Chapter 15

By the time Evelyn got home from the storage facility, the rain had turned violent again.

Wind rattled the apartment windows hard enough to shake the loose frame near the kitchen while thunder rolled continuously somewhere above Manhattan like distant construction collapsing through clouds.

She dropped Lena’s journal onto the coffee table and locked the apartment door twice.

Then checked it again five minutes later.

The journal sat open beside her laptop now, its pages covered in Lena’s handwriting and words Evelyn could no longer unread.

She says she hears voices during storms.

Sometimes she sounds like someone else.

The lines had started living beneath her skin.

Every sound inside the apartment felt sharper tonight. Pipes shifting behind walls. Elevator cables humming faintly in the hallway. Rainwater tapping against glass in restless uneven rhythms.

Evelyn crossed toward the kitchen and poured herself coffee she didn’t actually want.

Her hands still weren’t steady.

Adrian’s words kept returning too.

You were not in your right mind that night.

At first she’d hated him for saying it.

Now she hated herself for wondering whether he’d been trying to prepare her.

Lightning flashed briefly across the living room windows.

For one disorienting second, the reflection in the glass looked unfamiliar enough to stop her breathing.

Too pale.

Too tired.

Someone unraveling in slow motion.

Her phone buzzed across the counter.

Mara.

Evelyn answered immediately.

“You sound awful already,” Mara said.

“That’s becoming your opening line.”

“Because you keep earning it.” A pause. “Did you find anything?”

Evelyn looked back toward the journal.

“Lena knew.”

The silence on the other end sharpened instantly.

“Knew what?”

“That something was wrong with me.”

Rain crashed hard against the windows.

Evelyn sat slowly on the edge of the couch while explaining the journal entries, the sleepwalking, the missing time, the voices during storms.

By the time she finished speaking, Mara had stopped interrupting completely.

“That doesn’t mean you hurt anyone,” she said carefully.

“I know.”

But Evelyn no longer sounded certain enough for either of them.

“She was scared of me, Mara.”

“No,” Mara replied immediately. “She was worried about you. That’s different.”

Evelyn closed her eyes briefly.

The distinction felt important.

And terrifying.

“What if Adrian was treating me before Blackwater?” she whispered.

“That would be illegal.”

“That’s not an answer.”

“No, it’s not.”

Thunder shook the apartment again.

Then Mara asked quietly, “Do you trust him?”

Evelyn laughed once under her breath.

The sound came out exhausted.

“I think that’s becoming the problem.”

Another silence settled between them.

Then Mara sighed softly.

“You should leave the apartment tonight.”

Evelyn frowned automatically. “Why?”

“Because somebody online posted your building address two hours ago.”

Cold spread instantly through her chest.

“What?”

“The episode blew up again after the journal leaks started circulating.”

Evelyn sat upright sharply. “What leaks?”

“Reddit thinks you’re hiding evidence now. There are entire threads accusing you of covering for Adrian.”

Rain hammered violently overhead.

Her stomach tightened.

“How would they know about the journal?”

“I don’t know.” Mara hesitated. “But people are getting weird.”

That word again.

Weird.

Obsessive.

Personal.

Evelyn looked automatically toward the apartment door.

Locked.

Chain secured.

Still, unease crept slowly upward beneath her ribs.

“I’m fine,” she said quietly.

“Eve—”

“I’ll call you later.”

Before Mara could argue further, Evelyn ended the call.

The apartment felt suddenly too quiet afterward.

Not empty.

Watching.

She hated herself a little for thinking that.

Outside, lightning flashed again, briefly whitening the room.

Then—

A sound.

Soft.

Near the hallway.

Evelyn froze instantly.

Not pipes.

Not the elevator.

A footstep.

Her pulse accelerated hard enough to hurt.

Slowly, she stood from the couch.

The apartment remained silent except for rain and her own breathing.

Another sound followed.

Closer this time.

The faint scrape of fabric against the wall outside her bedroom.

“Hello?”

No answer.

Every instinct inside her tightened violently.

Evelyn reached for the heavy ceramic mug beside the kitchen counter just as the bedroom door swung open.

A man stepped into the hallway.

Masked.

Dark hoodie soaked from rain.

For one horrifying second her brain refused to process what she was seeing.

Then adrenaline hit all at once.

“What the fuck—”

The man moved toward her too quickly.

“You shouldn’t have forgotten!” he shouted.

His voice cracked strangely beneath the mask, unstable and frantic.

Evelyn stumbled backward hard enough to slam into the kitchen counter.

The mug shattered against his shoulder when she swung it.

He barely reacted.

“You deserve punishment,” he snapped, grabbing for her wrist. “You let her die—”

Panic detonated through her body.

Evelyn twisted violently away from him, slipping against the hardwood floor as thunder exploded outside the windows.

The masked man lunged again—

Then another figure hit him from the side hard enough to send both crashing into the living room table.

Wood splintered.

Glass shattered.

Evelyn staggered backward, breathing raggedly now.

Adrian.

For one stunned second she could only stare.

Rain-dark coat.

Black gloves.

Pure controlled violence.

The attacker swung wildly toward him, but Adrian caught the man’s wrist with frightening precision before driving him hard into the floor.

Not rage.

Efficiency.

The difference somehow felt worse.

“Don’t,” Adrian said quietly.

The calmness of his voice during the struggle terrified Evelyn almost as much as the attack itself.

The masked man cursed violently beneath him, trying to break free.

Adrian tightened his grip once.

The man stopped moving immediately.

Silence crashed heavily through the apartment except for rain and Evelyn’s uneven breathing.

Adrian looked up first.

His eyes found hers instantly.

“Are you hurt?”

Evelyn couldn’t answer right away.

Because one thought had overridden everything else.

He got here too fast.

As though he already knew.

Police sirens wailed faintly somewhere outside now, approaching through the storm.

The attacker groaned weakly beneath Adrian’s grip while Evelyn forced herself to breathe.

“Who is he?” she whispered.

Adrian pulled the mask away carefully.

Young.

Maybe twenty-five.

Wild-eyed.

Familiar.

Then Evelyn recognized him.

Caleb Rusk.

One of her most obsessive podcast listeners.

He sent long emails at three in the morning filled with theories and timelines nobody asked for.

He once mailed her annotated crime scene maps.

“Oh my God,” she whispered.

Caleb stared at her with exhausted fury.

“You forgot on purpose,” he muttered. “You’re hiding what you did.”

Evelyn’s stomach turned violently.

Police lights flashed red and blue through rain-streaked windows outside.

Then she noticed something else.

Blood.

A dark smear marked the white cuff beneath Adrian’s coat sleeve.

Not Caleb’s.

Too old already.

Too dried at the edges.

Adrian followed her gaze immediately.

And for the first time that night—

He looked alarmed.