I pat her ass with the spatula and then lean in, whispering against her ear, "And Nolan hates wearing condoms."
"Why are you telling me that?" she asks aloud.
Her brow furrows with confusion, and I shrug. "The more you know."
"Did you sleep okay last night, Saige?" Nolan asks as she sits across from him.
"Not really," she grumbles, taking out her phone.
I bite back a smile as I finish up with the food. Nolan is a light sleeper; her nightmare woke him up, too. "Saige, you're adorable. I really like having you around."
When she gives me silence instead of the biting commentary I anticipate, I turn back to the table to pile it on.
But Saige's face pales, her eyes widening like she's seen a ghost.
"Hey, Saige, you okay?" Nolan asks.
She doesn't answer.
"Baby, what's wrong?"
I walk up behind her, looking over her shoulder at her phone screen.
"Give me that," I say, snatching the phone from her hands.
I pace the floor, reading the messages on the screen.
I know what you did.
I know where you are.
I'm coming for you.
The last message is a photo of me and Saige walking back to the house last night. It looks like it was taken while I was yelling at her about the cigarette.
Fuming, I try to call the phone number, but of course, it's from a text app and doesn't go through.
"This is nothing," I tell her, blocking the number. "Don't worry about it."
"What do you mean, it's nothing?" she asks through tears. "Someone knows what I did, and they're stalking me. They're putting dead animals in my bed and taking pictures of me! Stop saying that it's nothing!"
"What happened?" Elias asks me, ignoring Saige. He grabs a plate from the counter and sits at the head of the table.
"Someone sent Saige some unsavory text messages."
"Let me see it."
I hand him the phone, and Nolan leans over, reading along with him.
Elias looks up over the screen, glaring at his stepsister like it's her fault.
"I should have known better than to help you."
"What?! How is this—"
"You're always fucking trouble," Elias says, cutting her off. "When I find out who's doing this, I'll just hand you over to them and get them the fuck off my back. And you, too. Win-win."
"Me!?" Saige shouts, pushing out of her chair so hard that it falls to the ground.
