Page 182 of Liberating Lily

“I don’t love you, Harvey. I don’t want you.”

For a moment, she thought he was still going to refuse, but then a look of anger came over his face. Her stomach tightened.

She had to remain calm. She had to keep the pain off her face.

He spun around and stomped off to his car.

Why was he going? Why was he giving up on her?

Wait, no. She wanted that.

It wasn’t until he was in his car and had turned away, driving off, that she let herself crumble. She fell onto her knees and a sob broke free.

“Don’t cry over him,” the cold voice said from behind her. “He’s no one to you. From now on, I’m everything.”

She turned and glanced up at him. “Who are you? What do you want?”

Lily knew she should get up, that she couldn’t just kneel there, staring up at him. But she couldn’t seem to make herself move. It was like she was giving up.

Remember the animals. You have to protect the animals. They’re all like Clem’s family.

Right, she had to look after the animals. Getting up, she glanced around. What was she going to do? How was she going to make him go away?

“You know who I am,” he said.

She shook her head. “I’m sorry, I really don’t.” She didn’t know why she was apologizing, but she guessed it was a good idea to keep him happy.

Drumstick made a loud, angry noise, and she glanced over at where he was sitting on the roof of the barn.

“Fucking bird nearly gave me away,” he snarled. “I should shoot it.” He held up his gun as though he was going to take a shot.

Her breath caught in her chest, but then he lowered it.

Oh God. Oh God.

Her heart was racing so fast and hard that she felt ill.

“Don’t need to bring any attention to us, do I? Not until we’re far away from this place, my love.”

My love? Why was he talking like he knew her? Who was he?

“It’s sad that you don’t know who I am, Lily, when I’ve spent so much of my time looking at you, at your naked body. He recorded those videos just for me. I was the only one who got to see you like that, except for him, of course. He got to touch you, move you. I didn’t like that.”

There was hatred in his voice now. And she gaped at him. He’d seen those videos of her. Wait . . . was he saying that Doctor Wallace recorded those videos of her for him?

“I was trying to find you when the video was late. When I contacted him, he said it was coming, but that wasn’t good enough. It wasn’t the agreement. I needed you to keep me calm. Without that video of my love, I became very, very angry. So I tracked him down. I found where he lived and I waited in hiding for him.”

Her mind was scrambling to keep up with everything. “You tracked down Doctor Wallace because he was late with the video?”

He shrugged. “Yeah, like I said, you were the only one who kept my anger at bay. I waited for him at his house. After he told me your name, I killed him. Unfortunately, I should have asked him for more information about you. Like where you lived.”

“You really killed Dr. Wallace?” she asked, struggling to keep up.

“Of course. Unfortunately, then I had to leave the doctor’s house quickly because that man turned up. Your boyfriend. How dare you have a boyfriend, Lily? You’re meant to be mine, all mine,” he snarled

Oh God.

Clearly, this man was deranged, and she should do her best to stay on his good side. This was going to be hard, but she had to do whatever she could to keep him calm. To stop him from hurting anyone else.