Chapter 1: The 3 a.m. Call That Tried To Sell My Life Away
1:02 a.m. My phone blared so loud it fell off my nightstand. I jolted awake, heart hammering, already knowing who was on the other end.
I grabbed it, swiped to answer, and held it to my ear, voice thick with sleep.
“Mom? It’s the middle of the night. What’s wrong?”
“Elowen, baby,” her voice shook, thick with forced tears, “the Hales are gone. Tom and Linda drowned on their fishing trip this afternoon. Poor Jasper’s all alone now. You have to help him.”
I sighed, sinking back into my cold sheets. I’d just pulled a 13-hour day at the Portland marketing agency, bringing home $4700 a month after taxes. I could barely afford my rent and student loans, let alone play caretaker to a guy I’d spoken to twice in 8 years.
“Mom, I can drop off a meal or send a sympathy card,” I said, yawning. “But I don’t have the money or time to do more than that.”
I hung up, rolled over, and closed my eyes. I thought that was the end of it.
24 minutes later, my phone screamed again.
I answered, jaw tight with frustration. “Mom, I have to be up for a make-or-break client pitch in 4 hours. This can wait.”
“He hurt his back trying to pull them out of the lake,” she said, like this was my life-or-death emergency. “Doctors say he can’t sit at a desk for more than 10 minutes. No one will hire him. You talk to your boss. Get him a remote job at your firm. Something easy.”
I blinked, stunned. “I don’t run the company! I’m an account manager, not the CEO! I can’t just hire random people!”
I mumbled a lazy promise to “look into it”, just to get her to hang up, and ended the call. I flipped my phone to silent, rolled over, and finally passed out.
When I woke up the next morning, my lock screen was flooded with notifications.
112 missed calls. All from Mom.
27 unread texts. All from Mom.
My stomach dropped. I thought she’d had a heart attack, or fallen, or something terrible. I called her back immediately.
She picked up before the first ring finished.
“ELOWEN MARIE REED!” Her voice was so loud, it made my ears ring. “How dare you turn your phone off! Do you have no soul? No compassion for that poor boy?”
I rubbed my throbbing temple, stepping into the shower to get ready for work. “Mom, I turn my phone off to sleep. I have a job. That’s what normal people do.”
“Normal?” She shrieked. “Jasper’s parents are dead! He’s lying in bed alone, in agony, and I sat up all night crying for him, and you just slept? You’re a cold, selfish brat, Elowen.”
There it was. Ever since the Hales’ boat went down a week prior, Jasper Hale was the only thing my mom could talk about. He was the quiet kid from down the street, the one who never came to neighborhood barbecues, the one whose dark, empty stare always made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
“You will get in your car right now,” she ordered, voice sharp, “and you will go to his house. You will sit with him, hold his hand, and make sure he’s okay. That’s what a decent human being does.”
“Mom,” I said, voice flat, “I have a boyfriend. Kaelen. I can’t go over to a single man’s house alone to comfort him. That’s weird, and it’s disrespectful to Kaelen.”
“Boyfriend?” Her voice turned venomous, acidic. “That no-good drifter from Montana? I never gave you permission to date him! He’s a stranger! You don’t know if he’s a criminal, or a liar, or worse!”
“Jasper is practically a stranger too!” I snapped.
“Jasper is a good boy! I watched him grow up!” She yelled. “He’s lost everything! If you marry him, he’ll worship the ground you walk on! He’ll be grateful to you for the rest of your life! You’ll never have to worry about anything again!”
I laughed, bitter and disbelieving. “I’m not marrying a man I don’t love just because you have a savior complex. My marriage is my choice. If you keep this up, I’m hanging up.”
“You dare-”
I hit the end call button, blocked her number for the morning, and rushed out the door to work.
I made it all the way to the office parking lot before my phone started vibrating again. I sighed, swiping to answer, ready to rip into my mom for finding a way around the block.
“Hello? Is this Elowen Marie Reed?” A man’s voice, deep, official, unfamiliar.
“Yes? Who is this?”
“This is Officer Daniels with the Portland Police Department. Your mother is here at the precinct, extremely distraught. She’s filed a report stating that you’re emotionally abusing her, abandoning her, and refusing to provide her with basic care. We need you to come down here immediately to resolve this matter.”
