Page 139 of Muted

I replaced the phone she lost when that piece of shit took her. It’s somewhere in a box at the police station, but I hated not having a way to communicate with her. She’s stopped talking to everyone, including her family, and I’m frantic to find a way to pull her from it.

The phone is lying next to her limp hand on the bed, her eyes locked on the window, so I decide I’ll annoy her into a reaction. Holding my phone in my lap, I send text after text until she doessomething. I’ll even take her throwing it across the room at this point.

Me: Hey, carebear.

Me: What are you doing?

Me: Hello?

Me: Hey, I have a question for you.

Me: Want to hear a joke?

Me: What did the fish say when he swam into a wall?

Me: Dam

The phone buzzes over and over again until finally,finally,she drops her hand on it and opens the messages. I eye her inconspicuously as she reads my messages, but there’s no reaction on her face. Before she sets it down, I send another one.

Me: Can I tell you a secret, carebear?

I know the moment she reads my text because she was just about to drop the phone on the bed, but she tightens her hold. Here goes nothing.

Me: Don’t put the phone down yet. I’m going to send this in short messages.

Me: You blew me away the moment I laid eyes on you. I’m not sure if you know that, but I couldn’t tear my gaze away.

Me: I was infatuated and knew that you were going to be someone important to me.

I check on her, and she’s still holding the phone, staring at the screen.

Me: Then I got your number and spent hours in my apartment, messaging you and learning all of these amazing things about you.

Me: I started falling right away.

Me: Kissing you that first time was the best fucking moment of my life. It was like I had every answer to every question I had been searching for.

Me: Susanna, I’m begging you to come back to me. I can’t live without you next to me, over me, UNDER me.

I freeze, my fingers hovering over the phone when I see her text me back. My eyes fall to my screen, and I see the bubbles dancing there, taunting me.

Susu: Please stop.

Fuck that noise. I’ll never fucking stop.

Me: I’ll never stop.

Me: How do I stop when the woman I love is laying three feet away from me, in pain and she won’t let me comfort her?

She hiccups a cry, then turns her phone over. I keep going. I can’t stop now, not when she’s read the words.

Me: Was it because I said I won’t stop that you turned your phone over?

Me: Or was it because I told you that you’re the woman I love?

She doesn’t pick her phone up again, so I drop mine into my chair and get into the bed next to her. Vance and Chaz are scattered around the room, both watching our interaction with curiosity and different levels of hope.

Picking her up in my arms, I move her across my lap and lean her against my chest. Running my nose through her hair, I inhale the scent of her shampoo and then sigh.

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