27
Mom’s flight left at one today, leaving me alone for an hour before my phone rings. It’s a gut feeling I have as soon I hear my ringtone. I know it’s him. There were a few other random calls from kids who saw my number and wanted to prank me with stupid stuff, but I know it’s Tony as soon as I see the undisclosed number flash on my screen.
Sharp shivers run down my spine as I force myself to bring the phone to my ear, to answer it. “Hello?” My voice sounds weak even to me.
“This was dumb of you.”
I’m too shocked to say anything. I wasn’t expecting him. The sound of his voice makes my skin crawl, and I force the memories not to come back to me. I don’t say anything to his statement because I can’t even disagree with him.
“Why are you calling me? How did you get a cell phone in jail?”
Andrew chuckles humorlessly. “Dumb girl. I’m out on bail. It wasn’t cheap, and it’s house arrest, but that’s the system for you.”
How did we not know Andrew was out on bail? I feel like that’s something Aiden should’ve been notified about. To Andrew, I don’t say anything, instead letting Aiden’s biological father say his piece. I was expecting something to happen from posting online, but not this.
“I always knew something was off about you, Amelia.” He emphasizes my name. He knows the truth. “I even hinted that to Aiden. Before you screwed everything up for me, I had my investigators look into you, and we were all shocked when we found you didn’t exist before this year. No school photos, report cards, hospital visits, social insurance number, nothing.”
I sink onto my bed. I don’t like how this is going. My control is slipping from my fingers.
“I’m broke again. My wife is divorcing me, and any money I have is for lawyers. You’ve really fucked me here, Thea.”
My heart beats loudly in my ears; my name feels gross in his deep voice, but I still find the will to say, “You fucked yourself, Andrew. I hope you rot in prison.”
“Funny you say that. My investigators found out about you before I was arrested, and we found something pretty interesting about your past. Apparently, you piss off a lot of people.”
My breathing stops. All the shadows in my room look suspicious, threatening. I don’t feel safe here, I don’t feel in control.
“I don’t know what you were thinking or what the plan was by posting your phone number,” he continues, “but the area code gives your location away. If I hadn’t already told Tony where you were, that certainly would’ve given it away. He should be in town by now.”
I jump from my bed to peek through my blinds. My street looks calm, the complete opposite of the turmoil of emotions swirling through my body.
I remember I’m holding the phone in my hand, and even though Andrew isn’t saying anything, I can practically see his vicious smirk through the phone, his gloating righteousness that he’s won. Tony’s coming. He’s here. I’m trying really hard to stay calm. This is what I wanted, wasn’t it? To finish it? Everything in me is so used to running in the opposite direction from Tony. Every time he’s appeared has ended in pain. I force myself to stay calm even though I feel like pulling all my hair out or crying or screaming or closing my eyes and pretending this is all a dream. But none of that will fix this problem. None of that will make this go away. Only I can do that.
“Rot in hell,” I say to Andrew, then hang up and throw my phone on the opposite side of the bed.
Think. I have to think.
Mom is on a flight, so that’s one less person to worry about. I run my hands through my hair and force myself not to rip it out by the roots. I need to figure this out. It’s ending today even if it kills me.
Pouncing on my bed, I scramble back to my phone and call Aiden.
He picks up on the first ring. “Are you okay?”
No.“Yes. It’s on. Where are the twins?” The first part of the plan stays the same. I’m protecting my friends.
He swears. I hear a car door open. “I just pulled them from school. I’m bringing them to Mason’s house now. Brian’s home. We’ll be there right away.”
I force myself to stay calm, to not give away my panic. How far away is Tony?
“Don’t do anything without me, okay?” Aiden demands, and when I don’t answer, he prompts, “Thea?”
“Yes. Yes, I’ll be here.” What am I going to do?
“I love you, Thea. It’s going to be okay,” he says, and I hear him talking to the twins on the other end of the phone.
“I love you too,” I say, meaning every bit of it.
Tony’s here.
We hang up and I pull on a dark sweater and my good running shoes. There’s a chill in the air today, and it’s not just because of the weather. Leaving the room, I check to make sure all my supplies are prepared, and every squeak of the floor or settling of the house makes my pulse race faster and faster.
Tony’shere.
What do I do? How am I supposed to fix this? To win? I feel like banging my head in frustration. Maybe it’s time I call Agent Dylan. I may not trust him but at least he’s not trying to get me killed . . . probably.