My blood turned to ice.
Chapter 2: She Called Me A Monster To The Cops
I called my boss, voice shaking, and lied about a family emergency to take the morning off. I drove to the precinct, hands white-knuckling the steering wheel, my chest tight with rage.
I pushed through the precinct doors, and immediately heard my mom’s wailing.
“Officer, you have to understand! I raised her to be kind! To care about people! But now she’s so cold, so heartless! She won’t even help that poor orphaned boy!”
The officer behind the desk looked like he’d rather be anywhere else. He caught sight of me, and sighed in relief.
“Ms. Reed? Thank you for coming. Let’s talk in private.”
My mom spotted me, and her tears turned to a snarl. “There she is! The ungrateful brat who wants to let her mother starve on the street!”
I ignored her, following the officer into a small interview room. I explained everything: the late-night calls, the demand I marry Jasper, the fact that I paid her utility bills every month and dropped off groceries every Sunday.
The officer nodded, looking tired. “Ms. Reed, this is a family dispute. We can’t file charges here, but we need you two to de-escalate this. Your mother is very upset, and we can’t have her back here making false reports every week.”
I walked back out to the lobby, jaw tight. I forced my voice soft, just to get her to leave.
“Mom, stop this. I said I’ll help Jasper with small things. But marriage is off the table. Forever.”
She narrowed her eyes, like she’d won. “Good. Then you’ll come with me to his house right now.”
“I have to go back to work.”
“Work? That boy is grieving! You care more about your stupid desk job than a human being’s life?” She raised her voice, drawing stares from every officer in the room. “I knew I should’ve never let you move out on your own! You’ve turned into a monster!”
In the middle of her screaming fit, she lunged forward and snatched my phone right out of my hand.
I froze. “Mom! Give that back! Now!”
She backed away, fingers flying across the screen. She’d known my passcode for years. She opened my texts, zeroing in on my pinned chat with Kaelen. The chat full of sweet, private messages, the ones we’d sent late at night, the ones no one else was ever supposed to see.
Her face twisted in disgust. “You shameless little girl! Sending this filth to a man you’re not even married to!”
Before I could stop her, she hit the call button. The line rang once, twice, and Kaelen’s warm, sleepy voice came through the speaker.
“Hey, baby? Everything okay? You’re at work already-”
My mom cut him off, voice sharp as a knife. “You! The no-good drifter leading my daughter astray! Stop calling her! Stop texting her! Elowen is going to marry Jasper Hale, and you’re never going to speak to her again! You hear me, you low-life?”
I screamed, lunging forward, and finally ripped the phone out of her hand. The call had already ended.
Tears burned my eyes. I stared at her, shaking. “Why would you do that? Why are you trying to ruin my life?”
Her eyes filled with tears, but her words made my blood run cold. “I just can’t stand to see that poor boy suffer! He deserves happiness! I have to give him that!”
That’s when I remembered. This wasn’t the first time her savior complex had destroyed everything.
When I was 16, my dad had end-stage diabetes. He’d waited 3 years for a matching kidney. We’d saved every penny for 5 years to cover the surgery co-pay.
Two weeks before his surgery date, my mom found a viral GoFundMe for a “no-kill animal shelter” that was closing down. She donated every single dollar of that surgery fund. Every cent.
The GoFundMe was a scam. The shelter never existed.
My dad lost his spot on the transplant list. His kidneys failed completely. He died 3 months later, in a hospital bed, while my mom cried about how “ungrateful” he was for her “kind heart”.
I stared at her now, and felt my heart go completely numb.
“I have to go to work.” I said, voice flat. “Leave me alone. I’ll think about the Jasper thing.”
It was a lie. But it got her to stop screaming. I walked out of the precinct, got in my car, and tried to call Kaelen.
He didn’t answer.
Chapter 3: The Stranger In My Bedroom
For 3 days, Kaelen didn’t answer my calls. He didn’t reply to my texts. I spiraled, terrified my mom had ruined the only good thing in my life.
I worked late every night, just to avoid going home to an empty apartment and a phone full of missed calls from my mom.
