I subconsciously grab my phone.
My finger wanders to her contact.
I really shouldn’t do it.
Don’t do it.
But I do.
The day is fucked anyway.
It rings.
Once, and then it’s interrupted by the automated voice telling me the person I have called is currently unavailable.
I'm feeling exhausted right now, even though I've slept more than ever. I’m not physically tired, but mentally, because everything feels like it's slipping out of my control.
I rub my eyes. Only three times in my life have I felt this kind of pressure. The first time was when I nearly failed my bachelor’s because a professor thought I was entitled and needed a lesson. The second was when Jared blackmailed me. Now, for the third time, the fear of everything from the past surfacing looms over me.
My phone rings, and before I can even get my hopes up that it’s Ella, alive and well, I see my father’s picture on the screen. I groan because I know what’ll come.
My father doesn’t even concern himself with a hello. He lectures me that I cannot be distracted, how he taught me to be better, and ends it after fifteen minutes with what a disappointment I am and how badly it reflects on the family name when Ian calls him, asking if I am okay because I seem stressed and distracted.
My father, who manages to hit the news with every possible scandal involving way too young women. The hypocrisy of it grumbles murderously in my chest.
He hangs up before I can say a word, not that I would’ve. After all these years, all my success, I would never dare talk back to my father. Everyone else, yes. But not to my father. He is the reason why I am where I am today, and I have to be grateful for that.
I rest my face in my hands.
My mother’s upcoming birthday will be hell.
I seriously consider liquidating all my assets, buying an island somewhere in nowhere, and becoming no one. It seems tempting atthis point.
The door to my office opens without knocking, probably Doug, he’s the only one allowed to enter without knocking.
I don’t even look.
I need silence.
“You look like you could use a break,” says a voice I’d recognize anywhere, and my head shoots up.
Ella.
Leaning casually against the door, a weak smile on her face—and my mind turns off entirely.
11
KAT
PLAYLIST: JOKE’S ON YOU – CHARLOTTE LAWRENCE
Ican’t tell why I am here. Taking every risk I can as I play hide and seek with death and the devil. If I pull the trigger now, it’ll be over in a second. I have everything with me.
I have my backpack and my gun ready.
No one searched me, because Doug knows who I am, and no one suspects shy Ella.
Lilian has to pay for what she has done.