As I pull my phone from my pocket, the screen lights up. An unknown caller is calling me. My blood turns to ice in my veins. Is it Andrew again? Calling back to gloat? To get the final word?
The curiosity gets the better of me. I answer it. “Hello?”
There’s no response on the other end, and for every second that passes in silence, my heart rate increases. Just when I think he’s not going to say anything, he speaks.
“It’s been a while.”
Tony.
“What? You have nothing to say? I traveled all this way.”
I try and fail several times to voice my thoughts, but they’re all jumbled. I don’t have the upper hand here. I don’t know what I was thinking, how I could possibly have thought I could control this situation, control anything. All I’m thinking is that I want it all to end.
I force words out. “I’m tired, Tony. Let’s end this once and for all. You and me. Only one of us walks away.”
He’s silent for a moment, then, “You know, you’re almost taking all the fun out of this. Almost.”
“Meet me in thirty minutes at Sweetie’s Ice Cream Parlor. It’s in town.”
He laughs. It’s a gross sound that’s humorless and makes my skin crawl. “How dumb do you think I am? First, I’m not meeting you anywhere public. And second, I’m not meeting you anywhere you choose.”
My voice comes out steady even though I feel anything but. “Then what do you propose?”
There’s background noise wherever he is, and even though the sounds are familiar, I can’t make out any distinct place. “I made a friend.”
“Congratulations. That must be hard for you.”
His frustration is evident even from over the phone. “Shut up,” he snaps. “My friend doesn’t like you, and besides letting me know where you are, his investigators told me something interesting. Want to know what that is?”
I want to throw up. “No.”
“I have a daughter. Her mother, Elizabeth White, listed me as the father on her birth certificate almost eighteen years ago, but she never contacted me. She only had my name, so I suppose it’s not her fault. But Andrew sent me pictures, and wow . . .” He sounds like he’s talking more to himself now than to me. “She has my Sabrina’s eyes. Same as my mother. And her face, the shape . . . it’s just like Sabrina’s,” he says almost reverently, as if he’s looking at the picture now and is transfixed.
A bell rings in the background, and it’s then that I realize where he is. My breath hitches at the rumbling of school buses starting up. He’s outside school. He’s near Annalisa.
“I can’t wait to meet her,” he continues. “School’s getting out now, and I’ve heard she’s a good friend of yours.”
I was not prepared for this. Nothing could’ve prepared me for this. No one is supposed to get hurt for me.
“Leave her alone!” I exclaim, the desperation in my voice clear as day. “Meet me and leave her alone. This is between us and about finishing what we started.”
“Abandon any ideas about whatever silly plan you had when you created a social media account and posted your phone number, a phone number I already had because of Andrew, mind you. Meet me alone. No cops—and I’ll know if there are cops—or I hurt Annalisa. Or maybe I hurt your other friends. Aiden, his brothers, the other boys you hang around with . . .”
Even the way he says their names make me sick. The way he talks about my friends like he would relish their pain, would hurt them just to hurt me—this is my worst fear come to fruition, all because of Andrew. All because I pissed him off enough to make him dig into me, to have him doubt who I was, to go searching for the truth and uncover a secret that gives him the one thing he wants to accomplish most: payback on me through Tony.
I’ve always known that no one was going to get hurt for me. I may feel out of control, but I can control who gets caught in the cross fire, and it won’t be Annalisa or Aiden or Mom or anyone else. My resolve is set. Any worries I had before are melting away with the realization that I always knew it would come to this. Just me and Tony.
“Where?”
“There’s an abandoned factory off forty-two. Know the place?”
I search my mind and an image of the place he’s talking about pops up. It’s chained up, so there’s no going inside, but it’s in the middle of nowhere, surrounded only by trees.
“Yes,” I state.
“You have thirty minutes to get there. You don’t show and I’ll visit one of your friends.”
He hangs up before I can say anything else, and I clutch my phone in my hand so hard it hurts.
“Fuck!” My yell is answered by silence, and I rack my brain for something, anything to come to me.
I stare at my phone’s screen, the time glowing up at me innocently. It’s 2:30. Tony said school just let out, but that’s the time King ends. Commack Silver High gets let out early.
And Annalisa’s still a student there.
Yes! I feel like pumping my fists in victory. Annalisa’s nowhere near Tony, at least for the time being. For the first time ever, I’m grateful that Kaitlyn got her expelled.
Before Aiden, Mason, and Noah get here, I make one last phone call, and pray Annalisa answers.