Chapter 15 Misfit
Chapter fifteen
Misfit
Evelina pawed through Kat’s travel bag, a strange urgency blending with the lingering guilt in her chest. A toilet flushed in one of the two stalls behind her, followed by her friend’s tired moan.
Kat’s morning sickness was hardly Evelina’s fault, but still, she couldn’t help but feel like somehow this precise experience could have been avoided.
Her failed attempt to hire a PI had wasted more than an hour of the day.
It didn’t matter that Kat had insisted she was in no rush to head home anyway, and had seemed perfectly content to occupy herself for that short while.
Evelina found the baggie with Kat’s toothbrush at the same time as another round of nauseating-sounding retching filled the air. It kind of made her want to throw up, too.
Her other hand brushed over something distracting, and she pulled the unfamiliar device out for a clearer look. It was a phone, but it was definitely not Kat’s abused three-year-old smartphone. The device in her hand was a spare—a burner.
Why the hell would Kat have a burner?
A text message came in while she was staring at the darkened screen, suddenly filling her vision and further derailing her focus. The message was identified only by the number of the sender, but at first glance, it was the words on the screen that caught Evelina’s eye.
Is it done yet?
That was such an ominous, generic, ridiculous question. Evelina told herself to put the phone back, that it wasn’t her place to snoop if her friend wanted to have a little privacy. But another message immediately followed.
And for fuck’s sake, just answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’
A spark of irritation snapped through her, fueled by the sounds of her friend’s misery. Who the hell was the asshole speaking so rudely to Kat? If it was someone from the bar, she’d fire them on principle.
Then Evelina suddenly remembered how awkward Kat had been about confessing her pregnancy and a terrible, revolting thought occurred to her.
Kat hadn’t truly shown excitement until after she saw Evelina’s response.
Was her baby daddy—whichever guy it was—not being supportive?
Was it possible Kat had lied about not having told him, because the guy was pushing her to get an abortion instead?
Driven by the anger of this possibility, Evelina quickly extracted the toiletries she had actually gone digging for and swiped her thumb across the screen.
As she’d hoped, Kat’s security skills remained limited to ‘swipe for access.’ The screen lit up, revealing a generic photo wallpaper and a few standard apps.
Among the apps was the one for the text messages, with a small two at the corner.
Evelina tapped it open, her thumb immediately going to the thread already at the top where the messages she’d glimpsed were.
She briefly noted there was, in fact, only one other conversation.
But her thumb was already lowering over the thread she wanted, until her gaze followed suit. Again, she froze.
This time, her eyes were glued to the number the messages had come from.
She knew that number. But there was no way.
She couldn’t entirely rule out the possibility of them knowing each other, but well enough to be in contact?
Kat had been her friend for years. Kat would have told her.
The more likely explanation was that she was remembering a digit wrong.
Yet a tendril of fear had woven into the anger within her as she finally tapped the message thread, and that fear exploded into a full-blown panic when she saw the thread was larger than a handful of messages.
She scrolled up a bit, enough to see she didn’t have time to read them all, then scrolled back down for the recent messages.
Just the ones from that morning. And she got the full, shattering view of the current conversation.
The number she really hoped she remembered wrong had texted before the girls had rolled out of bed.
Enjoy your last hoorah?
Kat hadn’t responded until around the time Evelina had been in the shower.
Yeah. Found myself some cute things! I’ll show you tonight.
A string of flirty, suggestive emojis followed that before the number responded again.
Don’t play dumb. I gave you your spree. Do it today.
There was a time break before Kat sent two messages in a row that didn’t immediately make sense in response. Unless a phone call that had happened in between.
I do love you, and I know you’re right. Preggy hormones? I’m sorry.
She just messaged me to meet up to come home. I’ll get it done for you. Will you need a pic? You know, for proof.
The skull emoji she tacked on to the end of the second message made Evelina’s stomach roll worse than the dry-heaving sounds still echoing from the stall at her back. The texts read like a bad script. Surely it didn’t mean what it sounded like.
She really needed to compare that number.
