipped beneath it, curling into my side. She laid her head against my chest as I rubbed slow circles up and down her arm.
“I know eating is probably the last thing on your mind after seeing all of that. But we need to grab something before we head to the spot I got for us.”
She shifted to look up at me.
“I could go for In-N-Out.”
I told the driver and we rode the rest of the way in silence. When we pulled up to the window, she ordered double-doubles and fries for both of us. I handed the driver my card to cover it and asked if he wanted anything for himself. He declined, telling us his wife would have something to say if he came home full and uninterested in whatever she had on the stove. I laughed at that.
“I’m not trying to get you put out over a burger.”
Solana laughed too, and the sound of it loosened something in my chest.
The traffic out here was a different kind of madness. It took us nearly forty minutes to make it to Beverly Hills. I had the driver pull around to the front entrance so I could go in and handle the check-in myself. Once I had the directions to our private bungalow, I jogged back to the truck and passed them along. He followed the path around to the back of the property and parked in the designated spot.