“What’s wrong?” Miller said as he put his hand on my shoulder. “Alice said you seemed disoriented. How about we sit down.” He tried to lower me to sit on the curb but I pulled back.
“It’s her. She’s here.”
“Hey, take a deep breath for me.”
“I’m not having a panic attack! And I’m not disoriented. She’s here.”
“Who’s here? Brooklyn, look at me.” He grabbed both sides of my face. “What are you talking about?”
“Isabella.”
He lowered his eyebrows.
“I came into the restaurant and Alice said I’d just been in. And that I’d rushed off. I only just came in. It has to be…” my voicetrailed off. “She found us.” Now I was pretty sure I was having a panic attack. “We need to go. We need to get out of here.”
But Miller didn’t move.
“We have to go!”
Miller looked over at a couple that was walking into the restaurant, who were blatantly staring back at us. “There’s security footage,” Miller whispered as he turned back to me. “How about you come inside. We’ll watch it together.”
“Why don’t you believe me?”
“I do believe you. But I don’t want to uproot our whole lives unless you’re 100% sure. Did you actually see Isabella?”
“No…but…”
“Let’s just look at the tapes.”
“Miller who else could it possibly be? Alice thought it was me. Isabella must have been dressed up like me. She must have…”
“Brooklyn.” Miller put his hand on my stomach that was getting bigger by the day. “I’ve pictured our whole lives here. The three of us. I don’t want to start over again. We have good jobs. We’re doing well here. Please, just take a deep breath and we can look at the security tapes.”
Miller had never seen someone watching us from the woods. He’d only ever heard my recounting of it. And he hadn’t felt thechill run down my back when I felt Isabella’s eyes on me. “I’m not crazy.”
“I never said you were. I’m just saying that I love it here. I want to raise my family here at the lake house. Please, Brooklyn. Just take a deep breath.”
I wasn’t crazy. But I knew my hormones sometimes made me feel that way.
“I’ve always protected you,” he said. “Let me keep protecting you. Don’t you trust me?”
I breathed in slowly and exhaled even slower. “Of course I trust you.”
“We’ll figure out if it was her.” He grabbed my hand. “Come with me.”
I walked with him back into the restaurant.
He started talking to Alice. Telling her that I hadn’t been in earlier.
Alice shook her head and laughed. “Yeah, as soon as I saw the surprised look on your face, I knew I must have made a mistake. I was slammed with tables this afternoon. I must not have gotten a good look at the girl.”
“Did you see what car she was driving?” I asked.
“I’m afraid not.”
“Do you mind if we look at the security footage?” Miller asked. “Just to see if we recognize her? It may have been family from out of town.”
“Of course. My office is unlocked.”
