“Basically, someone got a hold of your phone and installed this program on it, and now they can see every single thing you do. They can track your location, see every text and email you send, if you log in to any apps like social media, banking …”
I felt lightheaded; my body started tingling. “So … can someone make it look like people are sending me messages? Can they intercept texts and delete them?”
“Well, it’s possible the person has cloned your phone. If they had access to your phone for even five minutes, they could have taken the SIM card out and downloaded all the information to another SIM card. Then they can put the new SIM card into another phone and make a clone of your phone. So, yeah, they’d be able to see every message you got, delete messages, or even send messages to and from your number to make them look like they came from you.”
“What about the fake messages from my boss and Max?”
“If they have control of your phone, it’s easy to change your boss’s number to their number in your contacts, and then send you a message—so it looks like it came from your boss. After they send it, they can just change the number back to your boss’s so you’d never notice anything was different. I’ve seen it done many times.”
An ache started forming behind my eyes. I knew I should be grateful that Oliver had finally given me some answers, or at least vindicated that I’d been right—that I wasn’t crazy. But instead, I just felt worse.
“How long has this been happening?” Oliver asked.
“A couple of months,” I said with a sigh.
“Has anyone had access to your phone in that time? For at least five to ten minutes?”
I racked my brain, going over all the times I’d been in the same room as Madison—the coffee shop when we first met, the High Note, my ultrasound—but my phone hadn’t left my sight any of those times. It had either been on the table right in front of me or in my pocket or my purse. I would have seen if Madison had made a grab for it.
All of a sudden it hit me.
“Oh my God,” I said, my hand flying to my forehead. “Yes—a few months ago. This woman I’ve been having problems with came by with groceries and suggested I take a shower while she was there. My phone was in the living room the whole time I was in the shower.”
That was back when she was actually being nice; it was all a sham. She never wanted to be my friend. She just wanted to spy on me.
“That could be it, yeah,” Oliver said.
The stupidly expensive tea … the gift of the pregnancy book I’d thought was so generous. It was all a part of her manipulation.
“So …” I said with a sigh. “Is there any way to get this spy app off my phone?”
“Sure. I can delete it off your phone. But if she cloned your SIM card, that’s a different problem. You probably want to get a new phone with a new SIM card. And I would definitely change your PIN and all your passwords as soon as possible.”
I groaned. More money down the drain.
Within fifteen minutes, Connor and Oliver had activated a new phone with a brand-new SIM card for me. While they were doing that, I walked down the street to my local bank to withdraw eight hundred dollars cash out of my savings to pay for it.Dear God, Ineedmy credit card back!
As I walked out of the store a little while later, I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. A woman in black leggings, a black sweatshirt with the hood up, and dark sunglasses was standing a few feet away, holding her phone up. I heard a subtleclickas she snapped a photo, then she looked up and saw me notice her.
“Hey!” I took a step toward her.
The woman whirled around and started walking quickly down the street, hands in pockets, head down.
“Hey! Stop!” I took off after her. When she looked back and saw I was following her, she broke into a full sprint.
I started running too.
As sweat sprouted under my arms, it quickly became apparent that this woman was not only younger than me but also much faster. When she turned a corner and disappeared, I slowed to a walk, groaning at the stitch in my side and clutching my belly.
What the hell? It looked like she was waiting for me.This had to be the same woman who had been watching me from across the street the evening I’d gone maternity shopping with Ellie. The same woman who’d been outside my building the night Madison made her social media baby announcement and I circled the block.
Who the hell is she?Every time I’d spotted her, she ran.Is this some friend of Madison’s?
Maybe the next time I spotted her, I could snap a picture of her. If I can’t get close to her, I can at least zoom in on a picture to get a better look.
Back at home, I plugged my new phone into my laptop to download all my contacts. I changed the PIN on my phone and the password to my iCloud account, like Oliver and Connor had recommended. Then I sent only my closest contacts my new number.
Still full from my big brunch with Ellie, I decided to make it an early night.
