Page 29 of Devious Obsession
Ping.
Ping.
I shut off my email notifications, then drop it facedown. I cover my face. I feel more than see Thalia take my phone and scroll through the notifications, and her silence means that I’m well and truly fucked.
“These are disgusting,” she murmurs. “Some just sent dick pics, others are propositioning you. Who’s Cillian Monroe?”
I snatch the phone. It’s not an email—it’s a call.
My uncle.
I answer it and stand, motioning to Thalia that I’ll be back. I hurry toward the stacks, away from people, before I whisper, “Hello?”
“What sort of mess have you gotten yourself into, kid?” Uncle asks. His voice is low, ominous. “And why didn’t you call me?”
My jaw drops. “How—”
“I have eyes on campus.” He scoffs. “You don’t think I’d leave you unprotected? Your daddy—”
“I don’t want anything to do with him,” I interrupt. “So if you’re doing this because of him, I’m going to say thanks but no thanks.”
“My brother doesn’t know any of this,” Uncle growls. “He’s out of pocket for the near future, which is why he gave you the money.”
“Money?”
He sighs like I’m an absolute fucking idiot—and maybe I am.
“Did you open that package?”
“No.”
Silence.
“Is it…”
“Cash, darling. Think of it as a monster repaying his debts. But now there’s the matter at hand. You know prostituting is illegal. The website is being taken down as we speak. I’ve got someone going through your email, and they’ll delete—”
“No.” I shut my eyes.
“No?”
“I mean, thank you for taking down the website. But if you do any more, they’ll know… And there’s a risk. Dad doesn’t know where I am, does he? He asked you to get me the package, but we both know you don’t share information that’s not vital. If you had, he’d be on my doorstep.”
“At the library doorstep, you mean.”
A chill sweeps down my back, and I look around. Which seems fruitless, because I’m alone in the stacks. I can barely even see the tables in the center of the room.
He sighs. “No. I didn’t tell him, for the exact reasons you’ve described. And more that you haven’t, but we won’t get into those. What you need to know is that you’re safe from my side of the board, and I’m hearing what you’re saying. You’d like to deny the Monroe name altogether.”
When he puts it like that…
“You’re the only child who took our name,” he says suddenly. “Because your mother refused to put his name on their birth certificates. Even though you were all living together.”
Not married, though. I suppose that’s the one good decision Mom made. If she had married him, she would’ve been tied to him in so many more ways.
“Yeah.”
“So, when the Monroe family comes to collect, they care about you and you alone. You’re the one who shares our name.”
