Page 164 of Someone Like Me
I frown at her words, back up, and read them again. What the hell? If I’ll still have her? Is she kidding?
Please forgive me, but I did what I did on Monday because I had to. It’s too hard to explain here, and I need to keep this short, but Tori forced me to do it. She wants to hurt me, and she’s using you to get her way. I don’t know when, but Tori snuck into your apartment and planted something of hers in there. I know this sounds crazy, but she wants to be able to make it look like you broke into our house and stole from her. And she knows what she’s doing. I think she took hairs and fibers from your room to stage in hers as evidence.
My spine is a rod of rebar. I can hear my racing pulse in my ears and nothing else. I’m gripping the paper so tightly, one edge tears.
Drew, I can’t even believe I’m writing this, but she’s blackmailing me into staying away from you. She threatened to turn you in and have you sent back to prison if I didn’t end things between us. I can’t let that happen. I’ll do anything to protect you, even let you go. But please know that I love you more than my own life.
This won’t last forever. Is it too much to ask you to wait for me? You’ve already lost so much time. I’d understand if it is.
I make a noise of disgust. Is she serious?
Tori is moving in a few months. The danger will pass when she goes. Can you wait that long? Please don’t text or call. Tori’s checking my phone constantly. And please don’t do anything rash. If you want to respond to this, go through Janine. She’ll make sure I get word from you. I’ve included her number here.
I don’t even read the number. I’m already keying the ignition when my eyes fall on her last words.
I’m so sorry about Mrs. Vivian. It’s killing me not to be with you through all of this. Just know I’m not far. I leave my light on every night so you’ll see I’m still here.
Love,
Evie
It’s only the threat of arrest that keeps me from driving home like a mad man. I want to go to her, talk to her, but first I need to tear my apartment inside out and find whatever it is Tori could use against me.
They shouldn’t, but cars lining the curb down St. Joseph Street throw me at first. Evie’s letter has wiped all else from my head. Aunt Josie and Uncle Nelson have parked in the driveway, but they’ve left me a spot. I wonder if I can sneak around to the apartment before anyone notices. Even before I left the cemetery, I didn’t want to have to see anyone.
But now I’m like a man possessed.
I think I’m going to make it to the apartment stairs, but as soon as I get past the kitchen door, it opens.
“Andrew?” It’s Aunt Josie, but, I swear, the way she says my name sounds just like Grandma Q.
I turn slowly and face her, guilt hunching my shoulders. I should be inside, welcoming Grandma’s friends and neighbors, extending the hospitality she always did in her honor.
But how can I shake hands and smile and drink coffee while I feel like my skin is on fire?
I need to be upstairs, tearing my apartment to shreds. It’s small enough. It can’t possibly take too long to find whatever belongs to Tori Lalonde. And if I do, maybe I could have Evie back tonight—
“I’m sorry, Aunt Josie. There’s something I have to—”
“I’ve been wanting to talk to you,” she says, ignoring my impatience. “The last few days have just been so trying. No other time felt right.”
I let go a restless breath. “Now’s not really—”
“She left you the house.”
For an elastic moment, the words scatter like birdshot, soaring apart from each other with no hope of making sense. But their echo rings in my ear, pulling back their meaning, and I frown at my aunt, disbelieving.
“What’d you say?”
She’s watching me with just a hint of a smile on her lips. Still, she looks pleased with herself. “ItoldLottie you had nothing to do with it,” she mutters.
My eyes bug.“Dowith it? Josie, what are you talking about?”
Aunt Josie shakes her head, her smile growing. “About a week after you came home, I took Mama to see her lawyer.” She arches a meaningful brow. “She made me stay in the waiting room, but she told me after that she was signing papers, making an adjustment to her will.”
Blood fills my head. My ears and eyelids seem to swell with it.
Josie lays a hand on my elbow and gives it a little squeeze. “She wanted you to have the house, Andrew,” she says. “She wanted you to be able to call this place home even after she was gone. We’ll go to the lawyer’s on Tuesday. The will will be read then, and it’ll be yours. Just as she planned.”
