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“Why wouldn’t you tell me?”
“I know I should have, but I didn’t want to worry anyone. I was waiting to see if he would try calling again, and he hasn’t.”
“Let me listen to it.” Rita held out her hand.
Ariana found the voicemail and gave her phone to Rita.
Bella pressed against her sister, listening too.
“That’s Father,” they said in unison.
Ariana’s stomach knotted. “I’m sorry I didn’t say anything sooner. I meant to bring it up when the time was right, but then I got distracted with all of the party planning. I know that isn’t an excuse.”
Rita grabbed her sister. “He knows where you’re staying! We have to figure something else out.”
Maya came over. “Wait, are you talking about threatening phone calls?”
“Yeah, why?”
“I got one the other day.” Maya toyed with one of her earrings. “Came from an unknown number. I answered because I love messing with telemarketers. But it was some lunatic ranting about his daughter. I didn’t put two and two together until just now, but he had to have been talking about Bella.”
Rita pulled on her hair. “You’ve got to be kidding me!”
“This is good news.” Bella smiled.
“You’ve lost your mind.” Rita gave her sister a bewildered expression.
“No. This means Father doesn’t know where I am. He’s calling your friends at random, hoping to scare whoever knows where I am.”
Rita shook her head.
“That’s exactly what’s going on! Why else would he have called Maya?”
“You don’t have a recording?” Rita asked.
“No. Like I said, I talked to him. If people are going to call me uninvited, I’m going to give them a hard time. That’s what they get.”
Bella sighed. “I wish I could be more like you. I don’t know how to not be way too polite.”
Maya wrapped an arm around her. “You’re welcome to spend as much time around me as you want. I’ll teach you to be uncouth and speak your mind to anyone at any time.”
“Can we focus?” Rita snapped. “I need to know if it was my father you spoke to.”
“I can ask him if he calls again.”
Rita threw her hands in the air.
“Listen to this.” Ariana replayed her voicemail.
“Yeah!” Maya snapped her fingers. “That’s totally the guy. His voice got higher the more I kept talking. He didn’t know what to do with me.”
Bella giggled. “I wish I could’ve heard that.”
“It was fun.”
Rita got up and paced circles around the dining room table. “We have to be even more careful. He’s a dangerous man, and it worries me that he’s calling my friends. How would he get your numbers?”
“It wouldn’t bethathard,” Maya said. “He met us all at your wedding. Ari’s number is associated with her and Damon’s business, so that wouldn’t be so hard. And I’ve never gone to any effort to keep mine private, unlike Olivia who’s practically a ghost online.”
