I consider this carefully. “I’ve had a few run-ins with her since coming back. She’s . . . still angry at me, I guess. And possibly deluded, because she thinks . . .” I try not to choke on the words, “that she and Kellan are a couple again or something.”
Jonah tosses the shirt back down and sits on the couch. “Well,” he says carefully, like he’s afraid to set me off, “some of that may have to do with the fact that he had sex with her several times while you were gone and may have given her the impression that they were back together.”
I drop like a stone in the chair across from him. “Whaaaat?”
The smile he gives me isn’t much of one at all. “Everyone was very sympathetic to me when you disappeared, Chloe. I know they all meant well, but . . . personally, it was too much. I didn’t want their sympathy. I didn’t want . . . I didn’t want that kind of focus on me. I wanted to be left alone in my misery, and eventually, people got the message. Kellan was forced into his isolation over the situation, though. Nobody but Astrid and Callie knew how hard your disappearance affected him. He was just as destroyed as me, since his Connection was gone, too, and he had to put on the act he always does, where nobody knows about the link between you two. So he acted out, lapsed back into behaviors he knew would mask his pain.”
Even though I knew he’d done this, had guessed it the whole time I was in Alaska, I still feel sick to my stomach.
Kellan acted like this because of me. He hurt her—again—because of me.
“Sophie was relentless after you disappeared. She figured it was her shot to win him back or something. He refused to even acknowledge her at first, but she tracked him down at some bar one night when he was really . . .” Jonah won’t meet my eyes. “Upset, for lack of a better word. He ended up going home with her. He regretted it immediately, but the damage was done. Out of guilt, he gave it a half-hearted try for a few weeks, but then he dumped her again.”
Oh, gods.
“She basically stalked him after that. Called him constantly, showed up at work and the apartment without notice. Confronted him in public numerous times, even once hysterically claimed she was pregnant with his baby in front of an entire restaurant we were in.” He finally looks at me. “I found her in our apartment more than once. One time she was in the tub in Kellan’s bathroom, all flowers and bubbles and champagne. Another time, she was . . .” He’s grossly uncomfortable telling me this. “Um, waiting for me, naked in my room. She . . . uh . . . thought, I don’t know, she could make him jealous by hitting on me. It was . . .” He tugs on his hair. “Anyway, there was also one time Kel woke up to her standing over his bed, watching him sleep.”
My nails dig into my palms. Did something happen between Jonah and Sophie, too—like she threatened so long ago? My anger threatens to consume me, but he gets up and comes over to where I’m sitting.
He takes my hands. “You have nothing to worry about, at least on my end, Chloe. Because, as hurt as I was, as much as I missed you . . .” He kisses the backs of my hands. “I couldn’t stand the thought of being with anyone other than you.”
And I believe him. I just do.
He kisses my cheek and sits down on the coffee table in front of me. “We’ve changed our locks several times since those breakins. We couldn’t figure out how she got ahold of a key, since no part of the door was damaged. The doorman is on notice that she’s never allowed in the building anymore.” He looks down at his hands. “I think she’s mentally ill.”
And by think, he means know, since he obviously understanding feelings better than most.
“She feels . . . off,” he continues. “I don’t know how to explain it. She genuinely believes she loves him, Chloe—although I would term it more obsession than true love. But to her, it’s true love. She’s even convinced that they have a Connection that the Seers keep missing. Kellan doesn’t know what to do about it. He knows he fucked up by messing with her like he did. He also knows he never should have slept with her again the second time or humored any of her talks of a future between them.”
Okay. Okay. Must think about this logically. Several pieces of furniture nearby are shuddering with my fury. I force myself to take several deep breaths, counting to twenty before I speak. Thankfully, the room calms. “You two are Emotionals. Have you not thought of influencing her to stay away?”
“Yes. Of course we have.” Jonah’s bleak. “But we were warned we’d be punished if we did.”