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“I’m sorry. You’ve had a lot of people die.”
“I wasn’t old enough to remember my parents. Or the orphanage. I had a very happy and privileged upbringing, and just as I became an adult, I came into more money than most people see in their lifetimes. I have nothing to complain about.”
“Money doesn’t make up for losing family.”
“You’d be surprised the things money can make up for,” he drawled.
She noticed that he didn’t ask her about her parents. She figured he didn't have to.
“I guess you already know what happened to my parents. I guess you did your homework.”
“I had someone else do my homework the day you sat in that meeting with Christo and Carlyle and me. I know you grew up in the foster system. You don’t have parents to speak of. Unlike me, you didn't have a happy story. You worked your way through college, then got an MBA, then you applied to work at Apex. God only knows why Carlyle hired you. You weren’t qualified. But I’m glad he did.”
“I really wasn’t qualified," she laughed. "I fucked everything up completely…”
Alex grew solemn suddenly, his eyes narrowing into thoughtfulness. “You're right," he agreed. “You weren’t. And you did. Repeatedly. I told him to fire you, but he wouldn’t.”
His expression made her nervous. “What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking this conspiracy runs deeper and quite differently to my previous assumptions,” he said, his voice lowering to a feral growl. “I’m thinking I need to talk to Carlyle.”
“No.”
“No?”
“You talk to Carlyle, he knows there’s something wrong, whatever he's up to keeps going on under some different guise. Indigo knew too much about me too. Indigo… I need to call my therapist.”
“You need a session now?”
“I just want to talk to her. It’s weird she hasn’t called me, actually. Usually I get emails about missed appointments threatening me with losing my spot. I should have gotten a bunch of them.”
“It’s not weird she hasn't called you given you don’t have any access to your old phone and your old email. The old you is gone. You can’t call her.”
“You're right. I can’t,” she said. She’d picked up her phone and was running a search for her therapist’s number. What came up was a news article which made her freeze, and then took all her feelings and sort of sucked them out of her until she felt nothing but a hollow ringing in her ears.
“Alex…”
“Yes?”
“My therapist was shot in the face on the day I first went missing.”
“That's unfortunate,” he murmured, as if he barely noticed what she’d said.
“You don't understand. She was a nice woman. She wasn't the sort of person to get shot in the head."
“Is there a personality type that is more likely to get shot in the head?”
“If there is, she didn’t have it.”
“You're upset," he said, noticing.
“I am. I liked her. Or, I at least had enough feelings toward her that I didn't want her murdered in cold blood, Alex.”
“When was she shot?”
“The same day I went missing. See. This online issue reports it right under me being a terrorist.”
“Hm.”
“Hm. What?”
“The day you disappear, your therapist is murdered. Is there anything in the report about signs of torture?”
“You think someone tortured her?!” Sophie wanted to be sick.
“I think it would indicate motive if they did. Therapists know a lot of secrets about people. It’s possible someone was trying to get information about you.”
“You think Christo had my therapist tortured and killed.”
“I don’t think anything. I’m considering possibilities, and avenues of investigation. If your therapist died because of anything connected to us, I will find out.”
“Thank you,” Sophie said. "It's just so fucked up. The last time I talked to her, she was telling me to keep up with my gratitude journal. Now she’s gone. Forever.”
“Are you okay?” He frowned the question.
“I… I don’t know. I guess if I’m not, I won't be able to talk to anyone about it.”
Lame humor was best when it was dark. Alex didn’t even give her a pity smirk. Merciless bastard.
"I don't think it’s Christo," she said. “Christo is an idiot.”
“He plays the idiot, but Christo is the smartest man I have ever known. Don’t underestimate him.”
“So we’re left with someone framing me, fraud…”
“A lot of money was made off that fraud.”
“By whom?”
“A lot of people.”
“Wow. The specifics are stunning.”
Alex gave her a dry look. “You’re trouble. You know that?”
“I think what I know is this is a mess we’re not going to untangle right away.”
“On that, you’re correct. Keep your eyes and ears open. Trust nobody outside this room.”
“We're not paranoid if the world is really out to get us.”
“Exactly.”
“I need you to understand something, Sophie. These questions you have, they won’t be answered today, or tomorrow, or perhaps, ever. We live in a world of conspiracy and lies. Every truth we discover inevitably has a hundred lies behind it. I’m not saying this because we’re not going to try. I’m telling you because there are so many players on the board, and some of them aren’t known to us.”
