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A piece of conversation from the night prior flashed through my mind.
He vehemently assured me that I didn’t need any prescriptions or therapists.
I only needed him.
But I knew better.
He wouldn’t reinforce the fragile barricade protecting my last bits of sanity—he’d destroy it.
I scooped up a spoonful of the parfait and took a bite, savoring the taste of all the fruits and yogurt, now realizing I had been hungry. He remained silent, waiting on an answer I didn’t have. The words were spoken in anger and taken completely out of context.
“That wasn’t what I meant.”
“He’s not a real fucking doctor,” he repeated my words back to me. “Do you plan on explaining what you did mean then?”
His tone continued to convey nothing more than curiosity, but snakes also had forked tongues, and that never boded well for their chosen prey.
“Alaric, there’s a lot we need to talk about. This should be at the very bottom of that priority list.”
I took another bite, looking anywhere but at the man staring me down. He placed his hands flat on the island, using it to brace himself.
“Have you forgotten how good of a listener I am? You can always talk to me, Cat. What’s wrong?”
I tightened my grip on the spoon to keep myself from launching it and the whole glass of parfait at his perfect goddamn face. What was wrong? That couldn’t be a real question.
“I asked you about Chloe…”
His eyes slightly narrowed, contemplating me with a look I couldn’t decipher. “I heard you first the time. But why are you asking me? This is the first time you’ve ever mentioned this person.”
I placed my spoon down and stared at him.
I think he may have been telling the truth. I tried to recall having a conversation with him where Chloe was mentioned and couldn’t think of one.
Still, though.
“There’s no one else here, Alaric. This was done by either you or me. I know it wasn’t me. That only leaves you.”
He straightened and took a step back. “So, now you’re openly accusing me? A moment ago, it sounded like you weren’t sure.”
“I never said I wasn’t--.”
“And we’re not the only ones here.”
A scoff slipped from my mouth. Surely, he wasn’t referring to Demitri. Even if he did do it, it would only have been done so at Alaric’s command.
“Demitri would never do anything like that,” he tacked on as if reading my mind.
“None of us did it. The phone has a mind of its own,” I deadpanned.
“While I can appreciate your attempt at sarcasm, have you tried messaging her through one of the other apps and asking what’s going on?”
I placed my hands in my lap and found a speck of granite to focus on. Why hadn’t I thought of this myself? Unable to meet his eye, I picked up my phone and navigated to the messenger app that was linked to my social media profile. Chloe and I only spoke this way occasionally, but our conversation box should’ve been at the very top, right above my sisters.
It was gone…
Both chats were.
Was this a glitch? I checked my phone’s 4G and then forced closed the app, immediately reopening it again. Nothing. The messages were still nowhere to be seen. I could feel Alaric watching me, but he remained silent.
I angled my body to the side, lifting my phone higher so he couldn’t see the screen. Going into the main app, I typed Chloe’s name into the search bar. The results loaded showing a few profiles with the same name, none of them hers.
I tried Meg’s too, but nothing came up this time.
“This makes no sense…” I mumbled.
“What’s wrong?”
“How did you…” I trailed off, shooting him a glance.
I was going to question how he managed to remove Chloe’s entire profile, but the simple fact of the matter was, he couldn’t. Only Chloe could do that, right? But Meg’s was gone too and my sister was dead. Someone else would have had to remove hers. I couldn’t outright say the same person had somehow done both, but the situation was far too similar for me to declare it a simple coincidence.
“I don’t understand…” I rubbed the back of my neck and hit the home button.
“Catalina,” Alaric called softly to get my attention.
I lifted my eyes to him, searching for a hint or clue as to what was going on. As expected, he gave nothing away. Whatever was going on, I was missing some particularly important pieces of a complex puzzle. Trying to decipher the picture wasn’t a feasible option anymore, not while I was beneath Alaric’s roof. The best thing I could do for myself was get home.
“It’s nothing. Forget I said anything.”
“It’s not nothing. Somethings bothering you.” He began to make his way around the island.
I jumped up. The force of my sudden movement nearly knocked over his bar stool. Like an animal of prey fearing, it would be devoured by the predator, I knew I couldn’t let him come any closer.
