Page 61 of Her Wicked Plan

“You’ve never been a part of a group therapy session?” Wasn’t he doing this before he came here? Surely, his job entailed group sessions.

“Seems like you and I have something in common now.” He takes a sip of the juice. “Back at my old job, it was always one-on-one. We never did these sorts of things. Our boss thought it would make the patients uncomfortable sharing their stories.”

“I think your boss and Dr. Bennett need to meet.”

“Why? Did you feel uncomfortable telling everyone what you did?”

“No.” I take one last bite of the cookie. If I finish this entire thing, I might slip into a sugar coma.

“What about when the others were sharing? Did you feel uncomfortable then?”

“Nope. Their stories were boring. Uneventful.”

A smile plays on his lips. “You weren’t even paying attention.”

I stop chewing and stare at him. “Were you paying attention? Seems to me like you were more focused on what I was doing.”

“I can multitask.” He shrugs.

“Oh, I’m sure you can.” I wink at him, earning a flush of pink on his cheek. Out of the corner of my eye, I find Eliza heading out of the room. “I’ve gotta go.”

I won’t elaborate to him why I need to leave so urgently. His mouth opens to say something but snaps shut when I step around him and head towards the door.

Throwing the cookie in the trash.

CHAPTER 16

Veronica

“Eliza!” I call after her. Damn, she is fast. My lungs are almost empty of air from trying to catch up to her. I push past other patients as I rush down the hall. “Wait up!”

I don’t miss the way her body stiffens when she hears my voice, and even though she is probably terrified of me threatening her, she stops walking. Eliza doesn’t turn around to acknowledge me. It isn’t until I’m standing in front of her that she truly acknowledges me.

“You told me to leave you alone,” she reminds me in a quiet tone.

“Yeah, I know, and I meant it, but I wanted to ask you questions.”

“About what I admitted in the group session?”

With a shrug of my shoulders, she rolls her innocent, multicolored eyes. “Call me intrigued. Honestly, by just looking at you, I didn’t think you had it in you.”

“That’s what they all said.”

“The voices or...” It’s a valid question. At least I thought it was, but the way Eliza is looking at me right now shows me it was, in fact, not a good question.

She huffs out a breath of annoyance. “Do you have to be so insensitive?”

“Have you met me?” I stare at her dumbfoundedly, then realize that if I keep this up, acting this way, I won’t get through to her. To fake a friendship. The word makes me internally cringe. “You’re right. I shouldn’t have asked like that. I’ve just never met someone who has...”

“Issues like mine?”

“When you put it like that, yes.” I nod slightly. “I’m curious, that’s all. If you don’t want to answer any of my questions, then that’s fine.”

It’s not fine at all.

Eliza looks me over, wondering if I am being true to my word. Luckily for me, I can throw on a pretty great mask to get people to do what I want.

“Can I sit with you at lunch tomorrow?” she asks. It’s a bargain—sitting with me at lunch to get answers.