Page 48 of Hexes From Exes

“You tell me where that fucker lives or so help me god I will find some way to make you pay for this. I’ll make sure you never see another medical sale again. I’ll personally destroy your career and your life,” she added. They were empty threats. She had no idea how to do any of that. She didn’t even know if she were capable of it. She was just so hurt and betrayed, she wanted to lash out at someone. Fred would do for now until she found Chad.

Fred fumbled with his phone, his fingers shaking. Stephanie looked down at the message he sent. A contact with the name ‘Chad’ on it.

“Good choice,” Stephanie said, uncrossing her arms. She needed to get out of this heat before she passed out. She turned to walk across the parking lot, not stopping when Fred yelled after her.

“Look, Stephanie…I’m sorry. Please don’t ruin my career!”

* * *

At 7:45pm, Stephanie parked in front of Chad’s home in Paradise Valley.

Of course, he lived in some ridiculously pretentious neighborhood that had a gate and security. Thankfully Stephanie knew Chad probably had women over all the time, and just dropping his name and his house number was enough for the security guard to wave her through. How he afforded this neighborhood was beyond her. Crypto was failing and not rebounding one bit. He must have sold his business at the top and bailed before it fell, that was the only thing that made sense.

Stephanie was relying on outdated information about Chad. It’d been a while since they broke up, long enough for him to move into this monstrosity. She parked in the street, marveling at the putt putt course in the front yard that was made of real grass. His driveway was long, leading up to a three-car garage and a separate two-car garage along the side. The house was two stories and looked more like it was made out of Legos than an actual real home someone might live in. The lights along the walkway turned on as she walked past, leaving a trail behind her. She rolled her eyes and made it to the front door, knocking and ringing the doorbell.

Chad answered the door wearing only navy joggers that were slung low on his hips. He was shirtless, his feet bare and his eyes wide as he swung the door open to see her.

“Stephanie,” he greeted, his voice hesitant. Fred must not have warned Chad, otherwise there’s no way he would have answered his door without checking to see who it was. Stephanie smiled and pushed into his house, shoving him out of the way to enter the cold living room.

“Wow, look at this place,” she said, turning in a circle to look around at the inside of his home. It was just as much of a sterile monstrosity as the outside, except it had a dash of frat boy with Daddy’s credit card. He had multiple framed superhero posters on the wall in the hallway leading deeper into his home. His kitchen was white – ceiling, tiles, cabinets, everything. Was she in a home or a hospital?

“Yeah, it’s my new place,” he said, closing the door and wandering closer to her.

“You know, this is the perfect place to summon a demon,” she said, turning on him. She watched as his eyes widened, and he stopped in his tracks, his gaze darting to the living room. Stephanie spun on her heels to follow his gaze. “Is this where you did it? When you brought the guys over and decided it’d be fun and games to try to ruin my life?”

“I don’t know what you’re…” he started, but Stephanie cut him off.

“I’m not a fucking idiot, I know you’re the brains behind it.”

“Who told you?” he asked, looking more annoyed than shocked.

“How about this? You give me the ritual, and I give you a name. You like deals, this should be an easy one.”

“You want the ritual?” Chad asked, his brows furrowed.

“Yep. Just give it to me, and I’ll tell you who sold you out,” Stephanie said. She extended her hand, palm up, fingers extended.

He looked at her palm in wordless shock.

She snapped her fingers. “C’mon, Chad. It’s an easy trade.”

“You’ll use it against me,” Chad said, shaking his head.

“I won’t use the ritual against you in any way, shape or form,” she said with a sigh.

“You promise?” Chad asked.

Stephanie shook her head. “Yes, I promise. Honestly, I don’t care what happens to you or the other guys. The fact you’d stoop to this is so…” She took a deep breath, trying to channel her yoga training to keep her rage at bay. Seeing Chad loosened something in her. It felt like the glue that held the pieces of her together were melting. If she didn’t hurry up and figure this out, she was going to fall apart.

“Fine, if you promise,” Chad said, hesitating a second longer to confirm.

She nodded, snapping her fingers again. “C’mon, hurry up.”

She watched Chad cross the room to his entertainment system and opened a DVD case. From it, he pulled out a folded piece of paper that looked like it was about to fall apart. She snatched it from his hands and opened it, looking over the incomprehensible words.

“The next page has a translation, kinda,” he said, peering over her shoulder to look. She unfurled the other paper, written in perfect script on a lined piece of paper.

“This is it?” she asked.