Chapter 18 – Out From Under

One week later

Adeline rubbed the sleep out of her eyes as she threw a robe over her body, covering the pink tank top and sleep shorts. She caught a glance in the mirror on the dresser as she walked away from her bed, seeing the growing bump in her stomach. She sighed to herself before wrapping the robe tightly around her body and tying the sash as she walked out of her bedroom.

After she had poured her coffee in the kitchen, she reached into the cabinet and pulled out the prescription bottle, swallowing one of the prenatal vitamins as she took her first drink and replacing the bottle.

She hadn't spoken to Lance much the past week. After the stunt he had pulled, she was so angry at him that she hardly wanted to see his face. She mostly managed his schedule by phone and email that whole time, keeping their conversations only to that. She'd heard from Melissa about his reaction to her “return fire”, and had taken a day to revel in her own evilness that she didn't know she had in her.

That was about as long as it took to hear from Mel and Chris that not only had Lance sent flowers and a professional carpet cleaning company to her door, but personal apologies to the both of them as well for his “asinine” behavior.

Things had seemed to return to normal for the rest of them since then and they had come to a truce, but she was still stuck in a limbo of emotions. Hearing that Marc was a missing person and was possibly dead had shaken her to her core. It almost...hurt. It was a confusing feeling for her, considering that after that day at the courthouse when the divorce was finalized, she had been grateful to have him out of her life.

In addition, she couldn't forget the conversation she'd had with Melissa. At twelve weeks, her baby bump was quite visible now – too visible, in fact. It was becoming harder and harder to hide with her normal clothes. All of her jeans had now become too tight for comfort, as well as most of her slacks. At home she could lounge around in stretchy yoga pants and t-shirts, but when she had to go anywhere, her only saving grace were the dresses in her closet that still fit.

Time was closing in on her. She wouldn't be able to hide it from him for much longer...and she was no closer to deciding when or how she would break the news to him.

She sat her coffee on the kitchen table and walked to her door, intent on grabbing the newspaper from outside her front door. When she opened it and saw it laying on the ground, she couldn't say she was surprised.

On top of her newspaper that couldn't have been delivered more than twenty minutes ago, was another note, tied to a red rose and a sprig of violets.

She picked it up cautiously, looking it over quickly before slamming her door closed and locking both the doorknob and the deadbolt that she'd had installed the week before. She immediately turned over the card, reading the words on it.

Roses are red, violets are blue...it was cute watching you guys fight and turn against each other, but I'm not done – I've still got more here to do...

Taped to the small card was a single match. She had no idea what it meant. She was sure it was meant to deliver some kind of sick threat, but she was so scatter-brained that she wasn't sure what that could be. She ran to the cell phone in her purse and did the only thing she knew she could do – call Lance.

Seeing as it was eight in the morning, he answered the phone half-asleep.

“Hello?”

“Wake up. I got another one.”

He groaned, but she could hear from the background noise that he immediately got out of bed and was working to get dressed.

“What's it say?”

She repeated the whole note to him as she had read it.

“Oh cute, we've got a poet,” he scoffed. “I'll be there – give me, like, half an hour.”

Forty-five minutes later, a knock on the door startled her. She got up and looked out the peephole of the door. Seeing it was Lance, she unlocked the door and the deadbolt.

“You're late,” she said.

“Good to see you too, Ad. I've missed you, too. I'm good, thanks for asking.”

“Sorry,” she said apologetically. She pulled him inside and locked up the door and the deadbolt. “I'm a little on edge.”

“Where is it?”

She could tell he wasn't exactly pleased to be here – whether it was because of the early morning, the new note, or the fact that he was here at her apartment, she didn't know. Things hadn't been great between them, and this was not the way she had wanted to end this week, with him or with a new note.

She sighed deep, yearning for her old life and her old fiance back.

“I woke up around eight this morning,” she said as she went to her kitchen counter to grab them. “The paper is delivered between 7:30 and 7:45, always. I've never seen it come earlier or later. Sometimes, I've met the boy at the door. So when I woke up, I automatically went to get my newspaper, and there it was, right on top.”

She handed them to him, and he looked it over.

“The paper boy wouldn't have put the newspaper under the note. He would have put it beside it. So the note had to have been delivered between then and the time I woke up.”

“Did you call the cops?”

