25
MANDY
The lower half of my grandmother’s face appears, huge, on my computer monitor. “I’ve been hacked.”
“Gran,” I hiss into the headset, trying to minimize the video-call window. “You can’t call me here—this is my work line. How did you even get it?”
My heart is racing with panic. It’s my stalker. Jaxon has hacked my grandmother’s Facebook. He’s escalating. He’s after her. What am I going to do?
“Your father won’t take me to the Apple Store.”
“Why do you need to go to the Apple Store, Gran? You have a Samsung phone.”
“Because I’ve been hacked, Mandy. They logged me out of Facebook.”
I punch down the volume on the keyboard. “Amy can’t take you?”
“She won’t go to the Apple Store with me anymore. She says I antagonize the employees. Antagonize! That’s their job, to answer questions.”
“Who hacked you? What did they say?”
“I don’t know—they sent me a message. There was a link. I thought it was from your father’s Aunt Becky, you know, the one with the hoarding problem.”
“Aunt Becky doesn’t have a hoarding problem, does she?”
“A source in the family told me her house is filled with outlet-store bags. The woman has a problem. Shopping addiction is a disease.” The ice cubes in her glass of wine clink. The camera adjusts, and now I’m looking at the rest of her face.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” Gran says. “My friend Tina is holding a baby shower for her French bulldog, and I’m supposed to attend, but I can’t get into my Facebook.”
I silently count to five.
“Look, Gran, I have to work right now, but I will call you back in a little bit. We’ll call Facebook and—”
“Facebook! But they hacked my phone.”
“No, someone hacked your Facebook. I’ll deal with it later, okay? Just don’t click on any links.”
“I have to go. I’m on your mother’s tablet—she doesn’t know.”
She leaves the video call still running, though all that’s in the screen is a view of the spinning ceiling fan.
Sighing, I end the call.
My phone beeps again. Fortunately, it’s just the lawyer with a reminder about the mediation meeting tomorrow.
My heart races.
At least the stalker didn’t get Gran. It’s a blessing, right? Though now I’m going to have to spend my lunch break trying to convince Facebook to let my grandmother back into her account.
“You sure you don’t want to just leave her locked out?” Jess leans on her armrest. “I’m friends with her on Facebook. I see the stuff she posts.”
“If I don’t, she’ll just harass my dad.” I glance behind me.
Salinger has been avoiding me all afternoon since he left me high and dry to take Pepper out. He hasn’t given up on finding out who Jaxon is, though. I can tell he’s plotting something. He’s like one of those spiders that lies in wait to grab its prey when they’re least expecting it.
I need him not to. Once we have the mediation meeting, cooler heads will prevail. Jaxon is already losing interest. I haven’t gotten a text message from him since Friday. I bet Jaxon saw Salinger with me and got scared. The lawyers will make Jaxon see reason, and everything will be fine. I don’t need Salinger to escalate the situation.
Another text message from my lawyer pings my phone.
