The Search for Lily Myers ✓

34 | Epiphany

For a moment, time stood still.

This couldn't be happening; it was just a bad dream. This was impossible; it had to be impossible because she had blocked him on everything.

And yet Amelia and Henry both watched as another message popped up on the screen.

@colton_maine wants to send you a message:

Amelia, I'm serious. I know you're here, I see your car.

She was too stunned to do anything aside from stare as Henry took in a small breath and looked up from the phone to meet her eyes. His were as hard as glass, tempered by the heat of the fire burning through him.

"Whatever happens, swear to me you'll stay in here, okay?"

A second passed before it finally struck her that he was planning to go out there and confront Colton. He started saying something else, but she didn't hear it. Her ears had started to ring; she was shaking her head–

"Amelia–"

She shoved her chair back and fled from the table as if it too were in flames, thinking only of putting her body between him and the door so that he couldn't pass through it. She pressed her back against the cold wood, her chest rapidly rising and falling.

"Amelia–" Henry struggled not to raise his voice and frighten her, but panic flashed across his features as he rushed over to her—he thought she was going to run. "Don't go out th–"

"I'm not!" she snapped. "And you're not going to, either. I'm not letting you get hurt. I won't—I can't."

Her eyes were already flooded with hot tears, fueled by fear and fury, but she worried that if she dared to lift a hand and brush them astray then Henry might use it to pull her away from the door.

He repeated her name again, his features drawn with distress, but when he stepped forward, it wasn't to grab at the doorknob but to firmly press his lips against her forehead and hold her close to him for a moment.

"I'm not going to get hurt," he exhaled, his breath trembling against her skin. "But I can't stand here and let him keep doing this to you."

Amelia shook her head stubbornly, sticky moisture trailing down her cheeks. "And what do you plan on doing if it goes badly—call the police? He is the police, remember?"

Had it really been just yesterday morning that Liam was warning her not to give Colton any more of her time? Had he somehow, serendipitously known that she was going to need that advice sooner rather than later? And had she really still been naive enough to think that she wasn't at risk of falling straight into the same trap again?

"We're not giving him what he wants," she insisted, attempting to shove down the feeling in the back of her mind and in the pit of her stomach that he might come banging on the door if she continued to ignore him.

A stinging, acidic sensation rose into her throat, but she matched his steely gaze with her own. This was her fury, her fight. Henry might have felt a spark of anger, something new stirring and simmering inside of him and waiting to ignite, but that flame was nothing when held up to hers. Amelia had long been blazing, the pain incinerating her from the inside out.

She raised her chin. "Are you going to try to stop me?"

He wavered, his hand falling from where it had come to a rest in her hair. "I...no," he finally swallowed, but she could see the strain in his eyes as he did. "I'm not going to force you to move. It's your choice."