On the third night, I pulled up to my apartment complex at 9 p.m. I looked up at my second-floor window, and my stomach dropped.
The lights were on.
I’d turned them all off that morning. I’d double checked.
I grabbed the pepper spray from my purse, and crept up the stairs. I slid my key into the lock, and froze.
The door was unlocked.
I pushed it open slowly, heart hammering. The living room was quiet. Then I heard a sound from my bedroom. A drawer opening.
I raised the pepper spray, and stepped to the bedroom doorway.
What I saw made my blood run cold.
My mom was there, folding a pile of men’s sweatpants into my dresser. Next to her, leaning against my bed frame, was Jasper Hale.
He had a lazy, cold smile on his face. His hand rested on the small of his back, like he was in pain, but his eyes were sharp, hungry, like he was looking at a piece of meat.
“What the hell are you doing in my apartment?” I screamed, finger hovering over the pepper spray trigger.
My mom turned around, no shame on her face at all. “Oh, good, you’re home. Come help us unpack.”
“Unpack what?” I shrieked. “How did you even get in here?”
“I had a key made when I visited last month.” She said, like it was the most normal thing in the world.
“You broke into my apartment?”
“Broke in? I’m your mother. I have a right to be in your home.” She huffed, nodding at Jasper. “Jasper’s house is being foreclosed on. He can’t stay there anymore. He’s going to live here with you, so you can take care of him.”
Jasper’s smile widened. He pushed off the bed, and took a step toward me. His eyes raked up and down my body, slow, possessive.
I stepped back, raising the pepper spray higher. “Get out. Both of you. Right now. Or I’m calling the cops.”
My mom’s face turned red with rage. “You will not! You will not call the cops on your own mother! And you will not kick this poor boy out into the street! What is wrong with you?”
“He’s not my responsibility! This is my home! I don’t want him here!” I screamed.
“You’re going to marry him soon anyway!” She yelled. “This is just practice! You should be thanking me! I’m giving you a good man who will love you!”
Jasper took another step toward me. He was close enough now that I could smell the cigarette smoke on his clothes. He leaned down, his mouth right next to my ear, his voice low and cold, only for me to hear.
“You’re even prettier up close. I’ve been watching you for a long time.”
My skin crawled. I stumbled back, and sprayed the pepper spray at the floor between us. He jumped back, growling.
“I said get out!” I screamed. “I’m calling 911 right now!”
My mom couldn’t believe I was serious. She stared at me, mouth open, as I pulled out my phone and dialed 911.
Two officers showed up 8 minutes later. They listened to my story, looked at the stranger in my bedroom, and shook their heads. They told my mom and Jasper to gather their things and leave immediately. They warned them that if they came back, they’d be arrested for trespassing.
My mom screamed at me the whole way out, calling me a monster, a selfish brat, a disappointment.
Jasper stopped at the door. He looked at me, that cold smile back on his face. He winked.
“I’ll see you soon, Elowen.”
The door closed. I slid the lock into place, and collapsed on the floor, sobbing.
That night, I packed every single one of my things. I found a new apartment across town, with a gate and a security system. I signed the lease at 1 a.m., and moved the next morning.
I changed my phone number. I blocked my mom on every social media app. I told my boss to never give my new address to anyone, no matter what they said.
For two weeks, everything was quiet. No calls. No screaming. No Jasper.
Then, finally, Kaelen called me back.
I answered, crying, and told him everything. Every late-night call, the precinct, the break-in, the move.
He didn’t get mad. He didn’t blame me. His voice was soft, gentle.
“Oh, baby. I’m so sorry I wasn’t there. I had to handle something important, something I couldn’t tell you about. But I’m here now. I’m not going anywhere.”
I should’ve asked what the “important thing” was. I should’ve pushed. But I was just so relieved he was talking to me again. I didn’t.
I had no idea he was about to drop a bombshell that would blow my whole world apart.
Chapter 4: She Ruined My Career In Front Of My Boss
Friday afternoon. I was in the biggest meeting of my life.
I was standing in the boardroom, in front of the company CEO, the entire executive team, and the $2 million client I’d spent 6 months pitching to. I was 2 minutes away from closing the deal, the deal that would get me promoted, get me a raise, get me out of student loan debt.
