Someone Else’s Life(54)

“You’ve been watching me garden?” Annie shook her head in disbelief. This was getting weirder and weirder. She suddenly felt horribly exposed, as if all her clothes had fallen off and she had nothing to cover herself with.

“Garden and walk Lili before she passed away. One day, only months after you moved in, she was gone. It wasn’t until later that I learned she’d passed. My heart hurt for you.” Serena’s mouth turned downward, and she looked genuinely sad. “I also used to watch you and Finn in the backyard. You know the woods next to your house?”

Annie nodded, her senses on overload. One side of their property was a vacant lot, overgrown with trees and bushes. “You’d watch us from there?”

Serena’s eyes were clear, no shame at all in admitting that she’d been spying on them. “Yes. I’d watch you and Brody barbecuing on the back deck and think, That should have been me and Danny and our dog. Danny was so excited to get a grill and put it on the deck outside the kitchen, looking out over the lake as he manned it. But instead, your husband and sometimes you were the ones out there.”

“Oh my god, are you crazy?” Annie blurted this out without thinking and then winced. But how else to explain what Serena was saying? To think all this time, someone had been watching them, observing their lives, and they’d never known? Annie rubbed her hands up and down her arms, trying to warm herself.

“No, I swear. I’m not.” Serena stood and took a step closer to Annie but stopped when Annie held up a hand. “I never approached you, did I? I didn’t do anything crazy like leave dead animals on your doorstep. I could have. But I didn’t because I’m not. Don’t you see?”

“I don’t see. All I know is you’ve been watching us without our knowing. Do you hear how creepy that is?”

“I swear I wasn’t trying to be creepy. I just couldn’t let go of my dreams.” Serena stopped and swiped a hand over her eyes. “When you had your baby, I really felt like you were living my parallel life. That was my canoe that I was supposed to take out on the lake with my husband and son. That was my backyard, where I was supposed to watch my son take his first steps and play. That was my family that was supposed to walk to the beach together, pushing a beach buggy filled with sand toys, towels, beach chairs, and an umbrella. My house. My life. And you were living it, not me!”

Serena’s voice had risen with each word so that she nearly screamed “not me.” Annie backed up against the front door, fear coursing through her veins. Marley was now glued to her side, the hair on his back standing up. She took a deep breath, trying to gather her wits. She couldn’t process everything Serena was saying, but she knew she had to do something. Serena looked on the brink of losing it, and Annie kicked herself again for letting her into the Ohana.

“You need to go. Now.” Annie’s breath came in shallow gasps, and she was having a hard time getting air into her lungs. She’d invited a stalker into her home. She turned the knob of the front door and swung it open. But a strong gust of wind slapped the door back toward Annie, hitting her before it slammed shut. She slumped against the door, catching her breath as she watched Serena stop in front of her. The storm apparently didn’t want them to leave. Hysterical laughter bubbled up inside Annie, and she swallowed hard, trying to tamp it down. This wasn’t funny. At all.

“I’m sorry.” Serena now had a sorrowful look on her face, reaching her hands out as if asking for forgiveness. “I didn’t mean any harm. That’s why I took so long to reach out to you. I wasn’t going to ever, but then—” She broke off.

“I don’t care what your reasons are. Do you see it’s not normal to watch people?” Annie clutched her phone, knowing she should try Sam or Brody again.

“I just wanted . . . I don’t know.” Serena tittered, and the mania Annie had glimpsed before was loud and clear this time. “And then when we met, and I was so surprised how much I like you . . . I thought we could be friends.”

Her voice trailed off and Annie could see she was fighting tears. One eye on Serena, Annie dialed Brody’s number, but it went right to voice mail. She tried her father’s landline, and again, it went straight to voice mail. What was going on? Why was no one answering their phone? She decided to text Brody again, hoping he had cell service, wherever he was. She typed fast, her thumbs flying, needing him to pick up on the urgency of her message. She was so intent on punching out the letters that she didn’t realize Serena had walked over to her until she felt her breath on her arm as she leaned in to peer at Annie’s phone.

“Who are you texting? Brody?”

Annie hated how familiar her husband’s name sounded on Serena’s lips, as if she really knew him. But she guessed Serena did know Brody. She knew them all. She snatched the phone away from Serena’s eyes and held it against her chest. “None of your business. Please, just go and we can forget all this. I’m sure the storm will stop soon.”

As if to say differently, a loud gust of wind howled, making the windows shake, sounding like they were in the midst of a hurricane.

“I’m not a stalker. Why would you write that?” Serena pointed at Annie’s phone, where Annie had written in all capitals: COME HOME NOW. THIS WOMAN HAS BEEN STALKING US. She must have seen what Annie wrote before Annie pulled the phone away.