“What are they going to do, Lance?” she asked. “We've already turned the notes from before over to them. They've got nothing.”

“Abrams said to call him the minute we got another one,” he said, already pulling his phone out of his pocket.

“I'll get dressed,” she said with a sigh.

Another half-hour later, Detective Abrams showed up on her doorstep. She sat back on the couch while Lance and the detective talked to each other. Lance handed over the note to him, still tied to the rose and the violets, and specifically pointed out the match that was still taped to the card.

“Well, that is strange,” the detective said.

“What does it mean?” Adeline asked.

“Well we can't be sure, but under the circumstances I'd definitely say it's a threat,” he responded. “He's escalating.”

Adeline heard Lance heave a sigh from next to her.

“It's a guy then?” she asked.

“Well we're not sure, Ms. James,” he said. “We're going on the assumption that the suspect is a male based on the profile and the wording of the notes that have been left, but profiling isn't always an exact science and we've exhausted all our leads right now.”

“Then what can we do?” Adeline begged. “When are you going to catch this person?”

“Don't worry, Ms. James,” the detective said, picking up on her frustration. “We've had a lot of roadblocks, but we get closer every day. This person will make a mistake eventually, and that's when we'll catch up.”

It was no comfort to her. Every day she became more terrified to leave her apartment, knowing that someone was following her and watching her every move. Even when she was in the safety of her apartment, hiding behind a locked door and a deadbolt, she didn't feel safe.

The detective was out the door after a few questions, taking the note with him for more evidence.

“You think they'll be able to test the card stock they're written on?” she asked Lance as she shut the door.

She noticed that he was already gathering his jacket, throwing it over his body.

“I don't know,” he said.

“Are you leaving?”

“I've, uh...I got some things to do today,” he said, visibly uncomfortable.

“I just...I thought you'd stay a while,” she said.

“I've called Chris,” he said, grabbing his car keys. “He's going to come over and stay with you a while. He said he could be here in about an hour, and he's going to stay the night, hitch on your couch.”

“Can't you stay?” she asked, trying not to sound as if she was begging.

He sighed. “Addy, I can't. Damn it, I need some time to think all this out. I thought we had something so good, and then you...up and left me. It's been two weeks and we've done nothing but fight. This whole situation has taken up so much of my time that I haven't had a chance to think about things.”

“I thought we could use today to talk about it,” she said, feeling the flutter of fear in her stomach. “I have some things I need to talk to you about.”

“It'll have to wait,” he said, already heading toward the door. “I can't do it right now, Ad.”

She moved away from the door as he opened it and stepped outside.

“I'm sorry,” he said to her before he closed the door on her.

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Chris knocked on her door shortly before the hour deadline was up, awaiting her behind it with several grocery sacks.

“Hey Ad,” he said.

“Hey Chris,” she said, a brief smile on her face. He was inside the apartment within seconds, and she closed the door and activated the deadbolt again. “Sorry that Lance is asking you to babysit me tonight.”

“Babysit? I like hanging out with my Ad.” He reached a free arm out to pull her close to him in a playful manner. “I've got ice cream, chocolate cake, Double Stuffed Oreos, potato chips, beer, and a dozen rented movies. Action, adventure, drama, horror, that romance shit you women like...I even have a dirty one – for good measure,” he said with a wink.

She couldn't stop the grin and the giggle. “Got any insulin for the sugar crash later?”

“Insulin is for pussies,” he joked. “Let's get crazy up in this bitch.”

They spent the entire day watching the various movies that Chris had rented and brought by, pigging out on potato chips and too much sugar through the afternoon and the evening. Adeline had to admit that it was a good time, as if spending the night over at a friend's house. Before either of them knew it night fell, and midnight passed.

It was six in the morning when the movie they were watching finished and Chris popped in the only one they had left that they hadn't yet watched.

“It's been good to have you here, Chris,” Addy said. “I forgot how lonely it can get living by yourself. I guess it's been so long since I've lived alone.”

“You could go back, you know,” he said.

She sighed.

“Why'd you leave, Addy?” he asked. “We all know that you and Lance were happy together. It doesn't make any sense to us.”

She sighed again. “Chris, I did something awful.”

“It couldn't be that bad,” he said.

She took a deep breath. “Chris, I'm pregnant.”

His eyes narrowed in confusion. “You mean...like...it's not Lance's?”

