Page 16 of Broken Love

“Please, Caleb. We need to talk—”

“Don’t finish that sentence, Boxcar! I swear to god…”

I succumb to the truth.

This is no dream. This is really happening.

I am Rosemary staring down into the black bassinet. That baby with the glowing red eyes is mine.

I perk up my ears, preparing myself to argue with him a little more but, to my surprise, he says nothing. Not one damn word. I don’t know why he’s here and sure as hell don’t want to know… but I find his silence interesting nonetheless.

Not interesting enough to get me off this couch, though.

I reach for the television remote and flick it on, quickly navigating to my Netflix menu. There’s a certain show I’ve been dying to binge-watch and today’s the day I’m finally going to make a massive dent in season two.

I push play and sit back into the cushions to immerse myself in the opening theme song.

The picture freezes. I grit my teeth, waiting for it to buffer and keep going.

Any moment now…

A message pops up, covering the entire screen.

Please check your internet settings.

I pick up the remote again and navigate to the settings menu.

Incorrect password. Please re-enter your password.

Heat rises on my skin. I raise an eyebrow and tap my password in.

Incorrect password.

I input it again, this time making extra sure every button I push is correct.

Incorrect password.

I hop up off the couch, heaving a thick, annoyed sigh as I head over to the router to make sure—

Wait…

That son-of-a-bitch.

I rush to my door and throw it open.

Boxcar stands in my hallway with his laptop balanced on one knee. He jolts as I step outside, nearly letting the thing fall to the floor but he catches it and closes it before it slips.

“Did you just change my wi-fi password?” I seethe, staring him down like the bug he is.

“Yes, I did,” he answers.

“Change it back.”

“No.”

My eye twitches. “Boxcar…”

“Caleb…”

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