Page 95 of Total Exposure

I hear his incredulous laugh just before I end the call and turn my ringer off.

Let him come over. I’d love to have another face-to-face with Jordan Wells.

When I look back at the monitors Evangeline is lying back down and if I look very hard I think I can still see a smile on her face.

I take out our book and read her last entry again.

I’m tired of the poems.

I’m tired of the pretty words

all dressed up to make it shine and take the trophy of first prize.

I’m tired of the dream I never dreamed,

for it wasn’t mine and no one cared if they stole

my youth, or my talent, or my soul.

I was just a number.

A diamond ring made to sing

then forsaken and left shaken.

My father sold me. Like a thing that can be sold.

I am not a thing.

He is not a king.

And I’d rather die in the dark than be told

this is my purpose in life.

Jesus. Sold? I shake my head and hope that was a metaphor for how her parents used her. Because clearly they did use her. But I can’t shake the bad feeling creeping up on me. Like something just happened but I missed it. Or something’s coming and I can’t see it.

Stop being stupid, Ixion. It’s a fucking game. And you’re both winning, so who cares? Just write your next entry and leave her the book. What she does with it after that is up to her.

I pick up the pen but just hold it over the page, unsure of what to say next.

A text dings on my phone and I almost ignore it, because all I want to do is think about the girl upstairs and what I need to tell her next.

And after I read that text, I wish I had ignored it.

Because this changes everything.

Chapter Thirty-Seven - Evangeline

In the morning I can’t get down to the kitchen fast enough. My feet trip over themselves trying to skip down steps. I bounce into the hallway, sliding around the corner, eager to get back to our story.

Our book isn’t there.

“Ix?” I ask the ceiling. “Where’s your story? This is the end. You can’t deny me the end.”

It’s a joke, said jokingly. Because of course it is. Because there’s no way he’d do that to me. Because I know him so well now. I know almost all his secrets and this was the last secret. The final piece of information that will open him up to me completely.

But there’s nothing but silence echoing back in my head.