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“Okay,” I said. “And that story is significant to why you give her uncomfortable packages now because…”
She narrowed her eyes, but answered me.
“Tony loved packages. She felt so special when she got them. She’s my twin, so I know that she loved the days our mom would send her something. So I started sending them when I could afford to buy her things, because I knew that she loved them. But one time, I sent her something that cost a whack. I picked it out especially for her, and she scoffed at the gift and threw it away. So I started sending her shit that would make her uncomfortable because she’d pissed me off.”
There it was.
She’d put her heart and hard-earned money into buying her sister a present, knowing how much she loved getting presents, and her sister had shit all over the gift.
She was hurt. So she’d turned those ‘gifts’ into malicious presents because she’d been harmed by her sister’s lack of enthusiasm.
“Okay,” I nodded. “And then what happened?”
She then went on to explain that the packages from the stalker had escalated to the point where he was jacking off in the box of stuff—most of it sexual in nature—and somehow getting it to them without anyone the wiser.
At first ‘Tony’ was aware that she was getting these presents. But Hades and Keene had gone out of their way to hide it from her the best that they could. And the stalker had upped his game. He’d also shown that Caristonia’s new boyfriend, Slone Day, wasn’t going to be a deterrence in getting her the packages he thought she needed.
All we knew was that the stalker was male. Though, typically, all stalkers were of the opposite sex. It sure would be helpful to know a few more details.
“…And I have this super-duper bad feeling about Tony being with Slone.” The woman in front of me tried to hide her fear, but I saw it in her eyes before she’d banked the emotions. “So I tried to break them up.”
Tried.
Nice.
My lips twitched. “And let me guess, everyone is mad at you now?”
“Oh, yeah.” Hades shrugged. “It’s nothing new, though. I’ve been the unofficial punching bag of the Singh clan since I was born.”
Her nonchalant words made my stomach churn.
I narrowed my eyes. “Why?”
She shrugged. “It’s just been the way of it since I was born.”
I didn’t like the sound of that.
I also didn’t like my reaction to that.
It felt like I was doing something that I should definitely not be doing.
To distract myself from my thoughts I said, “So what did you do to break them up?”
She told me the story of faking an article that showed Slone had gone out on a date with another woman for a charity gala.
“You’re that good with Photoshop?” I asked.
She lifted a shoulder as she said, “Well, it was my major when I was in college.”
“Was your major?” I asked.
“I was in school for photography and design,” she answered. “It was my dream to design things. Not any particular things, just things in general. If that makes any sense. And I wanted to use my own photos to do it.” She pursed her lips before saying, “I’m good at it, too. I design all the media for Singh Circus. I had started to hire out when Folsom, she was someone who used to work with us that is a computer whiz, said I needed to start putting myself out there. Anyway, long story short, I didn’t finish college because my sister thinks that I am—or maybe was at this point—obsessed with my ex-boyfriend, Benji.”
I frowned. “Why would she think that?”
She then went on to explain everything about Benji, and I didn’t blame her for her response. The guy sounded like a douche.
“Why not just tell your sister?” I wondered.
Why not let her know the guy you were once dating was a douche, and that you saved her from a stalker?
“I guess I was jealous at first,” she admitted, her eyes narrowing on something on the table. She reached forward and flicked a piece of dried food off the table with her nail before she looked back up at me and said, “From the very beginning, it was my sister. For my dad, he always liked Tony more. For my mom, Tony was the first one she talked to every time. For Benji, he’d gravitated toward Tony first. But I didn’t know that when I agreed to go on a date with him. I only learned about it later from one of my sisters. I’ve never been chosen first and…I don’t know. I just don’t want her to know, I guess. It hurts my pride a little less to know that she doesn’t know.”
I leaned back as the waitress came back with our drinks.
“What can I get y’all for dinner?” the older lady asked, looking haggard and worn.