“No, not like that,” she said, shaking her head. “It's definitely Lance's.”

“Addy, that's great!” he said, his eyes wide.

“No, Chris – it's not.”

He saw her sad, stressed expression.

“I'm confused,” he said. “How can this not be good? You both thought you'd never be able to get pregnant. Now you are – that's fantastic!”

“No, Chris, Lance thought I'd never be able to get pregnant.”

He chuckled and shook his head. “Okay, Ad, you got me. I'm a dumbass. What's the punchline here?”

“I lied to him the whole time,” she said, feeling a small relief off her shoulders. “It's not that I can't get pregnant – it's that I'm scared to. I thought we were always on the same page, but then he started asking me why I take birth control if I can't get pregnant. Now he's been wanting to try to get pregnant anyway and...and I'm scared, Chris. I'm so scared.”

“Because of what happened?” he asked softly.

She could only nod.

“I...I don't know what to say,” he stuttered. “I'm speechless. Me, speechless.”

She laughed, despite the fact that tears had made their ways to her eyes.

“How long has this been going on? I mean, how far along are you anyway?”

She reluctantly stood up off the couch and lifted the black hoodie up, pulling it over her head. When she got it to her arms, his eyes moved to her stomach and went wide, seeing how much weight she had gained since he'd last noticed, the tight tank top over her accentuating her stomach.

“Twelve weeks,” she said as she threw the hoodie on the couch.

“Holy shit, Addy,” he said. “You're...look at you!”

“I know,” she said, placing her hand on the bump.

“How are you hiding this? Is Lance blind? How can he not notice...this!”

“A well-planned wardrobe and some good distraction techniques,” she said, the corner of her mouth turning up in a smile.

“You have to tell him, Addy.”

“I know.”

“Like...now.”

“I know, Chris,” she said with a sigh. “But how do you tell a man that you're pregnant with his child and watch him realize he's going to be a father...then watch him realize that your baby might actually...die.”

Seeing her react the way she did, holding her hand to her stomach as if in a desperate attempt to physically hold onto it, he realized that she was in true pain. The loss she had suffered affected her far more than he had ever realized.

“Whatever happens, you still have to tell him,” he urged. “Addy, this baby exists. If something...happens...” The thought was painful for him to think about. “...it doesn't disappear into thin air. He still needs to know. It's his baby...family is everything to Lance.”

“I know, Chris!” she said, having fully broken down into tears. “That's why this hurts so bad. He wants this. I can't stand to think of how much it would hurt him if the same thing happened to his baby.”

“It's going to hurt him regardless,” he said. “It's going to hurt him worse if something happens to this baby and he finds out that you never told him about it. You're not even giving him a chance.”

He stood up and walked over to her, immediately pulling her into a tight hug. She leaned her head into his shoulder and sobbed while he stroked her back.

“This isn't the time to worry about what happened in the past, Ad. I would be worried too...but reducing yourself to this isn't helping the situation. It's not good for the baby. You need to tell Lance and get this off your chest so you can be there for each other right now.”

She sniffled and leaned further into his shoulder.

“I know,” she said. “Now I need to figure out how to do it.”

“He won't care how you tell him,” he said. “All he needs from you right now is honesty, because he's terrified that he's done something to lose you.”

They spent a few minutes standing in her living room, him trying to comfort her. She eventually calmed down, the feeling of his consoling arms around her helping relieve the stress she had been feeling. Suddenly, his phone rang and he reached into his pocket to grab it.

“It's Mel,” he said, raising an eyebrow.

“It's almost 6:30 in the morning,” she said, glancing at the clock quickly. “What would she be calling you for this early?”

“I don't know.” So he didn't miss the call, he answered it, walking into her hallway for privacy. “Hello...”

She sniffled again and wiped the tears away from her face, trying to compose herself. It felt good to talk to Chris about the situation; she felt a weight lifted off her shoulders. Between him and Mel, they'd both brought up good points and made the situation and the solution clearer.

She had to tell Lance. Soon.

“We'll be right there,” Chris said as he rushed back into the room, quickly ending the call and shoving the phone back into his pocket.

Seeing his haste, him running to grab his own coat and hers from the back of the chair, she became worried.

“Chris, what is it?”

“It's Lance and Melissa,” he said as he tossed her coat over to her before struggling to put his own on. “Their apartment building's on fire.”