Stolen

Ty takes Gemma back to the art shed and starts painting himself to look like the landscape. He finally tells her about the first time they met. She was only 10, wandering through the bushes of a park and imagining little fairy families living in each flower. She stumbled on him sleeping in the bushes, looking like a “tramp.” He gave her a robin’s egg. He credits that moment with changing his life and making him realize he belonged out on the land. She is furious and calls him sick and a freak for being obsessed with a 10-year-old girl.

She tries to run, but he grabs her. He insists he only wanted her once he was older. He claims her parents were trying to mold her in their image. She spits in his face. He reveals that he has been stalking her, watching her from the tree outside her window and the neighbor’s house. He tries to convince her that her life wasn’t perfect and that her parents constantly abandoned her. He claims her mom was trying to move away and leave her in a school dorm. He knows about her crush on Ben and her conflict with Anna.