Such a Beautiful Family: A Thriller(3)

Trevor groaned, his face twisting in agony. Nora went to him and rested a hand on his good arm. “Trevor. Wake up. You’re having a nightmare.”

The doctor said his fracture would take four to six weeks to heal. But it wasn’t the physical damage that was bothering her son; the PTSD was the problem, a psychiatric disorder that sometimes occurred in people like Trevor who had experienced a traumatic event. Trevor had been seeing a therapist for a few weeks now. She told Nora that although no two children who develop PTSD after a near-drowning accident were alike, there were common symptoms: reliving the experience through nightmares and flashbacks, withdrawal from friends and family, and extreme reactions to touching or loud noises. The belief was the aftereffects would disappear within a month or two.

Nora hoped that was true. After spending two full days in the hospital and thirty days with doctors and in therapy, her son’s pained face still gave Nora a lump in her throat. She was thankful he was alive.

She sat on the edge of his bed and brushed the hair back from his forehead. “Trevor,” she said again. “Wake up.”

He stirred. His eyes opened. “Mom?”

“Yes. It’s me. Mom. You were crying out for help. Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” he said, his voice shaky. “What time is it?”

“Two in the morning.”

“Sorry I woke you.”

“Don’t be sorry,” she said. “I’m here for you. Do you need anything?”

“No thanks.”

“Okay. I’m going back to bed, then.” She stood, then watched him pull the covers high above his neck and turn his head the other way.

“I love you,” she said.

“Love you,” came his muffled voice as she walked out of his room.

Nora made her way downstairs to the kitchen, where she filled a glass with water. She grabbed a seat on a stool at the island and took a gulp. Her heart was racing. Trevor wasn’t the only one in their family experiencing anxiety. The headaches and light-headedness weren’t the only symptoms she’d been experiencing since returning from Hawaii. She’d been feeling paranoid. Her therapist, Jennifer Lister, a woman Nora had been visiting on and off since she was a teenager, explained that the anxiety she’d been facing after her son’s traumatic event most likely made her more vulnerable to paranoid thoughts. Which would explain why Nora was sure she was being followed. When her family was checking in at the resort in Hawaii, she had noticed a man in the lobby wearing a suit. She wouldn’t have noticed him at all if it hadn’t been such a warm, humid afternoon. He’d used a handkerchief to wipe the gleam of sweat from his forehead, and when he looked up, his icy-blue gaze locked on hers. Although he had blondish hair and a boyish face, she guessed him to be hovering around fifty because of the crow’s-feet and faint horizontal frown lines.

She’d forgotten all about the man until she saw him again at the Sacramento airport. Trying to see her luggage on the baggage carousel, she spotted him through a crowd of people. Once again, their eyes met. This time, she left David with the kids and headed his way. Who is he? Does he know me? Those were the questions running through her head. She knew it could just be a weird coincidence that she’d seen him in Hawaii and now in Sacramento, but she wanted to know for sure. By the time she got to the spot where he’d been standing, he was gone. She had walked around the carousel twice before giving up.

Nora took another drink of water.

She hadn’t mentioned the man to anyone. She might even have forgotten about him. But a week after they returned from their trip, she saw him again. This time, that same man had been sitting behind the wheel of a dark sedan—same dirty-blond hair, same boyish face, but with a tan. He appeared to be studying something, perhaps reading, when she drove by. She’d been wearing sunglasses and had been driving David’s car while her SUV was in the shop. This was the first time she’d seen the man without him seeing her. Or at least he didn’t look her way. She slowed as she passed, trying to get a good look at his car and license plate, but the car parked behind him made it impossible to see much. Up ahead, she pulled to the side of the road and shut off the engine. She got out of the car, grabbed her pepper spray from her purse, and made her way to the other side of the street, where he was parked. She kept to the sidewalk. Her heart beat wildly as she drew closer. With only two cars parked between the man and Nora and the tiny canister of pepper spray in her grasp ready to go, the sedan pulled away from the curb and took off. All she got for her efforts was a 6 and a B on the license plate.

Right before Nora was about to tell David what she’d seen, he sat her down and let her know he was worried about her. She’d been acting strange, he said, jumpy and forgetful. He hadn’t said anything to her earlier because he’d noticed the change right after Trevor’s near drowning. His hope was once she realized Trevor was truly okay, she would relax, and things would return to normal.

David was treating her as if she were fragile glass. He seemed to think she’d gone off the deep end or was close to it. So Nora decided not to mention the man in the car, since she wasn’t 100 percent sure the man in the car had been the same man she’d seen in Hawaii. The next morning, Nora had made an appointment with Jennifer. And she hadn’t seen the man in the suit since.





CHAPTER TWO

After work the next day, Nora stopped at the grocery store to pick up items on her list, including a cake for Trevor’s thirteenth birthday celebration. His arm was still in a sling, and he’d made a point to tell her he wasn’t in the mood to celebrate. Instead, she asked Hailey to invite Bridget to come over so that it might feel more like a party and less like a regular Friday night. Bridget was the same age as Hailey, and she lived across the street. Nora and David were friends with her parents.