While I wait, I try to pack. I pull out my suitcase, the one I bought at Goodwill when I moved to grad school. It's scratched and one of the wheels doesn't turn properly, but it's mine.
What do you pack for a week in Malibu with a stranger? What do you wear when you're meeting someone who might be a savior or a predator or something in between?
I throw in jeans, a few shirts, my least-worn dress. Then I sit on my bed and stare at the empty suitcase, my heart racing so fast I can feel it in my throat.
This is real. This is happening. I'm either making the best decision of my life or the worst.
And I won't know which until I get on that plane.
6
JADE
Chloe arrives twenty minutes later with coffee and the kind of expression that means she's ready to talk me out of something stupid.
"Okay," she says, setting the coffees down on my counter. "What's the emergency?"
I hand her the letter and the plane ticket without saying anything.
She reads the letter once. Then again. Then looks at the ticket and back at me.
"You're joking."
"I wish I were."
"This is either the most romantic thing I've ever seen or the beginning of a Dateline episode." She sets everything down carefully. "Please tell me you're not actually considering this."
"I'm going."
"WHAT?"
"I have to. I need to know who this person is. Why they sent the money. What they want."
Chloe starts pacing, which means she's shifting into lawyer mode. "Jade, think about this. This man, whoever P.C. is, has been watching you. He knew your exact debt. He knows whereyou live. And now he's asking you to fly across the country to meet him."
“What are you saying?”
“You don't even know who he is or his name. Just two initials and he’s stalking you. ”
"But the money is real. The ticket is real. Something about this is real."
"Or something about this is a very expensive trap." Chloe shakes her head. "Do you hear yourself?"
I sit down on my bed, suddenly exhausted. "My mother has been hiding things my whole life. Who my father is. Where we came from. Why she walked away from wealth. And I'm tired, Chloe. I'm so tired of living in the shadow of secrets I don't understand."
Chloe's expression softens. She sits next to me. "I know. But this is dangerous."
"Everything is dangerous. Staying here is dangerous. I'm drowning in a life I hate, working three jobs that barely keep me afloat. At least this is a different kind of risk."
"The money is already spent?"
"I paid the hospital this morning. And the student loans. It's done."
Chloe picks up the letter again. “'This person is obsessive."
"Or romantic."
"Or OBSESSIVE."
