Page 190 of The Professor's Wife

“Am I in trouble?” I asked again, this time pointedly. I didn’t have to answer to this man. Even though my heart was thudding hard as ever, I had done nothing wrong in the eyes of the law.

Courtney sighed. “This is a welfare check.”

“I’m perfectly safe.”

Now his eyes darted back to Tristan. “So, this young man was a stranger when you met him?”

“Does it matter?”

“You’re a thirty-two-year-old woman who was quite respected in your community.” He paused now, as though wanting to let that sink in. “You’re not a teenage runaway. Mixing with strange vagabonds is a line you might not be able to come back from.”

Except this “strange vagabond” had breathed life into my dead bones, and now he wouldn’t want me anymore. That was what Oliver Black did; he destroyed everything I touched, reminding me that his poison would follow me wherever I went.

I should never have allowed myself to hope. I could endure Oliver finding me; I could not endure him finding Tristan.

“Do you know what it was like for your husband to find your wedding ring in the hands of a homeless woman?” he continued, vehemently. “She walked straight into a pawn shop trying to sell the damn thing.”

It had been five in the morning when I marched up to that homeless woman in the street. I’d been wandering the streets for hours, aimless, terrified, hiding in alleyways, trying to figure out my next step. Wanting to avoid the cameras, she bought me my ferry ticket in exchange for that giant rock. I thought it a fair trade.

“I gave it to her,” I simply said. “It’s hers.”

The officer looked gobsmacked by my response. “Is no part of you understanding the depth of pain you’ve left your husband in?”

My eyes felt raw as I hissed, “He’s only in pain because men like him only feel something when they lose control!”

The officer narrowed his eyes at me. “Your husband is worried. That’s all I’m saying. You’re upset, but lashing out doesn’t change the fact he’s been searching for you.”

Hunting me down, more like.

“I don’t think you’ve thought this through,” he carried on. “What you’re jeopardizing…”

He carried on like this for a few minutes, warnings about my “future,” about “ruining my life,” about “throwing everything away.” In his eyes, I was irrational, ungrateful, reckless. To him, I had traded in my respectable, pillar of a husband for a man that lived out of a car, and I would come to regret that. This reaction wasn’t surprising. I let him talk, and when he stopped, the silence filled the space in a way that made him itch uncomfortably.

“Women leave their husbands every day,” I calmly spoke. “They don’t need permission to leave.”

“But your situation…” He paused, looking conflicted. “This is an unusual situation, Mrs. Black.”

The name hit me like a slap. Mrs. Black. As if I still belonged to him.

“Don’t tell him where I am,” I said, and I couldn’t stop the vulnerability in my tone as I implored the officer. “Please. You don’t know what he’s like. Please.”

“I won’t tell him where you are,” he returned, his voice gentling only a fraction before he added, “But I can’t promise others will be as discreet.”

Who knew how many people had reported my whereabouts? This entire time people had been on the lookout. I started to think about the lingering looks from pedestrians. It wasn’t in my head, after all. The thought made me ill enough to puke. I didn’t think Oliver would do this. Hunt me down himself? Sure. Thatwas why I’d tried so hard to be off grid. But use others to help him? No, and I didn’t know why that surprised me. He’d always been singular when he was cruel. Our battles had always been behind closed doors, but now he had invited the whole world in.

The cold prick. How confident he must be right now, absolutely no concern over what I might say to the law if they caught up to me.

And he was right.

My eyes fell to the ground, the defeat evident in the slump of my shoulders.

“I’ll close the file,” Courtney said. “But I would consider going down the legal route. Seek advice to end your marriage legally, and then you’re free to disappear with… whomever you want.”

I didn’t want to argue with the man. I’d learned for so many years to keep my mouth sealed. Why start talking now? He wasn’t the man I needed to convince about being married to a monster.

We said little more before we parted ways.

Despondent, I was trembling when I finally returned to Tristan. He had not moved. He was processing the situation. His jaw was locked with anger. As I approached, he didn’t look up at me, but his voice cut through the air like a knife. “Why, Daisy?”