Nadine stuttered, almost dropping her phone in panic but her fingers tightened around it. "Nevaeh does mom have the pictures that they sent or do you?"

Nevaeh sighed, Nadine could hear the sound of her heels clicking on tiles. "I have them here in the hotel and the letter as well. Let me tell you there is a lot to go on here. Your life is literally on these pages."

Nadine closed her eyes, massaging her head and trying to reign in just a slip of the peace and rest she had earlier in the morning. "I don't care about the letter right now. It has already fulfilled its purpose. I need you, right now, to send me all the photographs that you got at the house. All of them."

"Sure, give me a second." Nevaeh fell silent, searching through what sounded like a stack of papers as Nadine waited. "I have sent them."

"I'll call you later. Please forgive me for assuming that you told mom. I was unfair to you. There was no one else that knew about Dominic and I so I immediately thought of you. I am sorry I was rude."

"It's fine. Call me later."

Nadine ended the call and immediately looked for the pictures, sliding through every image with her heart racing with each one. Then, as she had feared, she found the picture confirming what she had only suspected and dismissed. Nadine looked at the picture, remembering the clothes she wore the day she received the unsettling phone call. She was frozen in the photograph, standing in front of her restaurant with her phone to her ears. Every word she had said replayed in her mind, sucking her farther into the depths of panic and paranoia.

Dominic.

Nadine snapped out of her haze, rushing back to her table to pack up her purse. After asking Denise to watch the restaurant for the day, she breezed outside, frantically hurrying to her car and trying to reach Dominic at the same time.

After she had received that call, she spent nights watching through the windows of their bedroom while Dominic worked or slept. There had always been a lurking presence that did not fade even though she tried to ignore it. Now the proof was on her phone; it was no longer guess and what-ifs. Photographs of she and Dominic in and around their home or going out. It was daunting, to know that someone had been so close and personal without her even noticing it.

"Nadine?"

She spun at the sound of her name to notice her mother walking back towards her. She rushed over, taking her hands and speaking rapidly. "I am sorry for leaving so abruptly. I have to go and look for my husband. I, I know this is not how things should be, you and I have to talk but right now I have to talk to my husband. Please, I'll call you tomorrow and plan a dinner date or maybe lunch, we'll get to talk. I promise to answer all your questions."

Her mother looked at her, "Nana."

"Please, mom." She kissed her mother's hands, hoping she could make her hear the urgency in her voice. "Please."

"Okay. Tomorrow."

Nadine smiled, turning to leave when she spun around to hug her mother tightly. "I love you, mom. Truly."

"I love you too, honey."

Her mother watched her cautiously for a second before walking back towards her car. Nadine waved goodbye to her and immediately hurried to her car. She turned to Jackie, taking her by the wrist as she tried to open the door.

"Is Dominic home?"

"No ma'am. He called me to get your phone and Kelvin drove him to work just as I was returning to the restaurant. He went to the university. I think he would be there till around four."

"I need to see him." She jumped into the car and strapping herself in just as Jackie slid into the driver seat and revved the car to life. "I have been trying him. Dominic is never near his phone when it's important."

Jackie sped out of the lot, turning the car into the road with enviable finesse. "Don't worry ma'am. I am sure he is just busy and put it on silent."

Jackie sped down the streets, expertly avoiding going over the limit or falling behind in traffic. Nadine pulled her phone up, going through the pictures that Nevaeh had sent and trying to figure out what happened. Was there someone else at the wedding she did not notice? Did some from the island see her, follow her back home and then waited for weeks before sending a confirmation back home to her parents? Maybe it was not even at the wedding at all. For all she knew, someone was visiting the town and noticed her. She was not famous out of town, but she had quite a hold on the local magazines that never seemed to live outside her personal life. Someone could have read the paper and realised who she was.

There were so many reasons, but none of them explained how, whoever it was, got her number. The only number she displayed in her restaurant was for her work phone; the same went for her emails. Yet, someone had the number to her phone, and she could not imagine what else they could have on her. They could have Dominic's number too, how often had they followed him to his offices, to the club, to her in-law's mansion.

Unable to bear looking at the pictures, she dropped her phone on her lap and rubbed her palms together. Nothing was going right. Her mother and sister were in town; the whole island would soon find out that she was alive. Dominic was at work, not answering her calls when they had a stalker on their heels.

Jackie got the university after an hour and a half of driving and Nadine jumped out of the car before she could park it.

Dominic had only been working in the university for three years, but she had never once visited him at his work. Without the exact direction to his office, she had asked many students and staff before finding herself on the fourth floor of one of the buildings, walking up numerous flights of stairs. Jackie jogged up behind her, walking by her side as she tried to find Dominic's office. He still wasn't answering his phone.

"Good morning?" The woman at the desk looked up. "I am looking for Dominic Maresielle? Which office is his?"

"Through there," she pointed at another door. "Unfortunately the professor went to teach a class and he has locked his office so you can't wait for him in there. Please seat, you'd see him as soon as he comes in."

