Sandy woke up early the next morning. Kirsten was still asleep. He sat up in the couch and stretched his body. He had slept in his clothes, so he was really hoping that the hospital would release Kirsten today so that he could go home and change. He thought he'd go and get a cup of coffee, so he got to his feet and walked out of the room. He closed the door silently. When he turned to walk off, he suddenly stopped. Kelly was sitting in a chair just outside Kirsten's room, holding two paper mugs with coffee. She silently held out one to her dad. He took it.
"Hey honey! What are you doing here? I thought you were at Marissa's." Sandy said surprised. Kelly looked down into her coffee.
"Dad, there is something I need to tell you. Something has happened… Can we go outside, and I'll explain everything." She said and got to her feet.
"Sure. Is it something your mother should hear?" Sandy said as he followed her to outside the hospital.
"Oh, I think she will notice, but I also think she might want to now the details, but I just have to tell you this right now, I've been keeping it to myself for too long now" Kelly answered.
They sat down onto a cold bench outside the hospital, the air was cool and Kelly wrapped her jacket tighter around her thin body. She looked at her dad, and then began to speak.
"Last night, Logan took Ryan" was all she had time to say before Sandy interrupted.
"What? Is Ryan gone too?" Sandy's face went pale. Both Seth and Ryan were now gone.
"Yes. We were at the Cooper's and Ryan went out the get his cell that he'd forgotten in the car, and I went to get a glass of water, I looked out through the window and saw Ryan with his arm around Logan's neck. Me and Marissa hurried out to help, but we were too late, they were gone. But he left a note, once again" Kelly pulled out the note and her hand shook as she handed it over to her father.
Sandy read the note. Once again it mentioned something about 'the right answer'. Sandy was going to find out what he was talking about.
"What does he mean with 'the right answer'? We got another note where he mentioned that earlier, but I didn't get a chance to ask you about it. So, please tell me, and tell me the truth" Sandy begged.
"Wait, he'd left you another note?" What did it say?" Kelly asked.
"That he wanted the right answer, or Kirsten will be nothing more but a memory" Sandy said sadly. "I think the attack on her yesterday was just to scare us, but next time he is going to be serious" he continued bitterly.
"Ok, I'm going to tell you what he wants, and why. Before the rape, he was my boyfriend. We had been dating a few months, and then when we went to Summer's party, he said that he wanted to show me something, so we left the party and went over to his place instead. He…He purposed to me. He wanted to marry me. But it thought it was way too soon, so I said no, of course, I'm not even sure that I really love him, now I really don't. But when I turned him down, he got angry, he said he loved me like crazy, and that I loved him too. But when I said that I wasn't sure about my feelings for him, he totally freaked out…and…well, you know what he did. He's not going to stop hurting my family until I say yes, but I can't….I can't say yes. I'm sorry" she cried during the last sentence, tears streaming down her cheeks. Sandy reached out and pulled her into a tight hug.
"I understand now. So, the problem here is love that has turned into obsession. He wants you so badly that he hurts the ones you care about the most to make you change your decision." Sandy said, just checking that he'd got it right. It just seemed so twisted.
"Yes, and I swear that's the truth"
"I trust you, kiddo. But we are going to win this battle, trust me" he smiled weakly and kissed her forehead. "Let's go check if your mum is awake. We can tell her later, I can do it if you want." Sandy said and got to his feet and pulled up Kelly with him.
"Thanks dad, I'll appreciate that." She smiled sadly at him. "I'm sorry about all this."
"It's not your fault, sweetie. We'll figure it out." He replied as the walked up to Kirsten's room, Sandy with his arm around his daughter's shoulders.
