“I would give anything to live in your nightmare. Mine is very lonely.” She dips her chin, her emotions climbing. “I can still hear him whispering ‘I love you’ over and over as he bled out on the cement, chained to that pole. I was completely helpless to save him.”

No. I rise from the sofa with a strained gasp. “I-I don’t think I can hear this.”

“I’m just trying to show you how it could be. You’re truly blessed, Cora. You both survived.”

I feel queasy and lightheaded, and all I want to do is throw my arms around Dean and hold him tight. I imagine him lying on that basement floor, his life slipping away. It’s too much.

I try to reroute my thoughts and center myself. “Did… did you have feelings for each other prior to the abduction?”

Tabitha watches as I sit back down. “Not really. I mean, he was my teacher and he was gorgeous. He wore these black-rimmed glasses during our lessons that made him look like Clark Kent. All the girls swooned over him.” She smiles wistfully, replaying memories in her mind. “We shared a few stolen glances here and there. There was a connection. A chemistry, you know? But he was off-limits. He was walking me to my car one night after I stayed late working on an assignment, and that’s when…”

She goes quiet and I close my eyes. “How did you get out?”

Tabitha wraps her arms around herself, hugging tight. “Earl developed feelings for me. He couldn’t kill me.”

“God… I never got that impression from him. He seemed entirely void of feelings.”

“I thought so, too, but I worked hard to establish a connection with him. I pretended to enjoy it when he would…” She clenches her jaw. “Well, you know. I developed a rapport with him. I manipulated his emotions—what little he had, anyway. He told me I was his favorite pet.”

My stomach twists with nausea. “Why didn’t you come forward sooner?”

She fiddles with the gold fringes on her long-sleeved tunic, a silence settling between us for a few beats. “I did. I tried.”

“What? They didn’t believe you?”

Tabitha leans back in the chair, rocking it with her feet. “Earl never told us his name, so I had nothing to go on. I had no idea where I was—he knocked me out and dropped me on the side of the road thirty miles away. I gave my story to detectives and did a composite sketch, but they didn’t have any leads. The only thing I had was that basement.”

I lower my head, nodding, feeling awful for branding her a liar and a fraud before I even knew her story. I think back to those two teachers in the bathroom, women I’d formed a friendship with over the last few years, passing misinformed judgements over me. Belittling my trauma to fit into their petty gossip train. I look up at Tabitha, finding her zoned out as she stares at her colorful area rug. “You’re very brave,” I tell her gently, waiting for her eyes to lift to mine. “I couldn’t go through this alone.”