He held the phone out to me. “And this… is supposed to be me?”
I took it back, careful not to let our fingers touch. I couldn’t take that—notnow. Not with my pulse pounding and my stomach twisting like something was very, very wrong.
My gaze dropped to the screen.
And there it was.
Boo.
My eyes lifted back to Jamie, my stomach twisting. “You… you planned this.I’m not stupid. This is all to throw me off.” I dropped the phone back on the counter and backed up, bumping into Rory who caught me. “This is all you. It has to be!”
But what was scaring me more was that now I wasn’t sure. Knowing it wasJamie still scared me, but the mystery was solved. There was no fear of the unknown anymore. It was him. Case closed. And knowing that, I could accept it and move on.
But the sheer idea that this was someone else…
Jamie placed his hands down on the counter, his eyes lowering to meet mine.
And for a second, just a second, it was the same look I saw every morning, the one that came with tea and a pastry, because he knew I’d never wake up early enough to get one and still make it to class on time.
There was real care in his eyes. The kind that felt honest. Familiar.
Or maybe I’d officially lost it.
“Cora,” he said, voice low, steady, “I swear, on Agnes’s life, this isn’t me.”
I shook my head, but he didn’t move.
He just stood there. “This. Isn’t. Me.”
The silence that followed was thick enough to choke on. I couldn’t find thewords, and maybe he didn’t have any left either.
And then—
My phone buzzed.
I flinched. The sound sliced through the quiet like a blade.
I didn’t want to look.
But I did.
And when I saw the words lighting up my screen, everything inside medropped.
Heart, breath, reason… it was gone.
He’s telling the truth, little one.
My heart stopped. Ears muffled like I was drowning. My vision blurred and Ididn’t know which way was up. Everyvoice became fuzzy, like I had my headphones on full blast playing nothing but TV static. It was deafening, but what strangled me was the fear.
It was never Jamie.
It wasneverhim.
All this time I’d been chasing a ghost.
I didn’t have the space to try and guess who was doing this, all I knew was thatI was getting weaker by the second and needed someone to hold me up right. And there was only one person I wanted around me right now.
My legs straightened as I rounded the counter, breaking out into a run andbolting through the door, looking left and right. It was impossible trying to look for him, there were so many tears breaching my eyes that I wouldn’t see him even if he was right in front of me. And the rain had come back with a vengeance.
