Part Four — Chapter Fourteen

Theo enters the therapy room to find Alicia seated in his chair, a quiet assertion of control he chooses not to challenge. Eager to hear the end of her story, Theo listens as Alicia resumes from when she was bound with wire, focusing on pain to avoid panic and fearing she would die before Gabriel returned.

Alicia describes stifling heat, the intruder’s alcohol-and-sweat odor, and his incessant questioning about her life with Gabriel. She deliberately engages him to buy time, tracking the clock as it moves from ten to ten-thirty with no sign of Gabriel. At eleven, a car arrives; the intruder looks out and says, “Perfect timing.”

The intruder swings Alicia’s chair to face away from the door and threatens to shoot Gabriel if Alicia makes a sound. The lights fuse, plunging the house into darkness. Gabriel enters, calling for Alicia, and approaches her silhouette by the fireplace. Alicia stays silent to protect Gabriel, having seen the intruder’s gun glinting in the corner.

As Gabriel reaches for Alicia, the intruder attacks, knocking Gabriel down and bludgeoning him with the gun until he is unconscious. The intruder ties Gabriel to a chair with wire. When Gabriel stirs in confusion, the man aims and fires repeatedly, shooting Gabriel in the head six times, then drops the gun and departs without a word.

Alicia’s account reframes the murder: she was coerced into silence, forced to witness Gabriel’s execution, and left bound as the killer vanished. The session ends with this stark revelation, challenging the prevailing narrative of Alicia as the shooter.