Chapter 17 - THE STALKER
The revelation shifted everything. Suddenly, Ryan’s disappearance looked less like cowardice and more like flight. He had run not just from the law, but from dangerous people who felt betrayed. And those people, frustrated and angry, had begun closing in.
Police increased patrols around my home and Julian’s estate. We hired private security. Noah was never left alone. But the warnings kept coming—a shadow across the street, a car lingering too long near the school, a voice breathing silence into a phone call before hanging up. Ryan had warned me to stop digging. Diane had warned me about the investors. And now the danger was no longer a possibility—it was a presence, breathing down our necks.
Then, late one rainy evening, security cameras outside my home captured an image. A figure in dark clothing, hood pulled low, standing beneath the oak tree at the edge of the property. Standing perfectly still, staring directly toward Noah’s bedroom window.
When police enhanced the footage, I recognized him instantly.
Ryan.
He looked thinner. Older. Wilder. But it was him. He had not fled the state. He had not vanished. He had stayed close. Watching. Waiting.
But why? If he feared the investors as much as Diane claimed, why return? And why stand in the rain staring at his son’s window rather than coming to speak to me?
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That same night, a stone came crashing through Noah’s bedroom window. Scrawled in charcoal across it were four words: Give them what they want.
I gathered Noah into my arms and fled the room, my heart hammering against my ribs. Ryan was not here to hurt us—not directly. He was terrified. He was being pressured. And he was trying to warn me, or perhaps coerce me, into surrendering everything before something far worse happened.
