Page 116 of The Monster I Am
“Please tell me she didn’t say anything,” I groan.
“Oh, she told me everything,” Bex snorts, confirming my worst fears. “Is that why you’re hiding?”
“I’mrecovering.”
Bex closes the door softly, walking over. She climbs onto the bed, laying down next to me. I roll on my side to face her, relaxing as I break into a smile at seeing her.
“You doing okay?” She asks gently, reaching to cup my face.
I nod, closing my eyes as I lean into her palm. “Thanks for coming.”
Bex’s fingers tenderly graze my cheek. “I’ll always be here for you—especially on days like this.”
“Do you think that’s whyhe’shere?” I question, amused.
I admit I give Soph too much shit sometimes. That’s just part of our sibling charm.
She’ll never hear me say this out loud, but I’m glad she has someone now. I don’t know what I’d do without Bex. Soph and I have never been the best at expressing our pain. We support each other with dark humor and pretend threats of violence. But the deep stuff? We’re still trying to figure out how to do that.
I blame my father. When Mom died, he treated our grief as though it was an abnormal problem that needed fixing. He’d scoff and demand we grow up, tell us to stop crying. Eventually, we learned to switch it off around him, bottling it up until he was out of the country and we felt safe to act human.
Neither of us had the chance to talk to each other about it. We’d sit in mutual silence, having unspoken conversations in a language only we knew.
It helped—because we couldsensethe other’s pain, but not being able to discuss it freely without consequence had a lasting effect on us.
Bex hums her agreement. “Definitely.”
I open my eyes, finding comfort in her mint green depths. “Just so you know… if he hurts her, I’ll have to kill him.”
She breaks into an amused smile. “You’ve seen Parker fight, right?”
“I can take him. If I can handle Calvin, I’m practically invincible.”
I burn holes into the side of his face, glaring intensely as Parker types. I’m mentally preparing for all the possible ways to kill him and where to bury his body if he hurts Sophia.
Bex wanted to check on her when we heard the two of them emerge from Soph’s bedroom, and when I heard footsteps returning, I was perplexed to find Parker standing in my room in place of Bex.
Apparently, the girls are determined to test my limits. They sent the Cedar Heights senior in while they scurried off to get snacks, suggesting he can take a look at the encrypted file with me.
I hate to admit it, but this could be handy. I’ve been following along with his techniques, and while I recognize them, we obviously have different preferences and strengths.
It’s better if we can get this cracked sooner rather than later, especially since both Ry and Bex were just targeted. There’s no telling what will happen next. We need to know what Marcus is hiding.
“So…” I say slowly, attempting to sound bored. “Do you know Lark?”
Parker pauses, suspiciously side-eyeing me at the question. “If you want to know information, ask your girlfriend.”
Asshole.
“I’m asking you,” I shoot back. “I already know he’s the one who bailed Bex out.”
Sighing, Parker swivels his chair to face me. “Look—you won’t trick me into being your spy. I already know where this conversation is heading. Lark’s good with computers and coding too. He’s also not an idiot. You and I both know you never put information online that you don’t want discovered.”
“I know that,” I growl. “But there’s no record of his existence at all. I’m just curious.”
Parker cocks an eyebrow at me. “There is,” he confirms dryly. “You were just searching for the wrong thing.”
“What do you mean?” I press.
