Page 51 of Made for You
It was her. Different hair, feathering out from under a stocking cap, but it was her next to Andy in that fish-eye lens picture. Team JULIA assembles!
The one person who knew how ugly my marriage was really getting.
“Did someone named Eden Jeliazkova work for you at WekTech?” I burst out.
“Rings a bell,” Andy says cautiously. “Wait, yeah! Eden. I remember her.”
“Andy, she’s my babysitter. She lives, like, two houses down from me.”
Andy’s face goes pale under his beard. “What?”
I know he’s thinking exactly what I am: there is no circumstance in which this is a coincidence.
The server returns with our food.
“You fired her?” I hazard as I dip my spoon into the curry, trying to remember Eden’s vague allusions to her professional disaster.
“Yeah. She was my intern, like, five years ago? Six?” Andy pokes his fork into the steaming bowl of noodles. “We had just launched project JULIA. She was still in undergrad. I didn’t even know her at first. Interns weren’t super on my radar. Then she pulled this prank. She hacked into my phone.” He gives me a significant look.
“Okay...”
“She hacked into my phone. Like—you have no idea how much security my phone has. My laptop. All my personal devices. There are WekTech secrets on there. It’s fucking Alcatraz, sci-fi version.” He squeezes a lime wedge onto his pad Thai.
“Okay, so she pulled an impressive prank.”
“Not impressive. Genius. Eden Jeliazkova is a genius.”
“So why is she living in Eauverte, Indiana, making fifteen bucks an hour watching my kid?”
Andy rubs his forehead. “Let me get this straight. First the whacko who attacked you is at your Walmart. Now my old intern is living on your street?”
“Yes.” But the whacko concerns me far less than the girl who’s been inside my house more times than I can count. “Andy, what if Eden works for your competition? If she’s such a genius, maybe she stole company secrets.” One idea tumbles into the next. “Maybe she’s...spying on me. Collecting data for BotTech. Or someone else.” A voice in my head pipes up. Maybe she killed Josh. I haven’t worked out her motives. But BotTech is legally attacking one of the very Synths they created. Surely they might have an angle to ruining my life. Or incriminating me for something I didn’t do. Especially if that wiped WekTech, their biggest competitor, right off the map...
“This is bad,” says Andy.
“You can say that again,” I mutter.
The thought that my sweet, innocent babysitter is actually a tech genius who may be trying to take me down from across the street...it’s breathtakingly bad. She’s cared for my baby. Alone. She could have hurt Annaleigh. Even today, I texted her and asked her to walk Captain. One thing is sure: I’m not letting her anywhere near us ever again.
My phone dings. I lift it reflexively. A message from Eden. She likes to update me when I put her in charge.
Heeyyy boss, just walked Captain and I’m pretty sure someone from Child Protective Services just pulled up to ur house. U might wanna keep A away from here.
My skin goes clammy, my heartbeat feverish. I turn the phone mutely toward Andy.
“Shit,” he breathes. Reminding me of exactly how much shit has entered my life in the past few days.
Whatever her deal is, Eden just saved my ass. I force myself to remember how kind she’s truly been over the past six months. Is she really out to get me? Or am I just jumping to wild conclusions like I’m probably doing with Bob, with Andy, with Walmart woman?
I can’t answer that now. But all these thoughts are quickly sinking under a much weightier realization: I can’t take Annaleigh back to Eauverte. Not if CPS is involved. I have to take her somewhere safe. Out of Dover County isn’t good enough. Out of the state would be better.
And just like that, I know where I have to go.
I wipe my mouth and stand. “Thanks for lunch.”
“Wait, Julia,” says Andy, also standing. “You can’t just leave. If they’re after Annaleigh? It’s not safe. We need a plan.”
Our lunch is only half-finished, but my appetite is gone.