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Kenna’s throat went dry.
She should’ve taken notes, but she was so engrossed in the story that picking up the pen became an impossible task. The comment about Dr. Merino’s planning called to mind the snafu with her file.
She feared that his methodical hunt for information went beyond vetting her for their partnership and, as she pondered this, her lungs bordered on collapse, crushed beneath the weight of possibility.
“Not long after that, my boyfriend broke it off with me. No explanation. I was crushed. I mean, things between us were never great. We had our fair share of problems, maybe more than most, but the way he ended it, it was out of nowhere. Three years of our lives thrown away.” Her speech yielded to the fist pressed to her trembling lips. “I knew Dr. M had a thing for me, and I know this sounds awful, but I used him as a distraction.”
“Then we started sleeping together and he became clingy, the closer we got. I didn’t see it as a cause for alarm.” Charlee’s arms drew close to her torso, protecting herself from the resurfaced memories. “But the clinginess turned into jealousy. Fast. He always wanted to know where I was, who I was with, and I guess my answers weren’t enough because at one point, I found a GPS tracker on my car. And he’d yell,” her soft voice cracked. “He’d yell at me, make me feel worthless, like I didn’t mean anything when I wasn’t loving him.”
Kenna felt a pang of regret at making her revisit the trauma. Then she reminded herself that Charlee had volunteered to disclose the information and that’s what she was after, wasn’t she? Research.
If she could use this experience to keep herself, and other women, safe, then the result of the evening would far outweigh resurrecting Charlee’s hurt for 45 minutes.
“I’d planned to stay at Ponderosa for grad school, but I was ready to get away from Dr. M. I ended it with him, told him I was going back to Missouri for my master’s. He seemed relieved, almost, that I was leaving. I thought it was really weird, you know? One minute, he was obsessing over me and the next he was scrambling to get rid of me. He even offered to write me a letter of rec for my application to Missouri State. So I packed up and here I am. Haven’t spoken a word to him since.”
Kenna teetered on the edge of her wooden desk chair.
“And the letter?”
“He wrote it and mailed it to the school. As promised.”
Charlee sunk into her own seat. The portrait of a defeated woman. Years had passed, and yet she still reeled at her fling with Dr. Merino, still trying to make sense of it.
Eyes shining, she whispered, “He broke my heart.”
Kenna’s own heart ached for her. She understood perfectly well what it was like to fall for someone and then to have it all ripped away. She gripped her knees and let loose what she’d wanted to say since the call began.
“I think he’s stalking me.”
Laughing through tears, Charlee swept her pointer finger beneath each eye and when she caught her breath, she poured a third glass of wine. “Dayton can be intense, but seriously?”
“You said he put a GPS tracker on yourcar.”
“Sure, it was a little creepy that he kept tabs on me, but we were in a relationship. It was different.”
She and Charlee had differing definitions of stalking.
There was something else she was dying to ask, and with Alex out of the apartment, she couldn’t pass up the opportunity. “Can I ask you one last thing?”
“Shoot.”
“My roommate hates him. The problem is, she won’t say anything. I guess I was wondering if, maybe, you knew her. She would’ve been a sophomore when you were a senior. Her name’s Alexandria Guerrero.”
Charlee froze, repeating, “Guerrero?”
A knot twisted itself in Kenna’s stomach. “Yeah.”
“Dr. M kept this book on his coffee table. I don’t remember what it looked like or the name or anything, but it had an inscription.Love, Miss Guerrero. The rest of it was in cursive. Hard to read. I never bothered asking him about it. I just figured he had a habit of dating his mentors. He’s not the most agreeable person, in case you haven’t noticed.”
Miss Guerrero, ‘Señorita Guerrero’ as he’d called her in the parking lot. Kenna bit the inside of her cheek until she tasted blood. The bombshell left her dizzied by manic curiosity.
Alex was indisputably tangled in Dr. Merino’s mess.
15
PONDEROSA PINES
She smoothed out the numbered sticker on the hip of her yoga pants, identifying her as runner 326 among the crowd of 512. Getting up at 6 a.m. to run a 5K with Dr. Merino wasn’t how Kenna pictured spending her midterm break.
