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"Poolside [Part Two]"

     The summer was supposed to be kind to me. I was planning on spending it with my kids and my husband. We had recently renovated our backyard to include a pool. Our kids had been begging for one and I knew my husband wanted a nice place to use his grill.
    He and I had been planning this for a while. We hatched a secret plan to let our kids stay with their grandparents for a few weeks while the construction began. I couldn't wait to see the joy and excitement on their faces.
    And as all joyful things come, there's always one curveball that life decides to throw your way.
    For context, the man I was with, the one I had two beautiful children with, wasn't my first love. Of course I'd never tell my husband that.
    I once was married to a man who was more rebellious. He always rode around on a black motorcycle with purple flames on it. The purple sparkling as the sun reflected off of it.
    He and I rode around, exploring the country, seeing the sights, venturing to places I never knew existed. Sometimes we would get lost for days and be miraculously rescued by a stranger in the woods. We had shared some incredible memories, but they weren't made to last.
    I'll never forget the day I had returned from my parents house after a few days apart. I wanted to surprise him by coming home early. And that same trope you see in all those movies where a significant other walks in on something that shatters their hearts to bits. He was in bed with another woman, kissing all over her and she with him. I felt disgusted. I couldn't breathe. I felt like my world was falling apart, like I was drowning with no hope of finding the surface.
    I ran away.
    And he followed me.
    Followed me to every house I went to. Every job. Every day I would receive relentless phone calls. I'd changed my number more times than I could count. I'd even changed state and even my last name just to throw him off the scent. But in doing so, I settled down with a wonderful and mysterious man who had a heart about as big as his belly. When I found my current husband, I swear to you I knew he was the one for me.
    He and I ran away together, to start a new life. Of course, I never shared my past. I didn't want to burden him with a stalker. Especially one that I hadn't heard from for so long. I honestly thought he fell off the face of the earth or something. And I was far happier for it.
    So when I saw him as one of the construction guys, I knew something was up.
    He and I never spoke. We seldom made eye contact. But there was something that didn't feel quite right. He seemed more cold and calculated than I had known him to be. I had no way of knowing the twisted things he was planning. And I couldn't have predicted that as the horrors unfolded, the pool catching fire months later, that he would sneak out of the woodwork and kidnap me...
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