Nadine held herself back from rolling her eyes. She settled for a subtle nod. "Thank you. Jackie, you can go grab something to eat, you don't have to stay here."

"Okay, ma'am. Call me if you need anything."

"Of course."

Nadine smiled at the receptionist, packing herself into a free seat that faced the door leading into the room. The secretary smiled at her as she took a seat on one of the benches. Slowly, she began to twist her rings around her finger.

Throughout the ride, she had looked through all the pictures. So much that she had each one imprinted in her memory. Each one carried a certain level of paranoia into her thoughts. Her mother was back in her life again and Nadine knew it was something someone had orchestrated. Planned. Whoever was watching them stayed long enough to not only make sure she was the missing princess from the island but also to send a detailed letter of her life to her parents back home.

As much as the threat looming over her, she wondered if she was overlooking another important issue, her mother made a subtle comment of not supporting her choice of a husband. Nadine did not want her life now at thirty to be the same as it was when she was sixteen. Always trying to live up to her parent's expectations or trying to please people. If there was a stalker on their tale, the last thing Nadine believed she needed was a rift between her families.

"Babe?"

She spun to her feet, rushing over to throw herself into Dominic's arms. "Oh, I am so glad to see you."

He grinned, leaning over to kiss her. "You saw me this morning. How long have you been here?"

"It doesn't matter," she shook her head. She took his hand in hers and he walked her towards his office. "I have been trying your phone for hours. They told me you were in a lecture so I waited."

Dominic nodded, stripping off his suit jacket and draping it over his chair. "Is something wrong?"

Nadine gave a breathy laugh, dropping her purse on the couch by the window and plunked down. "There is a lot wrong. I am not even sure where to start."

"Wherever makes more sense, I guess."

Nadine smiled, pointing her chin towards her purse. "Get my phone and go through the first eight pictures in the gallery."

She watched Dominic cautiously reach into her bag and type the password across the screen of her phone.

"What are these?"

"Pictures." Nadine sighed, shaking her head. "I told you yesterday that I ran away from my family years ago because of some misunderstanding going on between us. Well, this is part of the story I saw unfold in front of me today. Someone, I have no idea who is stalking us. You and me. Remember the phone call I told you about some weeks ago? I convinced myself that it could have been a wrong number but now I know it was not. They have been following us for weeks since we came back from the wedding and then they sent those photos to my parent's private island. Now, my mom and sister are here."

Dominic blinked, looking back down at her phone in momentary shock. "You have this gift of heaping things on me without giving me the chance to know how to react. Let me back up to the start and see if I am following this. Your parents are here in Aeston because someone who knows who you are has been stalking us?"

Nadine nodded. "They mailed the images to my home with, apparently, a letter filling the blank of how I spent my fourteen years. I don't even have the strength to focus on the fact that my mom is in town because I am preoccupied with the fact that someone is hiding behind bushes, photographing my life. Our life."

Dominic looked down at his phone, "Are you sure it wasn't some private investigator?"

"No." she wiped a tear from her face and threw her head back, screaming in frustration. "My sister called from the hotel to tell me that some unknown person sent the letter with no return address. She was just as creeped out and frightening as I am. I can't believe this is happening to me. I knew that at some point that I would have to go back, face them one day but I never thought it would not be my choice. Some crazy stranger made that choice for me. Like some sick joke."

Dominic finally sat beside her, but he did not touch her, which in turn left Nadine with mixed feelings. She knew he wanted to give her space to vent, she needed it, but at the same time, she wanted to feel him even if only for moral support.

"Babe, I am trying to grasp on to a lot right now, but I am still in the dark here. You haven't explained to me how your family wanted to marry you off in the first place. What age was this? That people still marry their children off, and if you were not in contact with your family, how did your sister get your number?"

Nadine shook her head, unable to grip on to one string to climb on. "Well, cliff notes is that my parents inherited an island after my grandparents died, kind of like a family heirloom. Instead of rings and necklaces, they passed down islands and thrones. My parents are Queen Naomi and King Nathan, who were very interested in protecting their throne from outsiders, so they married off their first daughter and saw it fit to do the same to the youngest. I ran, escaped and built my life outside of my home. Now, fourteen years later, I bump into my sister at a wedding in a city I have never heard of, and my parents found me thanks to a psychopathic stalker who has an unknown agenda. That's about it."

Dominic's eyes widened. "This is why I should never have allowed you to pile up your problems without forcing you to talk about them. Good Lord, I don't even know what to focus on right now. Are you...are you sure this person stalking you is malicious? It could be someone looking to stir up some drama and nothing more. Do we worry about the stalker or your family, or both? Do we invite your family for dinner? I don't even know where to start."

Nadine nodded, "I know. I should have told you but right now do me the favour of focusing on the stalker. This person is taking pictures of us, at home, at work, around the town. Baby, I am scared."