“So you do have an out should you need it,” I add, reaffirming what Sienna said. “But you aren’t going to need it.”
I slip my hand into his, giving it a little squeeze. I’ll be the one who holds out enough hope for all of us.
“Just start the damn video, Sie,” Caleb prompts. “I can’t promise anything anymore.”
His admission weighs heavy on my soul. What he carries with him is more than any of us will ever be able to comprehend, and in this moment, he deserves a pass on committing to controlling his reaction to something this important.
The video begins to play, the camera is motion activated so luckily we aren’t fishing through the entire day, but it’s still a ton of hours. Every time a car drives by, every time someone takes out their garbage or walks out into the alleyway, the camera kicks on.
“It isn’t even angled toward our house,” Reid announces, a hand slamming down on the table. “Fuck, this is a waste of time.” He reaches over Sienna and drags the slider to roughly the time of the assault and unfortunately, he’s right.
The camera catches nothing.
None of it.
Sienna shoves back from the table, the tears already rimming her eyes as she retreats to her room, not wanting to admit she couldn’t even keep true to her own word. I knew she wouldn’t be able to though and that’s okay. She’s been let down so often, but she still glows with the prospect of something falling their way. It’s something I love about her because under all her cynical tendencies, she wears her heart on her sleeve for her little family.
Reid follows her, saying nothing as he leaves the room. He will pick up the pieces. He will be what she needs him to be in this moment.
I look to Caleb, my heart aching immensely for what we all believed would clear his name, and his face gives nothing away. He buries his feelings tightly, letting them eat away at what little sanity and security he has left.
I want to tell him to talk to me, to let it all out, but I know he won’t, and I have come to terms with that. He will come to me when he needs me and I will be here.
He leans down and presses a kiss to the top of my head, his arms wrapping around my shoulders as I sit silently in the kitchen chair next to where Sienna was sitting. I slide my arms around his waist, holding him to me, letting him feel the full weight of my love for him without speaking.
“I need a minute,” he now says, his lips moving against my hair. “I’m going to take a walk.”
I don’t offer to join him or tell him to stay because it’s dark out. I let him go. He needs to gather his thoughts and calm himself.
“Take your phone,” I say. “And I love you.”
“I love you.”
A few minutes later the front door is closing on the silence of the house. It echoes back the painful reminder that tonight wasn’t supposed to go down like this. The door closing sounds like shattered hope.
I slide Sienna’s computer over to where I’m sitting and I hover the cursor over the first video file, the date obscure and meaningless, but whatever hope Caleb lost, I’m keeping it in my back pocket.
I click the video, letting it play while I watch, paying attention to every little detail. Our neighbor selected these videos for a reason. Something about them feels of consequence to him, which means it could be to us too.
This video begins early, the sky still dark and the timestamp is labeled with five a.m. A few cars leave the alleyway, people heading to work or the gym or wherever, but all are cars I recognize. Our alleyway isn’t a through street and since we live on a quiet block with only a small amount of houses, it isn’t a mecca of traffic.
But just as I begin to grow bored with watching people leave for work or class, a car’s headlights in the camera catch my attention. This is the first car to pull into the alley rather than out and I instantly recognize it as the car that ran me down that morning I went out for a run.
I pause the video, zooming in on the license plate, I take a screenshot and hit play again. My eyes are fixed on the screen as the silver Audi drives past the camera and then goes out of view. I rewind it, watching it unfold the same way, but willing myself to see more.
Who is driving the car?
But I get nothing and the camera doesn’t pick up where the car parked or where the person in the car went. The angle isn’t ideal, but I let it continue to play, the camera picking up the motion of someone walking by, and that someone is me.
This is the same morning I was run down by that exact car. This was the same morning I had the conversation with Reid and he swore me to secrecy over the thought that maybe the person in the Audi was connected to his father.
Whoever this person is, we now have part of their license plate number and as I fast-forward the video, we now have this same car practically running me over.
I pause the video and run to grab a piece of paper and a pen. I take down what I can read of the license plate number, the time on the video of when it pulled into our alley and the time when it nearly ran me over. I write down the date, making sure I get everything so when I hand this over to Ed or the police or whoever, I have it all.
And even though I feel somewhat vindicated, I still find the need to watch the other videos. There has to be a reason why our neighbor included each of these, and as I watch each and every one of them, the same thing is present.
A silver Audi.
It showed up almost every single day after it tried to run me over. It pulls into the alley, drives down past the camera and doesn’t appear again until it leaves. Sometimes it’s hours later, sometimes it’s minutes, but it doesn’t matter. What matters is that it continued to show up.
I’m aware it could mean nothing, but in the back of my mind, a voice screams at me that it isn’t, that it’s so much more than nothing.
It’s not just someone visiting, a babysitter or a girlfriend, a boyfriend, a friend or a parent. This car is connected to what is going on with Caleb and I’m going to make sure we find out how.
It’s late, but I still want to knock on everyone’s door who we share the alley with and ask if they know who this car belongs to. I want to cover all my bases before I decide to go out and accuse someone of trying to run me over, of trying to fuck with my boyfriend’s life.
Because this time, we’re going to have enough to clear Caleb’s name and I’m pretty sure I know who was driving that car.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Caleb
I don’t go out for long, just long enough to get rid of all the shit that’s swirling around inside my head before I take it out on everyone else. The conversation with Reid on the way home was hard enough, but now this, yet another let down. Once again, it feels like I just can’t catch a fucking break, no matter what happens.
I finally get away from Providence, only to be plagued with nightmares and panic attacks because of what happened back there.
I start learning to deal with them and in the process grow closer to Ruby, finding something amazing with her, only to fuck it all up in one single night when I beat the shit out of her asshole professor for being a dirty perv.
Of course no one believes me, but finally, after everything that happened with that asshole, the charges get dropped only for me to be hit with a bullshit lawsuit and no way to defend myself because there’s fuck all on the fucking security video.