Page 7 of You for Her (The Edge of Retaliation 2)
“Good,” he murmurs. “I know I haven’t called after what you told me. Could say I was … confused. Can we meet up? Talk?”
Is there some small chance that my story made Tanner see things differently?
Maybe he’s understanding that I’m not a monster?
I shake my head. Doubtful. He knows I’ve maintained Celia stepped in front of me that night since the court case, there is no way hearing it from me would have changed his mind. I’m being too soft. I have to stop. I’ll get hurt again, only this time so much worse.
“Yeah,” I say, my voice scratchy as I fight down the emotions trying to claw their way up. “When?”
“Tonight? My place. I want to talk.”
“Okay, I’ll see you then.”
I hang up the phone before he can say any more. A range of feelings are at war in my chest. Part of me wants to tell him I know everything, scream at him, abuse him, and then get over it. The bigger part wants to know what they had planned for me, it wants to throw their plans right in their face. I’m smart, I’ve had a long time to myself, a long time to trust my instincts. I could play this game harder than they ever imagined.
Am I that person, though?
Is that who I am?
Who I want to be?
“I’m in!” Caleb shouts, and I turn, rushing out of the living room and back into the dining room where he’s spinning around in the chair with a huge grin on his face. “It took a lot because it was fingerprint and password protected, but I’m in.”
“Oh, my gosh!” I say, rushing over and staring at the screen where a picture of Celia and who I can assume is Chase is filling the space. They look happy, she’s utterly beautiful. My heart aches when I look at her, laughing, smiling, and the doubts begin to creep in. “Thank you so much!”
“You’re welcome,” Caleb says, standing. “I enjoy a challenge. Tell Jo she owes me! Change the password and take the lock off so you can get back in.”
“Thanks, Caleb! I will.” I smile, waving at him as he leaves.
When he’s gone, I sit down at the desk with a racing heart. My skin prickles. My hands are sweating. I’m terrified and nervous and so damned scared about what I’m going to find on here. Worse, if I find nothing and I’m back to square one. I stretch my hand out to the mousepad and start scrolling.
I look through her files first. There are a ton of photos, of family, of Tanner, of Andrea and her parents. Some of Ethan and Chase. I still don’t know how Ethan fits in, and because I can’t ask, I’m going to have to figure it out on my own. I flick through each photo, looking at them, feeling my heart sink with every click.
This is killing me.
It’s ripping my insides apart.
When I’ve gone through the photos, I click on the internet and connect. Then I go into her browser history. I type in Facebook, but nothing comes up, her account has been deleted but it was worth a shot. I try Instagram and SnapChat, but nothing there, either. I search Google history, and my fingers pause over the recent searches.
‘Healing from HIV.’
‘Is there a cure for HIV?’
‘Living with HIV.’
‘Reporting a crime to the police.’
‘Plan-B pill locations.’
I shake my head and click onto some of the searches. HIV? Did Celia have HIV? If so, how and where did she get it? Was it from Chase? Did he have it and not tell her? Is that why he’s gone? Or did someone else give it to her? A crime? Did someone hurt her? My mind spins with a thousand questions. There is no other history, and I click out of the internet and go into her emails. They pop up, and my heart aches when I see the last date of the last one sent was two days before she died.
I click into them, there are only two and they’re from Chase. Any others have been deleted. These ones haven’t been read. She hasn’t seen them, which makes me wonder what happened between the two of them? Did she block him and he had to resort to emails? Was he bothering her?
I click on the first one.
Celia,
Please talk to me. I’m worried about you. I know you have no reason to ever speak to me again after what I let happen to you. But I can’t go on. I can’t live with myself. Please, let me help you through this. Unblock me so we can speak.
Chase
I blink and shake my head, confused. What did he let happen to her? My stomach doesn’t feel right, like a weight is lying on top of it. I have so many questions, and none of them have good answers. Something really bad happened to Celia, something Chase knows about, but worse, something he allowed to happen.
