A week later…
Ryan was staring at his phone.
Victor walked into the living room.
"You're up early," he told Ryan.
"Yeah," he said.
"Well, I'm gonna get to work," he said.
"Okay," Ryan said, still aimlessly staring at his phone. A subtle tear ran down his face. Victor noticed.
"What's up, Ryan?" He asked him.
Ryan finally looked at him.
"She won't talk to me anymore," he said. "We've always worked through everything. This whole thing broke us!"
"I don't think you're broken, Ryan," Victor told him. "You're just cracked, and cracks can be fixed."
"Not this one," he said.
"Do you know how the Chinese fix cracks?" Victor asked him.
"How?"
"With gold," he said. "They fill the cracks in with Gold."
"I don't have gold, Victor," Ryan said.
"You love her, Ryan," he told him, "and I'm pretty sure she loves you back, but both of you are too afraid to admit it."
"She doesn't love me, Victor," he said. "She's more honest than I am. She would have told me."
"How much you two have been through, I just can't believe that your bond is breakable," Victor said. "She knows how the rapist found out, Ryan, Rollins told her last week."
"Then why won't she talk to me?"
"Maybe her not trusting you makes her think you guys are broken, too," Victor said.
Jennifer woke up with Noah next to her. He had had a nightmare the night before. There was a note on the in table, that read:
Went to get groceries. Watch Noah until I get home. Amanda will be there to talk to you soon.
Love,
Liv
Jennifer went to the kitchen and made her and Noah breakfast.
Clark walked back into the apartment around noon.
"I forgot to take my lunch with me," he said.
He looked at Ryan sitting on the couch. Ryan was looking through a yearbook.
"How'd you get that?" Clark asked him.
"It was the only thing I was able to save from the fire," Ryan said. "I got it when I graduated." He smiled. "Look at Jenn. She was sixteen." He smiled.
Clark looked at the book. There was the picture of Jennifer who was the last of her class picture. There was a heart around her.
"I like the heart," Clark said. "So, I take it she's never seen your yearbook?"
"No," he said. "Only the back."
He showed him the back where Jennifer wrote:
I can't believe you graduated! Lol! Pretty sure your 13 year old self has his mouth wide open.
~Love,
Your Best Friend, Jenny
"We had joked that I'd never graduate because I had really bad grades in middle school," Ryan laughed at the memory.
"Wait…" Clark said, "go to the class before hers." Ryan started flipping pages. "She would have been in her sophomore year, right?"
"Yeah," Ryan said.
"So, that creep would be in the yearbook," he said.
"Yeah, he would," Ryan said. He flipped through the pages, looking through the faces. "I found him! That's him!"
Victor took a photo of the picture in the yearbook.
Rollin's phone beeped. She looked at it.
"Does this look like the guy from high school?" She asked Jennifer.
She showed the photo to her.
"Oh my gosh!" Jennifer said. "That's him!"
She texted Clark back.
Clark looked at his phone.
"We got him," he said. He looked at Ryan. "I'm going to take you to Captain Benson's apartment. You need to stay there until we get that creep."
"Okay," Ryan answered him. They left the apartment.