“Emily,” I shake her hand.
“New engineer, right?”
“Yep.”
“Yeah, I’ve heard about you. Pissed off Concordia, if I heard correctly.”
“News travels fast,” I shrug. “You pissed off a whole lot of people if I remember correctly.”
“That I did. Well, I’m glad to have another woman around. This circus needs more estrogen. God knows these idiots can’t be left to their own devices, going around punching each other all the time like a bunch of primates.”
I see Cole watching us out of the corner of my eye.
I’m sure he can hear us. I’m happy to see him returning, ever so slightly, to the land of the living instead of catatonically staring out the window.
Mallory and I chat for a long while until Liam and Mila return with coffee for everyone, and she gets a text from Lennox that the doctors do not suspect spinal trauma.
We exchange numbers, and she promises to keep us updated. I like her immediately and hope we stay in contact. She’s right, it’s nice to have more women around.
After she leaves, Mila hands me Cole’s cell phone. She carries it while he’s in the car. I don’t even know where my phone is, proba
bly still at the track because we left in such a hurry.
I take it from her but keep it face-down in my lap.
“It’s been blowing up,” she whispers.
“I don’t think he should deal with this right now,” Liam adds and turns the phone over in my hands, whispering and watching Cole whose back is still to us.
“Oh,” I look at it, though I feel weird about snooping. But with the accident, I’m sure it is blowing up with people worried about him. There are all kinds of texts and notifications.
Stan: you’re an embarrassment
Stan: I told you this would happen when you let yourself get distracted with pussy. now some driver—a talented driver, unlike you—is probably dead because of your bullshit
Voicemail From: Stan
Stan: answer your fucking phone
Stan: you best answer me, boy
Voicemail From: Stan
Voicemail From: Ava Walker
Stan: WTF have you done
My blood boils as I read through all these messages from Cole’s father. They go on and on. Why is he not blocked? Cole is not dealing with this garbage right now, absolutely not. Liam is right.
Wait, why has my mom called Cole?
Probably because my phone is at the track and she can’t reach me. She must have seen the accident on TV and is probably worried out of her mind. I just spoke to her this morning, and everything was fine at home. At their home.
“I’m going to step out and deal with this,” I tell Liam and Mila.
Cole sees me stand to leave and breaks his trance from the window to watch me, but I say I’m just going to find a restroom. I’m definitely not upsetting him more with the awful, toxic messages from his abusive, demonic father.
In the hallway, the voicemails start playing. There are a few from Stanley, who is drunk as a skunk, as usual, slurring his words and berating Cole for the accident. I delete them all then block him.