Then my phone rang. The sound was piercing in the quiet.
I thought about ignoring it. I had to deal with Toxicwrath. Time was of the essence. But when I saw it was a private number, I answered it.
Could it behim?
“Hello?”
“Hannah? It’s Mom.”
The tremble in her voice, the fear in her tone, took me back to seven years ago. To that fateful day when our world changed.
“What number are you calling from?” My head was spinning. I was scared of exposure. Worried about what my cyberpartner would do now that he felt betrayed. Frantic over Mason’s possible discoveries.
And now I was terrified of whatever my mother was about to tell me.
“I’m calling from one of the office lines at the Appleton Center.”
“What’s wrong?”
“It’s Charlotte. She had another seizure. She’s in a coma. They’re not sure if she’s going to make it. The pressure on her brain—” My mother started sobbing.
And just like that I hit rock bottom, shattered into pieces on the floor.
Not now!
Not Charlotte!
“When?” was all I could ask. My brain was about to overload. I stared at the bright glow of my computer screen, not seeing anything.
“A couple of hours ago. I didn’t want to call you until I knew something…”
Not Char.
Not my sister.
After everything tonight, it was the final straw.
I felt dead inside.
Numb.
I had completely shut down.
“I’ll be right there.”
I couldn’t think about Toxicwrath or Mason. Because Char always came first.
Always.
“Hurry, Hannah. We can’t lose her,” Mom cried.
“Hang on, Mom. I’m leaving the house now.”
I hung up the phone and stared at my computer screen. Without another thought I typed a string of numbers into the command line. Within seconds the screen went blue, the system crashing.
Everything on the hard drive was wiped clean.
I picked up the external hard drive containing the tracking program and quickly walked back to the bedroom and put it in a shoebox at the back of my closet. I didn’t feel comfortable leaving it in the house. First thing in the morning I’d open a safe-deposit box and leave it there. For now it would have to stay where it was.
