He kept his hands on his knees. His shorts bunched up a bit on his thighs. “I just want to be honest,” he said. “She’s pretty ticked off at your dad for not telling her he was still married and had two kids. He swears the divorce was pending, just that your mother was in the hospital. Is that true?”
He must have been as desperate for information as I was. “She mentioned divorce before going to the hospital,” I said in a quiet tone. Would Marie tell him exactly what had happened that night? I wasn’t exactly sure what my dad had said. I needed to dig for information on my own. I wanted to know the details, and I knew the guys might need some information if there was any chance of stopping this. “How did she learn about us if he didn’t mention it before?”
He shrugged and smoothed out his sport shorts on his leg. “She got a call from your school, asking about you, since you weren’t in class. They said you were skipping.”
I raised an eyebrow. I highly doubted they would call her about us. The school wouldn’t have had her number. My father wouldn’t have been stupid enough, if he was hiding us from them, to make that mistake.
I had a feeling that perhaps she’d answered my dad’s cell phone when he wasn’t around and then discovered some information about us, or in some other roundabout way discovered about the school calling.
I thought of Ms. Wright, the school counselor, who had said she’d called home and had spoken to my “mother,” and that she was disappointed in me for skipping classes or something like that. At the time, I’d been really confused and had wondered if she was lying. Now I realized she must have spoken with Carol. “There was an error in attendance, I think,” I said, wishing I could have fixed it before, although it was too late now. The damage was done.
Jimmy scanned me and then nodded slowly. “Are you okay? You seem a little...” His lips twitched, his mouth moving without more words coming out. He shook his head. “Sorry. I don’t want to say you look bad. Trying not to offend you.”
I wasn’t sure what to tell him. My mind was just as numb as my body. Something had clicked inside of me, and I was so tired, so stressed, I was shutting down.
“I’m fine,” I said quietly. He seemed nice. Maybe his mother was a nice person, too, technically. Did she not assume she was coming in for the rescue? Was it just poor timing and circumstances that left me feeling I wanted to run?
I could have handled Mr. McCoy. I could have handled Volto.
Could I handle a situation like this, where I was trapped in a ticking time bomb, waiting for Carol to expose the truth about me?
The worst part was that I felt trapped now. Maybe I was safe, but I didn’t want to be here anymore. How would I ever see the boys now?
I pressed my palm to my forehead. “I’m a little tired,” I said. “It’s been a long week. Do you think she’d mind if I took a bath?”
He laughed. “Of course not. Cleaning anything is never a waste of time.”
I sighed and nodded. I had already taken a bath, but I’d soak for a few more hours just to get myself together and figure out what to do. I got off of my knees as they were getting sore, stretching my legs a little in front of me. “I don’t want to make you do the cleaning alone. I just need a minute.”
“Sure,” he said quietly and his smile softened. “Take it easy. This will go pretty quick once we have the vacuum in here.” He reached out, giving a small pat on my foot. “We’re kind of in this together at the moment. I know what you’re going through.”
You have no idea. I stiffened at his touch, unsure how to respond. He was being nice, which made it so much more difficult for me when all I wanted to do was run back to Kota’s or Nathan’s and leave all this behind.
I got up and went to the closet, looking in, finding old clothes that didn’t fit, items that I’d left behind to look like I was living here, even if I wasn’t. Most of my clothes were at Nathan’s now.
Were there any left in the attic wardrobe? I couldn’t remember.
I needed the boys to deliver stuff to me here. I wasn’t sure how they could, though.
I took from the closet the closest things I thought could actually fit, at least for now, and brought them with me into the bathroom.
The moment I was in the bathroom doorway, I felt the phone vibrate. Someone was calling.
It sent a tiny tickle to my heart. The twist in my stomach eased. Just the feel of the vibration spoke to me in ways that relaxed me.
We know you’re there.
We’re watching.
You’re never alone.
Want and Need
DR. GREEN
––––––––
Sean Green stood in the woods outside Sang’s house. He’d put on a thicker dark sweater he borrowed from Kota, and some cotton gloves. The temperature seemed to have dropped just standing there, waiting and watching the house.
If he had driven, they would have gotten there before she had entered the house.
Maybe then he could have checked her out. Maybe then he would have learned exactly what had happened at camp, and why she had been rushed to Victor’s.
Maybe he could have stopped this.
He hated the thought of her having to go back to this place.
His lips curled and he rubbed his cold nose, looking away from the gray house. Owen continued to watch, vigilant. His glasses were foggy around the edges and his mouth was tight with concern.
Kota, Victor and Gabriel were behind them. Victor was sitting on the ground with a laptop, watching, listening and waiting. Kota and Gabriel were plugged into their phones with earbuds in place, listening to the audio from the phone Sang carried. Kota occasionally relayed what was going on.
“She’s heading upstairs with Marie,” he said. “They’re about to meet the son.”
Sean glanced back at them. All three were frowning, and he echoed the deep displeasure at the idea of Sang having to face him alone. After such a crazy week, to come back to this, was truly horrible.
He tried to think through what their next step should be. Nathan and Luke were on their way to the hospital to check up on the stepmother directly and to keep an eye on her just in case this new woman, Carol, decided to place calls. They had to set up new rules for contact. No one was to call her room directly; instead, callers had to speak with a designated doctor or nurse who understood the situation. No one was to visit without someone on their team being there to supervise.
The Academy wouldn’t be happy to hear about the situation. Not at all.
Silas and North were coordinating the return of everything from camp, checking in on the school to make sure nothing new happened during school break, and ensuring Mr. McCoy was still under observation.
It had been a fight to get any of them to do anything at this point. The only way to get them to agree was the promise that doing so ensured getting Sang out of this new situation faster.
Sean wasn’t so sure that was possible. Not now.
Carol was a problem.
“We have to do something,” Sean said to Owen.
“We are,” he said. “We’re learning.”
Sean groaned and motioned to the house. “We’ve got to get her. We can’t leave her in there.”