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“Noelle,” I say again, “you have to talk to me. Please. Help me make sense of this.”
“Make sense of what?”
“You know what.” Part of me still doesn’t want to accuse her. I want it to all be a misunderstanding, a terrible dream I can wake up from. But the clock is ticking and Ashley and Gram need me to face the truth. “Noelle, where is Benjamin?”
“I don’t know.”
Hope unfurls inside of me. I hear it in her voice, in the very subtle way it cracks and wavers.She knows something.
“You don’t know what?” I press.
She sighs. “I don’t know where he is. I don’t know where they took him…after I handed him off.”
I stifle a groan. Her betrayal is a physical ache deep in my body. I want to double over and hurl, or curl into the fetal position and cry. Preferably both.
“You took him,” I rasp. “You really… You did it. I didn’t think it could have been you, but you actually did it.”
“I didn’t have a choice.” Her voice is flat and emotionless. If she has regrets, I can’t hear them. “I had to protect myself, Piper.”
I’ve always known Noelle is different with Ashley than with me. Different people bring out different sides in you. It’s only natural.
Noelle and I bake cookies and watch60 Minutesdocumentaries. Ashley and Noelle are a little… rougher around the edges. They curse and call each other names. When I head home after dinner, they usually hit up another club.
Now, I know Noelle has even more sides to her. Dark sides. Pieces of her personality that can lie and betray and kidnap a defenseless baby from his crib.
“We all have a choice. All of us. You chose wrong.”
“I didn’t get to ‘choose wrong.’ I didn’t get a choice becauseyouchose wrong,” she snaps back. “You chose to get involved with Timofey fucking Viktorov. The only reason the Albanians came knocking on my door is because of you.”
“And you are the reason the Albanians had something they could hold over your head as leverage. I didn’t make you steal from your company.”
“But I would have gotten away with it if it hadn’t been for you,” she hisses.
I feel like the Scooby gang at the end of an episode, watching the monster be unmasked.I would’ve gotten away with it, too, if it hadn’t been for you meddling kids.
I shake my head. “How can someone I’ve known for so long be such a stranger? I don’t even know who you are anymore.”
“God, you’re so dramatic.” She lets out a weary sigh. “Well, this has been fun, Piper. But I’ve gotta run. These baby seals won’t club themselves.” Sarcasm is thick in her voice, but at this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if she was swinging a bat at Sea World right now.
“Is he okay?” I ask, hoping she’s still on the line. “Is… Is Benjamin okay, at least? Can you tell me if he’s hurt?”
She’s quiet for so long that I’m not sure she’s going to answer. But just before the line goes dead, she whispers, “I don’t know.”
My breath catches. My heart is squeezing uncomfortably in my chest. Not only because a person I considered one of my best friends kidnapped a baby and handed him to criminals for her own selfish gain—but because that innocent, beautiful baby boy might be…
I can’t even think it.
Tears well in my eyes, and I swipe them away. Crying won’t help Benjamin.
The phone line clicks closed. Noelle—like our friendship—is gone.
I collect myself as much as I can and turn to head back to Ashley and Gram.
But Timofey is standing behind me. I don’t have to wonder if he was close enough to hear my conversation. I can tell by the bone-shattering clench of his jaw that he was.
“Timofey, that wasn’t what you—”
“Well?” he growls. “Share with the class. Is he okay?”