First, she had to read the rest of the morning’s conversation. The suspicious number had responded again swiftly, indicating he—or whoever—was waiting by the phone.
Whatever, just fucking get rid of her. And do it before you get back to Chicago.
Kat’s response had been almost as prompt.
Got it. I’ll reach out when it’s done.
The only messages after were the two Evelina had seen come in.
She did her best to steady her breathing, stared hard at the number one more time, and backed out of the thread before re-locking the phone.
It doesn’t mean what it sounds like. It can’t.
Not that she had any other explanation off-hand.
That conversation had definitely not been about pregnancies and abortions, or anything of the sort.
And as horrible as that would have been, a small part of her wished it had.
“Ugh,” Kat groaned as the toilet flushed for at least the third time. “That’s it. I’m a one-and-done mama.”
Recognizing her cue, Evelina hurriedly tucked the burner back into the bag, beneath a few other things for appearances’ sake, and set the items she’d promised to get onto the bathroom’s small sink ledge.
“Hopefully since the morning sickness kicked in so soon, it won’t stick around for long?
” she called back, trying to play it cool while she moved herself out of the way and surreptitiously reached for her purse—and the phone inside.
Kat finally stepped from her stall, looking haggard and bleary-eyed. “I’m gonna hold you to that, doc.” She flashed Evelina a weary grin and moved straight to the sink.
Evelina slipped her phone out, swiftly unlocked it, and pulled up her contacts. Please be wrong. Please be wrong. She tapped on the name with more than her usual reluctance, needing to study his number to be sure. And her heart sank straight through the floor.
“Ebweyfing good?” Kat asked around her toothbrush, her mouth already full of cleansing product.
Evelina swallowed, reflexively backing out and tucking her phone away as if she might be caught.
“Yeah. Just Otto checking in.” Her heart hammered so loud, she feared for a moment Kat would see it pushing against the collar of her shirt.
But better that than the fresh tears already threatening to betray her.
As Kat had.
Her throat swelled with the thought, the realization.
Her best friend had betrayed her. Her best friend of nearly six years was secretly messaging fucking Pyotr, flirting with him, apparently pregnant by him, and worst of all, conspiring with him—against her.
To kill her. It was so much worse than merely the idea that the baby in Kat’s belly was Pyotr’s, though that would disgust her on most days.
In this moment, she wished that were all it was. I need to get out of here.
She should have texted Otto before she’d put her phone away. Going back for it would be too obvious. Somehow, she needed to get herself out of her predicament.
What was she supposed to do, though? Abandon Kat at a random roadside convenience store on the wrong side of the state line? Betrayal or not, Kat had also been there for her several times. And Kat was pregnant. If something happened because Evelina chose herself, how could she live with that?
Yet she had no idea what alternative she had.
If it had been anyone else betraying her, Otto would just put a bullet in their head and walk away.
Abandoning her with a few days’ clothes, her wallet, and apparently two functioning phones was not the worst thing she could do. Nor did it guarantee her own safety.
Kat gargled her mouthwash and spit it out while Evelina spiraled, splashed some more water on her face, and finally straightened. “Tell me we can get out of this hole.” She tilted her head. “You okay?”
Evelina plastered on her smile and held out the bag she’d pilfered from.
“A little tired, maybe. Not really anything to complain about compared to you.” Tell me why, Kat.
Why? And for Pyotr? How—when—did you even let that happen?
Her own mental tirade whispered a thread of desperate hope and, as she shifted her weight, she carefully said, “I know this is out of left-field, but … you’ve been notably close-lipped about the paternal situation going on here, so I just wanna say, if you’re in trouble or anything, you know you can come to me, right? ”
Kat blinked at her, barely paying attention to her own actions as she zipped her bag back up and hiked it over her shoulder.
“Of course.” She offered a sheepish smile.
“The truth is, I was a little embarrassed about how things started between me and him, so I didn’t tell you right away.
” Her hand curved over her belly. “But if you’re worried it’s that ex from a couple months ago, don’t be. He’s definitely out.”