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I clenched my hand on the phone, my knuckles turning white. “I think we found the wrong stalker.” I had dealt with a stalking case of Emma, and I was her bodyguard back then. But I couldn’t see any pattern with this case.

“What do you mean, wrong stalker?”

“Why would Timothy check the mortuary when there was a huge chance of Caleb being alive? Someone else sent him to do that. Can you send me all the files on Anna Martinez, including her parents and siblings?” I didn’t think she was suspicious, but I didn’t trust her connections. They’d only be able to take pictures of her and her house in secret if they were close to her.

Then this stalker was someone she knows personally.

And they had already targeted my son twice. I’d put them behind the prison walls for their entire life and kill them the same way they had removed Timothy for messing with my family.

“Cillian, I’m not sure you’re the right person for the job,” Elena said, her voice softening. “You are a close family.”

“Elena, you know better than to hand this case to someone else. He’s my son, and it’s my job to protect him.”

“Fine, I’ll give you one chance,” she agreed and told me she’d send everything.

“Can you send records of his computer for today?” I asked, knowing he’d have removed his boots and gloves after coming home. We wear house slippers at home, but he hadn’t. That meant he was in a rush. And that’s when the cops arrested him.

He was up to finding something.

43

BABYSITTER

ANNA

It had been hours since I last saw Caleb being pushed roughly into an interview room. The disgusting remarks about him and about me being a terrible mother were all a lie.

Kylie’s hand squeezed my shoulder as I hugged Alice on my lap. She had fallen asleep after the female officer questioned her. It was disgusting. I wanted to go home, give her a warm bath and cuddle her to sleep with her favorite dino soft toy.

It was all a lie. Caleb had never touched her or groomed her, and all the allegations were wrong.

“We need to find out who took those pictures,” Kyle said, his voice tired. He had just reached his home when authorities came over to my house to ask for Alice and brought us in. Felix was angry and said a bunch of curse words to Caleb before getting questioned.

I didn’t know what was happening anymore.

“They were all taken from my house,” I said, remembering the images cops had showed us. Picture of Caleb holding Alice up in his arms—but I was there. They had won the first place in a video game, and he had lifted her up for a few seconds before putting her down and asking me for a celebratory kiss. Another picture of them cuddling in the sofa, but it wasn’t weird, because Kyle and I were there the entire time, and even Valeria, our babysitter, had gushed how cute they looked and helped us with dinner. Third picture was Alice kissing Caleb on his cheek, and it was a sweet moment. She had braided his hair, clipped it with her pastel hair clips, and she told him he looked like a Prince Charming, so she kissed his cheek.

It wasn’t creepy like the cops made it out.

Alice was cooperative for her age, and I was so proud of my daughter for standing her ground and telling everyone that he was my boyfriend, and she wanted Caleb to be her cool daddy—her words, not mine. Cops had questioned me, and I felt dirty when they asked if he ever coerced me into his weird fetishes.

Caleb didn’t have any weird fetishes. He had a poster of me on his ceiling, and if someone else asked what his fetish was, he’d look at me and Kyle and tell them that his fetish was us.

“I can ask my grandma if she saw someone,” Kyle said, kissing my cheek and pulled away to make a call.

Overcast white light gave me a headache as cops kept walking around the hallway. I had seen a glimpse of him in a prison, but he looked stoic, and the cops hadn’t allowed us to talk. Cillian was angry, but he had left with Emma, promising me he’d make it right.

We both knew that Caleb would never do that.

Everyone believed him except my ex and the cops.

“Miss Anna,” the officer walked towards where I was sitting with Alice on my lap and said, “You can leave. Get some rest. We will reach out when we have more questions.”

“What about Caleb? Is he released?”

She pursed her lips and shook her head. “We still need to question your babysitters. Take care.”

Valeria and Jem would give their statements and hopefully everything would be resolved soon.