Chapter 5: Chapter Five

Andy glanced into the rearview mirror. He didn’t see Annie or Reon in the backseat. She had taken his advice and stayed low. He was driving so fast, he must have out-distanced the gunmen because there was no one following him. His heart twisted in a tight fist of anxiety. Maybe it was because of her. Even after so long he had an almost frightening connection to her.

Heat rushed through him, his anger scalding his blood and skin. He wanted to hurt whoever had wanted to hurt her. He took a right turn mentally cursing himself for not going after her before now. If only he’d gone after her, but he didn't know where to start looking.

A whisper in his mind scolded him about that being a stupid excuse. He had resources. He knew people. Disgusted with himself, his fingers tightened on the steering wheel. He felt movements at the back of his seat.

“Annie, what are you doing?” he asked.

Jeeze! Was the man aware of everything going on around him? Given what was happening now, she guessed he had a right to know. “Getting the diaper bag,” she said.

“Does Reon need changing?” he asked.

She reached inside the bag and wrapped her fingers around the rubber ducky her baby loved so much. Reon gave a squeal of delight and his eyes twinkled with excitement when he saw it.

“No,” she answered.

“Are you all right?” he asked. “And Reon?”

“We’re both fine. Who were those bad men?” she asked.

His gaze went to the rearview mirror again. “We lost the shooter,” he said. Then he glimpsed her and the little guy. She held him close to her chest as if someone would dare plucked him from her hands. Andy turned his gaze back to the road.

Something about the little guy kept reminding him of someone, but he couldn’t figure out who it was. Annie’s reddened eyes flashed again in his mind. Probably from all the tears she cried. Something odd and curious twisted deep inside him at the sight of her ravaged face. At that moment, he realized he’d missed her, missed her with such ferocity, it was almost shocking. Her weary resignation tugged at him, it made him want to fix everything for her.

He remembered his doctor told him to take a few days of rest. Since a week ago, he was doing the exact opposite. Andy knew he looked like the walking dead but every time he went to bed, sleep eluded him. These days he hardly slept because of what’s happening. Tension nagged at his temples.

The farther they traveled from her home, the quieter it was. No sirens. No gunshots. No screams. Annie looked down at her son, curls matted against the side of his face. Drool trickled from the corner of his slightly open mouth. How had he fallen asleep after so much excitement? She leaned back against the seat and looked out the window. She studied the route he was taking. She didn’t recognize it.

Annie had lived in the area for about a year and still, she didn’t know much about the place. It appears she had no life. She couldn’t say when was the last time she let her hair down and went partying with girlfriends. It seemed like eons ago when she was young, wild and free. She was only twenty-four, and she felt like a sixty-year-old grandmother. Annie sighed and held Reon closer. No way would she let anything happened to her baby. He came first and nothing else mattered.

Adrenaline still zinged through Andy’s veins, making his pulse race and his heart pound. He couldn’t blame it on fatigue and losing sleep. But maybe it wasn’t because of the discovery that Annie had moved on with her life without him and given birth to a son. That thought alone was his undoing. Maybe it was just being so close to her after so long or maybe it was his own attraction to her. She made him feel when he didn’t want to feel anymore.

“Where are we going?” Annie’s asked, interrupting his wayward thoughts.

Andy knew she wouldn’t quit asking him questions even though he ignored her and stayed silent. He sighed and told her. “Two weeks ago I received the first note,” he said, his voice a rasp in the eerie silence of the vehicle. Even Reon wasn’t making any sounds as he slept deeply and quietly.

“What note?” Annie asked.

“I had a doctor’s appointment on the same day I found the note. I left home about eight-thirty that morning only to come home to an envelope placed in front of my door.”

“That’s so weird and strange. Why would someone do that?” Annie asked, trying to make sense of what he was telling her.

“I don’t know. Anyway, what shocked me, was the contents of the note. The person did not write the note. It appeared somebody went through a lot of trouble just to make sure it couldn’t trace back to them.”

Confused, Annie asked, “What do you mean? I don’t understand.”

“I’m getting to the weird part,” Andy said. “It looked as though somebody took the time to cut out every letter from the newspaper to put the words together to make the note.” Andy kept his gaze on the road. He didn’t have to look into the rearview mirror to tell the expression on Annie’s face. It’s the same one he had when he saw the note for the first time.

“Honestly Andy, I still don’t know how this note has anything to do with what happened tonight.”

“It gets crazier. The note stated if I didn’t put One hundred million dollars in the account number that’s in the note, they would kill someone close to me. First, I thought it was only a joke or someone playing a prank on me because my parents are not in the country and I’m an only child. No other close relatives. And my best friend isn’t around. So I dumped the note and forgot the whole thing. Then about three days ago while I was in my office taking care of some business deals, my housekeeper brought in another envelope. She said it came in the mail.”

Annie didn’t like where this was going. She got a nagging feeling that some... Andy’s next words flooded her brain.

“In the envelope were pictures of you, Annie.”

“What? H-how could that be?” she asked, trying to calm the raging nerves in her stomach. She watched as Andy ran his left hand through his hair while the other held the steering wheel.

“It had pictures of you working at that little coffee shop, leaving... and many more,” he continued. “But there was none with your son. Only you. After I got that, I put things into place to find you. I got my friend who’s a private investigator to get your location for me,” he added.

Someone had been watching her all this time, even took pictures, and she didn’t know. Annie tried to process what he’d told her—then a thought slammed into her mind. “But how could they use me? We are not close. I haven’t seen you in years,” she said, keeping her voice to a low whisper so she didn’t wake her son.

Andy couldn’t believe what he’d just heard. “What do you mean we’re not close?” he echoed. He knew he was being unreasonable but he couldn’t keep it in; he had to let it out. “You were the love of my life, Annie. When you left, you broke my heart. You destroyed what we had.  And what we shared as a couple.”

His voice went down to barely a whisper, but she heard everything he said. Every single word. Annie’s eyes glistened with tears and she blinked furiously to get rid of them. She would not cry, not for Andy to see.

“And,” he continued. “I still don’t know why you left me like that. With no explanation. Without saying goodbye. You packed your things and left me.”

Every word that Andy uttered slammed into her heart like a sledgehammer. How could he say all those things? Broke his heart? Steam seemed to burst from her ears. Her heart pounded. The pulse at her temples throbbed at an alarming rate, something seemed burst inside her and she snapped. “I broke your heart? You broke mine! Y-you destroyed me!”

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