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Sadie froze, and I could tell that something had triggered her.
I cleared my throat. “The good news is that Carmella should be put away again soon, and we can put that behind us.”
Sadie nodded as she ate, but her eyes connected with mine, and I knew these feelings I still had for Sadie weren’t simple, and neither were the ones she felt for me.
But before I could worry about any of that, I needed to make the world safe again for her, even if that meant letting go of her in the process.
Maybe the therapist was right.
Chapter Eleven
Sadie
I knew I was fully at the point of being paranoid. I completely recognized that, but I also knew that Melanie’s texts had never reached me.
And with today’s cell service, that was highly unlikely. Even in our small mountain town, we didn’t have many dead patches.
But she also didn’t have any reason to lie about it, so that’s why I knew I was being paranoid.
Melanie left shortly after dinner, and the rest of us watched a movie before we all headed to bed. I’d thought about telling Zack about not receiving her text last night, but I just didn’t have it in me to stay up for another two hours rehashing it.
But this morning, it was on top of my mind the second I woke up, and I knew I needed to tell him.
I rolled over, feeling the softness of the sheets on my arms before willing myself to uncover and grab my phone.
Sitting up in bed, I reached for my robe and wandered over to where I’d plugged my phone in last night.
There were six messages from Melanie, all asking if I was alright. I opened them up and realized these must have been the texts she’d been talking about. I chuckled to myself, realizing I really had embraced paranoia.
So, that was great.
It made me feel much better, like I could breathe deeply again.
I opened up my favorite social media app, expecting to see some great puppy pics or someone’s great dinner from last night, but I sucked in a sharp breath when I saw another message from my old boyfriend in my social media inbox.
His first one left me unsettled several weeks ago, but I promised myself that since I hadn’t heard from him anymore, it was just him checking up on me. That maybe he’d grown as a person, fallen in love with someone else, and moved on.
It had been a simple message.
Hope all is well with you in your mountain town, my little seashell. We should catch up sometime. ~Tim
But I couldn’t dismiss the fact that, at that time, I'd started to feel like someone was watching me.
I also never messaged him back because I knew better than to encourage someone who’d had that behavior in the past. It had literally taken my dad to step in when I tried to end things with Tim.
Another thing I had to do was remind myself that it was obvious I’d moved to my mountain town because of the profile images I’d shared, not because he was stalking me again.
A cold breeze shot through me, but the air in my room was absolutely still. I didn’t want to open the message, but I knew I had to.
But as I stared at his name, the chill went deeper.
The memories that had long turned into shadows of my mind resurfaced, and my hands trembled.
Could he be involved with the coffee shop?
I moved the tip of my finger to the inbox, hovering over his name, and clicked it.
Ah, I see you think you’re better than me. Too good to answer a message from an old boyfriend, my little seashell? Too famous from being kidnapped back home? You’re lucky it wasn’t me who’d done that to you. Your superhero of a boyfriend would never have found you.
