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“Aleks. I did some digging. Don’t hate me.”
“There are no conversations that end well after beginning that way,” I tell her. “What?”
“Remember how I said that Harper’s family felt… off. There was like a mirage? That it felt like they had a filter in place?”
I don’t want to hear it. Whatever she is going to tell me, I don’t want to hear it and yet I know that I have to.
I pinch the bridge of my nose and let out a breath.
“Yeah. Did you get past that filter?”
I can hear her swallowing on the other end of the line. “I did, yeah. What do you know about Harper? What has she told you?”
I know that she was used by her parents to make them money. I know that she wasn’t allowed to go to college or do anything normal girls her age should do. I know that she was sexually assaulted and that she doesn’t know who did it.
“Not much. Spill.”
“I was at my checkup today with my OB. We have them weekly now. And you know how my mind works, Aleks. You know how I see codes and numbers and patterns.”
“Yeah.”
I do, because I’m the same way.
The hair on the back of my neck stands up. I know she’s going to tell me something big.
“I noted there were code words for tests they took, and I remembered that I came across a few when I was doing Harper’s background check, only I didn’t think much of it then because they led to nothing. So I looked harder. Deeper. I spent all damn day because fuck it, I don’t want you hoodwinked. I don’t trust them.”
My voice sounds distant. Hollow. “What did you find?”
She takes in a breath. “Don’t kill the messenger.”
“Fucking hell, Aria, if you don’t?—”
“She had a baby, Aleks. Harper’s a mother. Those times when she ran away from home? It looks like she was going to her child. Those times when she was accused of stealing money from her parents? I’d bet you anything she gave the money to the caregivers. Foster parents, whatever.”
Baby. She has a baby.
“I have to go.”
“Aleks, be gentle with her. Please. I’ll never forgive myself if I?—”
I hang up the call and slam the phone onto my desk. It crashes and skitters across the floor.
Harper has a baby.
What else don’t I know about her?
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Harper
I’m makingsome simple sandwiches for us when I look up to see Aleks stands in the doorway, his arms crossed on his chest.
I blink. Something’s wrong. A palpable air of anger rises between us like steam.
“What’s happened?”
He pushes himself off the doorframe and stalks over to me, his eyes blazing. “You lied to me.”