The boardroom doors slammed open.
Everyone froze. All eyes turned to the doorway.
My mom stood there, chest heaving. Next to her, Jasper leaned against the doorframe, his head down, his hand on his back, playing the part of the poor, grieving, injured orphan perfectly.
My blood turned to ice. My mouth went dry.
My mom pointed straight at me, and screamed my name so loud the windows rattled.
“ELOWEN REED! How dare you run from your responsibilities!”
The room erupted in quiet whispers. The client raised an eyebrow, looking unimpressed.
My mom marched into the room, voice shaking with fake tears, addressing the CEO directly.
“Sir, I am so sorry to interrupt your meeting, but you need to know what kind of woman you have working for you. This girl, my daughter, is engaged to this poor young man right here. They’ve been promised to each other since they were kids.”
Jasper lifted his head, and gave the room a sad, broken smile.
My mom continued, her voice rising. “But now? Now she’s run off with some stranger from out of state! She’s abandoned her fiancé, the man who just lost his parents! She’s thrown him out on the street! And she’s been lying to all of you about who she really is!”
I couldn’t breathe. I stared at her, my hands shaking. “Mom! That is not true! I am not engaged to him! I have never been engaged to him!”
“Liar!” She screamed. “You’re a liar, and a cheater, and a selfish, heartless woman! If you don’t quit seeing that drifter, if you don’t marry Jasper right now, you don’t deserve to work here! You don’t deserve anything!”
She turned back to the CEO, face red with rage. “Sir, if you have any decency, you will fire her! You will not let a woman this untrustworthy represent your company! She’ll ruin your reputation!”
The CEO’s face had turned completely black. He looked at me, voice cold. “Ms. Reed. Explain. Now.”
I opened my mouth, but no words came out. How do you explain this? How do you tell a room full of executives that your mom has lost her mind over a guy she watched grow up, that she’s trying to force you to marry a stranger?
I was drowning. I could feel the promotion, the raise, the career I’d worked 5 years to build, slipping through my fingers.
Then, the boardroom doors opened again.
A calm, deep voice cut through the chaos.
“That marriage is never going to happen. And you’re all about to find out why.”
I turned around.
Kaelen stood in the doorway. His face was cold, sharp, his jaw tight. He was holding a thick manila folder in his hand.
My mom saw him, and flew into a rage. “You! It’s you! You’re the one who turned my daughter against me! Get out of here! This is family business!”
Kaelen ignored her. He walked straight to me, and wrapped his hand around mine. His palm was warm, steady. He nodded at the CEO, voice calm.
“Sorry to interrupt your meeting, sir. But this isn’t family drama. This is a criminal investigation. And I have all the proof right here.”
Chapter 5: The Bombshell That Broke The Room
The room went completely silent. Everyone stared at Kaelen.
My mom laughed, sharp and bitter. “Criminal investigation? Are you insane? This is a lie! You’re just making this up to turn Elowen against Jasper!”
Kaelen didn’t even look at her. His eyes locked on Jasper, who had gone completely still in the doorway. The sad, broken act was gone. His face was pale, his eyes sharp with panic.
“Jasper Hale,” Kaelen said, voice cold as ice, “the Portland Police Department is about to re-open your parents’ drowning case. Because I found the evidence they missed.”
The room erupted in quiet gasps.
Kaelen opened the manila folder, and pulled out a stack of papers. He laid them on the conference table, one by one, for everyone to see.
“First,” he said, “Tom and Linda Hale hated fishing. They hadn’t been on a boat in 15 years. So why, on the day they died, did they suddenly drive 2 hours to a remote lake, in the rain, to go fishing?”
Jasper’s jaw tightened. “They wanted to get away. To grieve my grandma’s death. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Second,” Kaelen continued, ignoring him, “the boat was found capsized, with a hole in the hull. The police wrote it off as a collision with a rock. But I found the boat’s wreckage in a junkyard. That hole wasn’t from a rock. It was drilled. From the inside.”
The client leaned forward, eyes wide.
“Third,” Kaelen said, his voice rising, “one month before your parents died, you took out three separate life insurance policies on them. Each one worth $750,000. The beneficiary? You. All three.”
