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Bree and I were sitting at the kitchen table by the time I’d finished telling her everything from Chase flipping out on Erin and ignoring me yesterday to meeting with Harper and Erin this morning to everything with the sketchbook.
“What a psycho,” she said as she slid my phone to me after looking through the pictures of the sketchbook pages. “I mean, sorry if itisyour friend, but come on. Who even does that?”
“I don’t know,” I muttered as I spun my phone around and around.
“And what did all the words end up saying?” she asked, stare drifting as she thought. “I was too focused on the crossed-out things to put them all together.”
“‘She burned someone else to be with you. She’ll do the same to you,’” I said from memory. “And they only crossed out sketches that had to do with me. They left the others untouched.”
Bree’s eyes widened as she finished taking another sip. When she did, she whispered, “What the hell?”
“Right,” I murmured, then pressed my hand on top of my phone before reminding her, “Only a small group of people knew that I was dating someone else when I met Chase. And only a handful ofthosepeople know where we live.”
Bree was nodding as I spoke, but her head suddenly jerked back. “I’m not the psycho,” she said quickly, eyes wide as if she hadn’t realized until just then that I might’ve thought that.
A soft laugh broke from me at the absurd thought. “Hadn’t even crossed my mind.”
“Okay, okay.” She gestured at me with her drink, her tone musing when she continued. “So, the cops think this person is someone who Chase had an encounter with, andyouthink this person could be whoever Chase thought Erin was as ‘Trish.’”
I nodded before asking, “Why’d you call it an ‘encounter?’” When she just looked at me in confusion, I explained, “You said it was someone Chase had an encounter with, but the cops keep hinting it’s someone he had an affair with.”
Bree snorted. The sound wholly amused and adorable and utterly her. “Because there is absolutely no way in hell my brother cheated on you. He’s too in love with you. Like, obsessive and possessive over you in ways that are nauseating to hear about. So...he definitely, only,encounteredthis crazy person.”
“He doesn’t think so,” I told her, voice soft, even though that was nothing new to Bree.
“Well, he also thought he was in love with Harper...” She drew out the last words, letting them linger as she fought a smile at the absurdity of it all. Lips pressed tightly together before a soft laugh left me. “Exactly. He can be wrong.”
“I think that’s the first time I’ve laughed over the whole Harper thing,” I admitted.
“Oh, well, then it wasn’t nearly good enough,” she said with a wry smile. “Let it out, friend.”
“Yeah, one day, I’ll probably find it a lot more amusing. But I still needed that,” I told her and gave her a grateful smile. “So, thank you.”
“That’s what I’m here for,” she said with a nonchalant shrug. “To drink coffee. Devour gossip. Knock my brother upside the head when he gets out of line. Fight off crazy people who leave creepy messages for you...”
My next laugh was louder, freer. “I don’t know what we’d do without you.”
“Um, nothing. Because your lives would be incredibly dull.” She leaned against the table, expression set in determination. “Now, let’s go down the list of things we know and put them against all the women that are regularly in your and Chase’s life.” She looked around, hands up. “Paper... I need paper and a pen. This is going to get confusing.”
Confusing. Heartbreaking. Infuriating.
With all the signs pointing at my friend, I fully understood Chase’s fear of getting his memories back. Because as much as I wanted to know, I wasn’t ready for how badly this was going to hurt.
Itore my stare from the passing neighborhood when Brandon said, “Read the notes to me,” that afternoon.
A sigh bled free as I grabbed the smoothed-out papers from my pocket, my mind feeling weighed down as I unnecessarily shuffled them around since I had no idea if there was any sort of order to them.
“Is it going to make a difference?” I asked before I began.
“Can’t hurt.” He glanced over at me, a helpless kind of smirk slanting his mouth when he said, “Brian sort of yelled a general version of what they said in about ten seconds. So, read them. Slower.”
I nodded, slapping the papers against my palm a few times before I began, jaw clenched tight and knee bouncing rapidly. “‘Have you thought about us? Does she know? Do you touch her the way you touch me? I still think about your hands on me. In my dreams, it’s only you and me. I’m dying to be touched by you again.’”
“Jesus,” Brandon murmured, looking at me with a mixture of shock and disappointment when he pulled up to a stop sign. “The hell?”
“Yeah.”
