“Nell’s gone.” He raised his head to her, his face etched with sadness. “She must’ve taken pills to end the pain. I never knew the depth of her suffering and what she carried inside her.”

He handed it to Lisa, and she read the few, neatly penned words.

Forgive me. I just couldn’t go on. Nell.

Lisa lowered herself, placed her hands on the tops of his legs. “Oh, Roland.”

He stared into space.

“I’m so sorry,” she whispered and let a moment pass. “We should call 9-1-1.”

Roland shook his head, indicating he needed time, then he shielded his eyes with his hand, sinking into despair. In that heart-wrenching moment, Lisa took stock of the safe room.

It was larger than she’d expected, with two beds, towers of bottled water, canned food and supplies, but something about it bewildered her as she surveyed the vast console of video monitors with all different streams of footage rolling on them like home movies, panels with banks of buttons and switches.

It looked like a mission control center.

Roland removed his hand from his eyes, looked hard at her, then slowly placed both of his large hands on top of hers, covering them as they rested on his legs.

“It’s just us now, Lisa.”

His expression transformed from grief to happiness.

Confused, Lisa tried to stand, but he seized her hands, and when he suddenly stood, she saw the handgun in his holster.

“Sit down,” he said. His strong hands and powerful arms pulled at her. “Please.”

Horror dawning, Lisa tried to flee, but he overpowered her, thrust her into the chair and, in a swift motion, handcuffed her wrists to the armrests.

“Stop! Roland, what’re you doing? Stop!”

“Shh, shh. There’s no need to worry. Shh. Quiet.” He stroked her hair, inhaling her scent. “It’s just us now. Nell’s gone. Jeff’s going to die in prison.” He looked into her eyes. “Don’t look so surprised.”

Lisa’s body shook.

“I saw the way you looked at me when we first met,” he said. “I was captivated by you, too. I knew we were going to be together. I know it’s what you wanted. So I took steps to make it happen. I’ll show you.”

He went to the console and began adjusting switches.

“All these monitors are linked to surveillance cameras, most of them in your house. But they’ve been rewired so I could watch and hear you. I set it up when we installed your security system. I also cloned your phones, your computers. I knew every waking moment of your lives. Watch this monitor.” He pointed to a near screen. “I made a little montage of scenes I’ve recorded.”

Footage rolled, showing Lisa working and talking with her sister, then Lisa and Jeff eating, arguing, getting dressed, making love.