Jasper’s face had turned completely white. He took a step back, like he was going to run.
“Wait,” my mom said, voice shaking, “that’s not true. Jasper told me the insurance was a work benefit! He didn’t-”
“Fourth,” Kaelen cut her off, pulling out another stack of papers, “you owe $82,000 in online sports betting debt. You’ve been getting threatening emails from debt collectors for 6 months. Your parents found out. They told you they were cutting you off. They were going to sell their house and move to Arizona, leave you with nothing. Isn’t that right?”
The room was dead silent. You could hear a pin drop.
My mom stared at Jasper, mouth open, like she was seeing him for the first time. “Jasper? Is this true? Tell me it’s not true.”
Jasper didn’t answer her. His eyes were locked on Kaelen, full of rage.
“Fifth,” Kaelen said, pulling out a final sheet of paper, “your browser history. For 3 months before your parents died, you searched: how to drill a hole in a boat without it being noticed, how to make a drowning look like an accident, highest payout life insurance policies, how to fake a back injury to get disability.”
He looked up at Jasper, eyes sharp. “You didn’t just lose your parents in an accident. You murdered them. For the insurance money. To pay off your gambling debts.”
The whispers in the room exploded. Everyone stared at Jasper, horrified.
My mom stumbled back, shaking her head. “No. No, that’s not possible. He’s a good boy. I watched him grow up. He wouldn’t-”
I stared at her, my heart completely cold. I pulled my hand out of Kaelen’s, and stepped toward her.
“This is the man you wanted me to marry.” I said, voice shaking with rage. “This is the man you ruined my life for. This is the man you chose over your own daughter.”
I looked at Jasper, and said, clear and loud, for the whole room to hear. “I would rather die than marry a man who murdered his own parents.”
That’s when Jasper snapped.
Chapter 6: The Knife That Changed Everything
“You bitch!”
Jasper’s mask shattered completely. He screamed, face twisted with rage, and reached into his jacket pocket. He pulled out a 6-inch hunting knife, the blade glinting in the overhead lights.
The room erupted in screams. People dove under the table, chairs scraping against the floor. The CEO yelled for someone to call 911.
Jasper lunged across the table, straight for me. The knife raised high, aimed right at my chest.
I froze. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t breathe. I could only stare at the blade coming straight for me.
My mom was standing right next to me. She was the closest person to me.
She didn’t push me out of the way. She didn’t shield me.
She jumped back. Fast. As far away from me as she could get.
She left me standing there, directly in the path of the knife.
In that split second, my heart broke completely. It turned to dust.
Then, a body slammed into me, shoving me out of the way.
Kaelen.
He pushed me behind him, and stepped in front of the blade.
The knife sank into his upper arm with a sickening, wet sound.
Kaelen grunted in pain. Blood poured down his arm, soaking his shirt.
The room screamed louder.
“KAELEN!” I screamed, lunging forward to catch him.
Jasper ripped the knife out of Kaelen’s arm, his face red with rage. He raised it again, aiming for Kaelen’s chest.
“YOU RUINED EVERYTHING!” He screamed.
Then, the boardroom doors burst open.
Six uniformed police officers ran in, guns drawn.
“DROP THE KNIFE! NOW!”
Jasper froze. He stared at the officers, then at the knife in his hand, then at me.
He made one last lunge for me, but an officer tackled him to the floor before he could get close. They slammed his face into the carpet, and cuffed his hands behind his back.
He screamed, kicking and thrashing, calling me every name in the book.
The officers dragged him out of the room.
I dropped to my knees next to Kaelen, pressing my jacket against his bleeding arm, sobbing. “I’m so sorry. I’m so so sorry. This is all my fault.”
He smiled, wincing in pain, and wiped the tears off my face with his good hand. “Hey. I’m fine. I promised I’d protect you. I meant it.”
I looked up, across the room. My mom was standing there, staring at the door where Jasper had been dragged out. She wasn’t looking at us. She wasn’t asking if Kaelen was okay. She wasn’t apologizing.
She whispered, voice shaking, “He didn’t mean it. He was just upset. He’s a good boy. He just lost his parents.”
In that moment, I knew. She was never going to change. She was never going to choose me.
