Page 84 of My Turn
Pulling out my phone, I navigated to the picture Ben found for me. It was always nice when people had their phones set up so that everything transferred to the cloud. Every photo Hailey had taken for the past five years was accessible if you knew the right person to dig it up for you.
I pressed send, then looked at Alana. It was hard to see much of her expression, but I could tell she was staring at the phone. She probably didn’t understand why I’d sent her a picture of Hailey, Alicia, and Jake. She was also angry, most likely. I hoped she wasn’t crying.
Turning to the playground, I spotted Mike and Alicia. They always came here on Saturdays and I’d been banking on them showing up today, even though it was a holiday weekend. I was glad he seemed to be a creature of habit. Judging by his expression, he wasn’t having a great time.
I discreetly snapped a picture and sent it to her. My phone buzzed almost immediately, but it wasn’t a text. Putting in one earbud, I connected the call and prepared my special accent.
“Hello, beautiful.”
“What the hell are you playing at?” she demanded shakily.
“No game this time. Just cold, hard facts.”
“No, no, no. You’re doing something. I don’t…”
She trailed off and I glanced toward her car. Alana was leaning forward in her seat, appearing locked onto something.
“You see them for yourself, don’t you?”
“That’s…” Her breath hitched. “That’s not her. It’s not Jake’s kid. I… You’re wrong.”
Before I could reply, her door swung open. Instinctively, I stepped forward, but I couldn’t rush up to her now. Not like this.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
She ignored me. I rushed back to my car to grab my mask and slid it over my face. Since it was the holiday weekend and it was pretty cold out, there were only a few people around andthey were all at the park already. The lot was blessedly empty. I took off at a sprint, reaching her just before she stepped onto the path.
I wrapped my arm around her from behind and clamped my other hand over her mouth before she could scream. She thrashed and made garbled sounds. It was going to draw attention if I didn’t get her out of here quickly. Glancing behind me to make sure nobody else had pulled in, I lifted her off the ground and carried her back to her car.
After throwing the back door open, I tossed her inside. I followed after her, blanketing her body with mine so that she couldn’t make a break for it.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” I demanded.
Her eyes were wild with rage. They shone with unshed tears and it was enough to make me relax slightly.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, brushing her cheek with my thumb.
“Get off of me,” she cried. “Let me go.”
“You can’t confront him like that. Not only will it cause a scene, but it could complicate the case.”
“The case. I don’t give a shit about that.”
“You should. She’s not your kid and you have no obligation to her, but this means something to the others. You know that. Do you want to go out there and scare the shit out of her right now?”
Alana’s lip trembled. She turned away from me as a tear trickled down her face. I wanted to kiss it away, but I was trapped behind this fucking mask.
“It’s time to face reality, Alana. Hailey fucked you over, Jake cheated and lied to you, and Mike tried to use you.”
Her eyes met mine and narrowed. “Why are you doing this?”
“I’m not the monster here.”
“Of course you are,” she hissed. “You’ve known all along. How fucking long is that, Erebus? How long have you watched me?”
“A while.”
She let out a dry laugh that was bordering on maniacal before she slammed her hands into my chest. “While I was with Jake? Did you watch him fuck me, Erebus?”