Page 100 of Am I the Only One

“I need another favor,” I say, still short of breath.

“Are you okay?”

“Listen, are there people around?”

“Um, yeah, why?”

The phone starts to slip in my bloody hand, so I quickly place her on speakerphone, and tell her fervently, “I need you to go out to your car.”

“Why?”

“Just do it.”

There’s shuffling around on her end, and it takes a few moments before I hear the chirping of her alarm followed by a door closing.

“Okay, I’m in my car,” she says, and I can tell she’s nervous. “What’s going on, you’re scaring me.”

“I need you to do something for me, but I need your word that you’ll keep quiet, and no matter what, you have to promise me that you won’t involve the police.”

“What are you talking about?”

I turn onto the highway. “Promise me, Olivia.”

“I-I ... yeah, okay, I promise.”

“William has security cameras at his house,” I say, and she’s nothing but silent on her end. “He most likely has an app on his phone that’s connected to them. I need you to get his phone and see if there’s a way for you to send the videos. If there is, I need you to email them to me. I only need the footage from last night.”

“Luca, what’s going on?”

“I can’t explain anything right now, but I need your help. I wouldn’t be asking you if it wasn’t important. Can you trust me?”

She hesitates and doesn’t respond right away, but then she gives in reluctantly. “Yeah ... I trust you.”

“When you email them to me, make sure you email them from William’s campaign headquarters’ email account, not yours. And not a word to anyone, okay?”

“Okay.”

Ending the call, I drive the rest of the way home completely disconnected. It’s as if I’m stuck in an alternate universe or something. Maybe it’s shock, but it has me completely severed from reality. I’m withdrawn from all emotions, completely numb to the core as I head back to the city.

An hour and a half later when I pull into my driveway, I can’t recall the drive home. With Emma’s car gone from here and at the Montgomery’s as well, I can only conclude that it’s been disposed of. It’s probably sitting at the bottom of the inner harbor.

I blink, and when I open my eyes, I’m inside the house.

I blink again, and I’m sitting on Emma’s bed.

Another blink slams me back into existence.

She’s all around me, her smell, her voice, her touch. My eyes close, and I slip off the edge of the bed and onto the floor.

My cell rings, and when I answer it, it’s Olivia.

“Did you get it?”

“I think so. I was able to share a secured link to the videos. I sent it to your email.”

“Thanks. I owe you.”

“What’s on the videos that’s so important?”

---