I was done.
Chapter 7: She Begged For Mercy For The Man Who Tried To Kill Me
I rode in the ambulance with Kaelen to the hospital. The wound was deep. It needed 17 stitches. The doctor said if the knife had gone half an inch deeper, it would’ve hit his artery. He could’ve died.
I sat next to his hospital bed, holding his hand, and cried. He kept telling me it was okay, that he was fine, that he’d do it all over again to protect me.
While we were in the hospital, my phone started blowing up. Text after text, call after call. All from my mom.
I ignored them. Until she called for the 20th time. I stepped out into the hallway, and answered.
“Elowen! Finally! You have to listen to me!” She said, voice frantic.
“What do you want, Mom?” I said, voice flat.
“You have to talk to the police. You have to tell them it was a misunderstanding. Jasper didn’t mean to hurt anyone. He was just grieving. He was scared.”
I laughed. A cold, bitter, empty laugh. “He tried to kill me. He stabbed Kaelen. He murdered his own parents. And you want me to lie for him?”
“He’s just a kid! He made a mistake!” She screamed. “If you don’t write a letter to the judge, if you don’t ask for mercy, he’s going to spend the rest of his life in prison! You can’t do that to him! He’s already lost everything!”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. The man she’d forced into my life, the man who’d stalked me, the man who’d tried to kill me, the man who’d put the love of my life in the hospital. And she was begging me to save him.
She didn’t ask if Kaelen was okay. She didn’t ask if I was okay. She didn’t apologize.
“Go to hell, Mom.” I said.
I hung up. I blocked her new number. I deleted every text she’d ever sent me.
A week later, the police gave us more details about Jasper’s case.
They’d found a hidden box under his bed. Full of photos. Hundreds of them. All of me.
Photos of me walking into my apartment. Photos of me at the grocery store. Photos of me through my bedroom window. Photos he’d taken from the bushes outside my old place, for years.
He’d been stalking me for 3 years. Long before his parents died. Long before my mom started pushing him on me.
My mom’s “good boy” had been a monster, hiding in plain sight, the whole time.
And she’d handed me right to him.
Chapter 8: The Truth She Refused To Believe
My mom didn’t stop.
She couldn’t get ahold of me, so she went to Kaelen’s office. She stood in the lobby, screaming at the receptionist, calling Kaelen a liar, a criminal, a homewrecker. She told everyone who walked in that Kaelen had framed an innocent grieving boy, just to steal me away.
Security dragged her out. She sat on the sidewalk outside the building, screaming and crying, drawing a crowd.
Kaelen didn’t call the cops. He had his lawyer send her a formal cease and desist letter. It said if she ever showed up at his office again, or contacted him, or spoke about him publicly, he’d sue her for defamation, harassment, and emotional distress.
She got the letter, and stopped. For a little while.
Then, she went to our extended family. She called every aunt, uncle, cousin, grandparent we had. She cried to them, told them I’d abandoned her, told them I’d run off with a dangerous man, told them I’d let an innocent boy go to prison just because I didn’t want to marry him.
My phone started blowing up again. Texts and calls from family members I hadn’t spoken to in years, all yelling at me, telling me I was a bad daughter, telling me to forgive my mom, telling me to help Jasper.
“You only get one mom, Elowen. You’ll regret this when she’s gone.”
“How could you do this to her? She raised you! She gave you everything!”
“You’re going to let that poor boy rot in prison? Have you no heart?”
I’d had enough.
I created a group chat. I added every single family member who’d texted or called me.
I didn’t say a word. I just sent the files.
First, the full security camera footage from the boardroom. The footage of Jasper lunging at me with a knife. The footage of my mom jumping out of the way, leaving me to die. The footage of Kaelen stepping in front of the blade, getting stabbed.
Second, the photos of Kaelen’s stitched-up arm. The hospital records. The doctor’s note saying he’d almost died.
Third, the full police report. The evidence of the murder. The insurance policies. The gambling debts. The browser history. The hundreds of stalking photos of me.
Then, I typed one message.
“This is the man my mom wanted me to marry. This is the man she chose over me. This is the man she’s still defending, even after he tried to kill me.
