Page 219 of Obsession

“Who is he?” I asked Harris, who released Adam and took the phone from my hand to call someone immediately after.

“Ty, are you keeping an eye on Olsen?…. Where is he now?…. Gather everyone and get him, don’t let him get away. I’m on my way… Now, Ty!”

He hung up and sent a text message, exhaling angrily through his nose.

“Harris, what’s going on? Who is that man?”

“The owner of that car.”

“The accountant you were talking about earlier?”

“Yes.”

“But what…” I stammered, and he looked first at me, then at Adam.

“I’ll find out this time.”

He grabbed Adam by the collar of his T-shirt.

“What the fuck did he want you to do, exactly?”

“This fucking photo shoot. He wanted pictures with Kath like that. I have no idea why; he didn’t explain. He wanted me to persuade her to pose in…” Adam looked at me, a little embarrassed.

“How?”

“In lingerie and covered in colored dust. He even gave me the tubes, he had a certain powder he wanted me to use.”

“And you tricked me into it? Why didn’t you call the police, Adam? You saw his face.”

“Because it wasn’t just him. He seemed to be nothing more than a manipulated pawn, an unimportant messenger. The others wore masks, they had attacked my sister. There were many of them, armed. I know you’re thinking logically now, but what would you have done if they had threatened to kill your father?”

I choked on my words, unable to contradict him further. He had gone through this trauma because of me.

I glanced at Harris, but he kept looking down, growing paler by the second.

“Colored dust…” he whispered as he seemed lost in thought, then he looked at Adam. “Was there a color he wanted you to use more of?”

“Yeah, a lot of violet.”

Harris’ face exploded with anger, he was swearing more than I’d ever heard him swear before as he kicked a cupboard vigorously. I tried to keep my cool until he calmed down.

“I should have killed him when I had the chance,” he ran his fingers through his hair, then pointed his index finger at Adam, “You’re lucky you’re her friend and she’s been through enough because of me, otherwise you wouldn’t be leaving this hospital alive.”

Without giving another answer, Harris grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the room.

“Harris, wait, we can’t leave him here.”

“I’m not responsible for him, he brought this on himself.”

In the hallway, I kept my mouth shut because I didn’t want to attract any more attention, but once we were outside, I exploded.

“Harris!” I yelled at him, wrenching my hand from his grasp. “Tell me what the hell is going on! Who did this?”

He grabbed my hand again and pulled me to his car, and I kept my mouth shut because I didn’t want to make a scene in public. Once we were in the car, I took his hands in mine to stop him from driving before he explained.

“It’s Joshua. It’s always been Joshua.”

He ran his fingers through his hair and cursed.

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