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The only story about tonight would be the oneIwould tell the police.
And I did. As EMS packed my sister up into the ambulance, a pair of two police officers asked me questions. More were in the house, checking the perimeter and staying with Tyler’s body.
I told them the basics: Tyler had kidnapped us both. He was my sister’s fiancé, but when I’d woken up he’d told me he’d wanted me—and he was going to prove it to me by killing her. I would’ve gone into more detail, but EMS said the police would have to ask me questions once I got cleared by a doctor.
So, because I didn’t have any choice, I climbed into the ambulance with my sister and zoned out. The paramedic in the back took my blood pressure and asked me general questions about my health and my sister’s. If we were allergic to anything, that sort of stuff. He asked if I had any clue what Tyler had given her, but I had zero ideas.
At the hospital, Claire and I were separated. They needed to run more tests on her to figure out what her system had. My tests were more straightforward—I got a fancy bandage wrapped around my head, along with some fluids. They made me change out of my clothes and into a hospital gown, even though I tried to argue with them. As I changed, I made sure to tuck the AirTag deep into my shoe so no one would see it.
The police hung around. Once the doctors were done with me, the same pair that questioned me at the house came into my room. We got more in depth.
“He had a gun,” I said, remembering the feeling of the cold metal in my hands. “He was going to shoot Claire with it. At that point, I figured I had nothing to lose, so I hit him, right in the…” I paused, meeting the eyes of both officers—two men. “…balls. I was on the ground near my sister, so it was easy to just—” I mimicked the punch.
“Tyler dropped the gun after that, and I scrambled to get it. When I aimed it at him, he told me he knew I wouldn’t do it, that we were meant to be together.” I gulped and looked down at my lap, at the ugly hospital blanket pulled over my legs. I currently sat on a hard bed, hooked up to fluids, multiple pillows fluffed behind my back to keep me propped up.
I shrugged. “When he started coming towards me, I shot him. Twice.” Though my head still pounded, I could recall that instant perfectly in my head. I’d never shot a gun before, but it wasn’t that hard—though it helped Tyler had been close. My wrist hurt a bit, like the recoil had been a little too much for my weak joint.
The cop on the left asked, “Was tonight the first time your sister’s fiancé made any moves toward you? Did he ever say anything before that might’ve led you to believe he had a secret fascination with you?” They were looking for more clues, more evidence. These two cops took one look at me and decided I wasn’t worth obsessing over.
“No, not before today,” I answered honestly, and the two officers shared a look. “But… for the last year, I’ve been getting messages online from puppet accounts. I thought it was just spam at first, but then I started to get calls from a restricted number. The person calling kept saying I was theirs.”
“You didn’t recognize the voice?” the second cop asked.
I shook my head. “No, he was using one of those voice changer things. Today was my birthday, and he and my sister came over my parents’ house to celebrate. He got me alone in the house and admitted it. He said he’d call me with a location, and he wanted me to go alone, otherwise he’d hurt Claire. I… know I should’ve called the police, but I was scared, and I didn’t know what to do.”
“What a birthday,” one officer said, while the other muttered, “Happy birthday.”
All I could do was sigh out a half-heartedthanks.
“Your car was recovered from the park you told us about,” the officer on the right told me. “But your phone wasn’t there.”
Of course it wasn’t. Brett had my phone. But I couldn’t tell them that, so I frowned and said, “I don’t know what he did with it.”
They asked me a few more questions, jotting down anything I said that might be important. Before they left, they told me if I thought of anything else, to give them a call. They filed out of my room after that, letting me lean my head back as relief flooded my system.
Out in the hall, I heard voices, and I spotted my parents huddled together, speaking with the two police officers that just left my room. Mom kept glancing in at me, while Dad was purely focused on the cops. They spoke for a few minutes, and then the cops walked away.
Mom rushed into the room, enveloping me in a bear hug. “Oh, honey,” she whispered, squeezing me hard. “Thank God you’re okay.” She pulled away and smoothed out my hair, a look of concern in her eyes. “When we heard what happened… I just—your father and I couldn’t believe it.Tyler?”
Dad was right behind her, shaking his head. “Always knew something was off about that boy.” Both my mom and I looked at him like he was crazy—because it was a lie, but neither my mom nor I called him on it.
“What did the cops say?” I asked.
“There will be no charges since you and Claire are clearly the victims here. It’s a pretty open and shut case. Tyler’s family has nothing to stand on if they try to come after you girls,” my mom told me, giving me a supportive smile.
“How is Claire? Have you seen her yet? Does she… does she know?”
Mom glanced at Dad before saying, “We just came from her room. She’s tired. Out of it. She doesn’t really remember what happened, besides Tyler being dead. We’ll tell her the whole story once she’s better.”
“What is the whole story, Charlie?” Dad spoke, sliding over a chair to sit beside my bed. “The cops said something about Tyler being a stalker? You never said anything to us about this. Why would you keep something like that a secret?”
The way he and Mom looked at me, like they just couldn’t understand, made me wish I could unhook myself from the IV and crawl away. Since I couldn’t do that, I settled for whispering, “I didn’t know it was him until today.”
“Why wouldn’t you tell us?” Mom spoke. She sat on the side of the hospital bed, gently touching my arm. “Honey, you can tell us anything, you know that, right?” After a quick glance in my dad’s direction, she asked, “Were you afraid we wouldn’t believe you?”
“I don’t know. I guess I thought it would stop at first, and then I thought I could ignore it.”
Mom rubbed my arm. “Have you called Ian yet?”