From today on, I will pay the court-ordered monthly alimony to my mother. That is the only obligation I have to her. That is the only contact I will have with her.
If any of you message me again, to defend her, to yell at me, to tell me to forgive her, you are dead to me. I will block you, and I will never speak to you again.
I’m done. I’m not going to let any of you drag me back into this hell.”
I hit send. I exited the group chat. I blocked every single person in it.
My phone didn’t ring again.
The world was finally quiet.
Chapter 9: The Apology That Came Too Late
Jasper’s trial was 3 months later.
The evidence was overwhelming. The jury deliberated for 2 hours. They found him guilty on all counts: two counts of first-degree murder, insurance fraud, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and stalking.
The judge sentenced him to life in prison, without the possibility of parole.
My mom was in the courtroom for the whole trial. She sat in the back, every single day. She listened to the evidence. She listened to the jury’s verdict. She listened to the judge’s sentence.
When the guards dragged Jasper out, he screamed at her, called her a stupid old woman, told her it was her fault he’d gotten caught.
She collapsed in the courtroom, and was taken to the hospital.
A week later, she showed up at my new apartment.
She was waiting for me by the gate when I got home from work. She looked 20 years older. Her hair was half gray. Her face was gaunt, lined with wrinkles. Her eyes were red, puffy, empty.
When she saw me, she stumbled forward. She reached out to grab my hand. I stepped back.
Her hand hung in the air. Her face crumpled. She started crying.
“Elowen,” she whispered, voice hoarse, “I’m sorry. I’m so so sorry. I was wrong. I was so stupid. I didn’t see. I didn’t want to see.”
I stared at her. My chest was empty. No anger. No sadness. No pain. Just nothing.
“I messed up everything.” She cried. “I ruined your life. I ruined your dad’s life. I’m a terrible mother. I’m so sorry. Please. Please forgive me.”
She dropped to her knees in front of me, sobbing.
“I have no one left, Elowen. Everyone’s gone. It’s just you. Please. Don’t leave me alone.”
I looked down at her. I thought about my dad, dying in that hospital bed, while she cried about her “kind heart”. I thought about the knife coming at me, while she jumped out of the way. I thought about Kaelen, bleeding in that hospital bed, while she begged me to save the man who stabbed him.
I spoke. My voice was calm, cold, clear.
“The day you jumped out of the way and left me to be killed by the man you forced on me? That’s the day I lost my mom.”
She froze, staring up at me, tears streaming down her face.
“I will never forgive you.” I said. “I will never forgive you for what you did to Dad. I will never forgive you for what you did to me.”
“I’ll send the alimony check every month. That’s the only thing you’ll ever get from me. That’s the only obligation I have.”
“If you ever show up at my apartment again. If you ever show up at my work. If you ever contact me again, I will file a restraining order. And I will make sure you never see me again for the rest of your life.”
She started screaming, sobbing, begging me to stop. I ignored her.
I turned around. I walked through the gate. I didn’t look back.
I heard her screaming my name, crying, begging. But I kept walking.
I never looked back.
Chapter 10: I Burned The Bridge, And Found My Happy Ending
One year later.
I stood on a beach in Oregon, the sun setting over the ocean. I was wearing a simple white dress. The sand was warm under my feet.
Kaelen stood in front of me. His arm still had the scar from that day. A reminder of how far we’d come. A reminder that he’d chosen me, every single time.
He held my hands, and smiled. “You look beautiful.”
I smiled back, tears in my eyes. “I love you.”
“I love you too.” He said. “You saved me, you know. Just as much as I saved you.”
We got married that day. Just the two of us, and a few close friends. No family. No drama. No chaos. Just peace.
A month later, I got promoted to Director of Marketing. I make more than enough money to pay my bills, to travel, to live the life I’ve always wanted.
I still send the alimony check every month. I never open the letters she sends. I never answer the calls from random numbers. I never look back.
My mom’s savior complex almost ruined my life. It almost got me killed. But it didn’t.
Because I finally chose myself. I finally burned the bridge that was dragging me down. I finally walked away from the people who wanted to break me.
And I found my happy ending.
The end.
What did you think of the final twist? Did you see Jasper’s secret coming? Let me know in the comments below!
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