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Callum:I need to explain.
Me:And I will let you, but what I need is some space.
Callum:Give me a time.
Me:No. It doesn’t work that way. I will contact you when I’m ready.
Callum:You are not taking you away from me.
Me:I don’t know what I’m doing, which is why I need space.
Callum:You told me you love me.
Me:That was before I had all the information.
Callum:You still don’t have it. I’ll explain.
Me:I’ll text you. I’m turning off my phone now.
Jackie handed me a mug and sat beside me. She sipped her coffee while I sipped mine. When I found it wasn’t scorching hot, I took bigger gulps.
“Are you going to talk?” Jackie asked.
“Callum Rose.”
Her sharp intake of breath was all I needed to hear. She hadn’t been kind to me and Ez out of the goodness of her heart. Aunt Jackie was no benevolent neighbor. I was a job to her. Nothing more.
“What do you know?” she asked cautiously.
“I know you’re being paid by him to be my friend.” I was trying so hard to be tough, but the hitch in my words proved I wasn’t doing a great job.
Her shoulders curled inward. “Oh, baby, no. That isn’t true. Not at all.”
I lifted a hand. “Then tell me whatistrue, Jackie. Because right now, I feel like everyone’s been lying to me and I don’t know what’s real anymore.”
A sob broke through, but only one. If I let loose the well of sadness gathering in my chest, I’d never stop. And I couldn’t give in to that. Not when my little boy was right next door, waiting for me to come home with a smile on my face.
“I’m bound by confidentiality, Wren, but—” she cut herself off and looked away, rubbing her mouth roughly. Then she turned back, determination lighting her gaze. “No. I’ll tell you as much as I can. I won’t have you walk out of here thinking I don’t care for you and Ezra, because that just isn’t true.”
I choked on another sob. “Okay. Then tell me.”
He came in the dead of night. I wasn’t at all surprised to hear the creak in the hallway, and then, a moment later, my bed dipping under his weight. His long, cold body curled around my back, his arm like a steel band wrapping around my middle.
We lay there for long minutes. He knew I was awake since I curled my fingers around his. As time ticked by, his jagged breaths smoothed out, and the tautness in his muscles eased. I felt him melt into me, weighing me down into the mattress.
“Growing up, I hung out with Jenny whenever I got the chance. You don’t know this about her, but Jenny is a big movie buff. She goes to the theater whenever she gets the chance and has a long list of favorite films. So, when I hung out with her, naturally, we’d watch a lot of movies.”
Callum had frozen in place, listening to me speak so hard, he was barely breathing.
“One of her favorites wasThe Truman Show. I don’t know if you’ve seen it, but I’ve watched it a dozen times. There’s this guy, Truman, and he has a picture-perfect life...or so he thinks. It turns out, everyone in his sweet little town is an actor and his life is a TV show. None of it’s real. His friends are being paid to be his friend. It’s all fake. His job, his wife, even his home is being controlled by the man behind the curtain.”
Callum’s hand flattened on my stomach. “Wren.”
“I think you understand where I’m going with this. I’ve been onThe Wren Showfor the last three years. Aunt Jackie, Mr. Sulaimani, and god knows who else, have been looking out for me because they’re paid to do so. And you...you knew who I was for years and never said anything. Not a word, Callum. I ached for you, my heart broke missing you, and you weretherethe whole time. I have always felt someone watching me, but it didn’t feel scary, so I let it go. God, I shouldn’t have let it go.”
Jackie didn’t know everything, but she told me what shedidknow. Callum had hired the PI firm to find out information on me and my neighbors. When the townhouse next to Jenny’s became vacant, Jackie had needed a place to live, so she moved in. Her job was to keep an eye out for me, nothing more, and she only reported if anything was amiss, which it very rarely was. She had promised me she watched Ez because she loved him, but I didn’t know what to believe anymore.
Mr. Sulaimani at the bodega had also kept tabs on me. I didn’t know what he’d been paid since Jackie wasn’t aware. I only knew I’d never look at him the same way again.
