Page 39 of Broken Hearts

17

Celeste

Curled up on my armchair,I stared out my bedroom window, watching rain bucket down. The last few days had been warmer than the rest of this month, which meant clouds could actually shower instead of sleet or snow, and so all I’d heard since late last night was the sound of raindrops hitting the roof. It was usually a comforting sound to me, but right now, it wasn’t. All it did was remind me that I couldn’t be out there, free, dancing in the rain like a wild child.

I’d never actually wanted to do that in the past, but now that the option had been removed entirely, I wanted to do it, just so I knew I could.

There was a knock on my door—as if I could actually open it to let anyone in—and Alex entered a few seconds later, carrying a breakfast tray and a plastic bag filled with god knows what. He put it all down on the coffee table near the TV, then strode over to me. “I made you a big breakfast. All your favorites.”

“Thank you, sir. I mean, Alex.”

I’d been trying to remind myself to get out of the habit of calling him sir, but it was a difficult habit to break. It wasn’t so much that I didn’t remember to stop… it was more that I actually still liked calling him ‘sir’. I didn’t want to like it anymore, though, so I was trying to force myself out of it.

“I have to go into the city today for a surgery. It’s a very delicate procedure, so it’s going to take hours.” He glanced at his watch. “It’s almost nine now, so I’d say I should be home by about seven or eight this evening, in time to make us dinner. Nine at the latest. But I brought you a bag of snacks to tide you over, seeing as it’ll be a late dinner.” He pointed to the plastic bag. “Is that okay?”

“Yes.”

I turned to look out the window again. I knew I was being rude, turning away like that, but I didn’t want to look at Alex’s face. Every time I did, it felt like a little piece of my heart was being ripped out. I knew I couldn’t keep loving him, not when things were like this. I had to stop. I had to remind myself that he was a liar, a kidnapper, a killer.

“I’m sorry that you have to stay cooped up in here all day,” he said. “But I know you hated the collar, and without it I—”

I waved a hand and looked back in his direction. “I know, I know. If you let me out to roam, I’ll run away and get killed by the Circle, right?”

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes, and Alex stiffened. “I know you’ve been comparing me to that Slovenian child snatcher, but I’m nothing like him. You are in danger.”

I arched an eyebrow. “The Slovenian guy kidnapped girls and told them they were in grave danger from devil worshippers to make them love him and feel safe with him. So they’d never leave. Isn’t that what you’ve done here? Tried to scare me into staying?”

“No. You really are in danger.” He frowned and knelt down before me. “Tell me why you don’t believe me.”

“I already told you. It just doesn’t make sense to me anymore,” I said listlessly, watching the rain spatter against the barred window again. “If the Circle knew I’d seen some of their stuff and knew they existed, why not just kill me years ago?”

He sighed impatiently. “We’ve been over this. I presume they thought there was a chance you’d never even remember, because you were so young, and they didn’t want to draw attention to themselves by killing you. If you died suspiciously, some people might start to dig and realize the connection between your father’s death and yours. They’re powerful people, but they aren’t completely untouchable. And the last thing they need is attention drawn to them.”

“Okay, but it’s not just that,” I said, my eyes narrowing. “You say this is a group of men and women who are almost all rich or powerful or influential… or all of the above. They have all this money and all these resources. And I’m supposed to believe they have nothing better to do with their time than stalk a young girl for decades, who may or may not eventually remember something about them? Honestly, it seems like it’d be way easier to just kill me, even if there was a risk that people might do some digging and connect it with my father’s death.”

“You’re looking at it the wrong way. It’s because they are so rich and powerful that they can afford to have their little henchmen check up on you over the years, even though you might never remember. It’s not like they followed you every day, anyway. I presume they only checked up on you every few weeks. Maybe even months.”

I smiled. He’d walked right into my trap. “If they only checked up on me every few weeks or months, then why did you tell me ages ago that you saw men looking for me at my house the day after you took me? As in, just two or three days after I had a therapy breakthrough and started to remember things? Could it be because those men don’t exist and were never there, and you just told me that to scare me?”

“They were there.” Alex scraped a hand through his hair. “I suppose that was a coincidence. They just so happened to check up on you around that time. Or maybe they were checking up on you every single day. I don’t know.”

I held up my index finger. “But how did they actually find out what I said in therapy?”

“I assume they were able to hack the therapist’s computer and gain access to her notes.”

I cocked my head to the side. “Is that what youdid?”

He shook his head. “I had to do it the old-fashioned way and spy on your therapist to listen to her record her session notes.”

“Why? I thought you could access all patient records, being a doctor and all.”

“No. The mental health section of Morrison Wright isn’t accessible to all doctors; only the ones who work there. It’s a whole separate wing. I can access the records if I need to, of course, but I need permission, so I can’t just access whatever I want. And as good as I am at getting into other people’s networks, I couldn’t get into those computers. Too difficult. Crazy firewalls.”

I smiled triumphantly. “So a doctor who literally works at that exact hospital can’t get into its therapy records... and yet, a group of evil Circle henchmen are able to? Wow. Magic.” I scoffed.

Alex rose to his full height. “Is it really so hard for you to believe that an organization like them could have the ability to hire extremely talented hackers? It’s all members of society’s so-called elite. We’re talking high-ranking judges, lawyers, City Council members, politicians, CEOs, diplomats, and so on. They’d find a way.”

I folded my arms. “Okay. If you say so.”

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