Free Southern Lights by Danielle Steel

father. It didn’t kill me. And Tom is such a jerk.”
    “She’ll figure that out for herself. Give her time.”
    “I think she already knows it but loves him anyway.”
    “Give her that. She needs it. For now at least.”
    “It always upsets her that I won’t see him. I haven’t seen him in ten years and hope I never do again.”
    “Is he coming to her graduation in June?”
    “I asked her not to invite him,” Alexa said guiltily. “She said she’s giving me four years’ notice, and she wants him at her college graduation.” Alexa smiled ruefully at her mother. “I guess I have no choice. She’s a good sport about it, and I try not to say too much, but she knows how I feel about him. It’s no secret between us.”
    “You need to get over it,” her mother said quietly, and Alexa looked at her in surprise.
    “Why? What difference does it make if I hate him?”
    “Because it poisons you. And you’ll never have a decent relationship with another man if you don’t put it behind you and stop hating him.”
    Alexa’s jaw looked set in stone. “Check back with me in thirty or forty years. Maybe I’ll have Alzheimer’s by then.” Her mother made no further comment, and Alexa went home to Savannah, who was lying on her bed and watching TV.
    “How was Grandma?” she asked, looking sleepy. She had finished all her homework and had spent a quiet evening alone.
    “Fine. She sends you her love.”
    Alexa went to hang her coat up in the hall closet, and saw the envelope sticking under the door. She hadn’t seen it when she walked in. She picked it up cautiously by a corner. It was the same childlike handwriting as before. She didn’t say anything to Savannah, and opened it after she put on a pair of rubber gloves she kept in a drawer. It said “I know where you are every minute of the day. Look around. You can’t see me. You’re a beautiful girl.” There was no overt threat in it, but whoever had written it wanted her to know that she was being watched, and by a man who was lusting after her. Alexa was scared, terrified in fact, as she put the letter in a plastic bag, just as she had done before.
    She didn’t say a word about it, but walked into her bedroom and closed the door. She called Jack on his cell phone, he answered immediately, and she told him about the letter. Alexa was holding it carefully in the plastic bag.
    “I don’t even know if it’s real. It may just be someone trying to be cute, or scaring her. But if some guy is following her, I don’t like this at all.” There was a long silence at Jack’s end, and he finally admitted he didn’t either.
    “Why don’t I give you a cop for her? He can go to school with her.” Alexa hated to frighten Savannah, but she knew she had no choice. She had known when she took the Quentin case that there could be threats to her. She hadn’t bargained on them being aimed at Savannah instead. These weren’t direct threats, but there was a menace to them anyway. And if this was being orchestrated by Luke Quentin, it was even more frightening if he was having some previously convicted felon follow Savannah. She couldn’t prove that, but even the remote possibility of it made her feel sick.
    “I haven’t told her about this letter yet, but I guess I have to. Thanks, Jack. I do want a cop for her,” she confirmed. She was afraid for Savannah, not herself.
    “No problem. Try not to worry about it. It probably has nothing to do with Quentin, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. Who knows what kind of creeps he knows.” Everyone he knew or hung out with had been in prison.
    Alexa decided not to worry Savannah at bedtime and told her what the letter said over breakfast. Savannah made a face. “That’s so creepy, Mom. The guy is sick.”
    “Yes, he is. I called Jack Jones about it last night. He’s going to give you a plainclothes cop to go to school with, just to be on the safe side, in case someone really is watching you. I’d rather be