Chapter 6 Jade
JADE
Chloe arrives twenty minutes later with coffee and the kind of expression that means she's ready to talk me out of something stupid.
"Okay," she says, setting the coffees down on my counter. "What's the emergency?"
I hand her the letter and the plane ticket without saying anything.
She reads the letter once. Then again. Then looks at the ticket and back at me.
"You're joking."
"I wish I were."
"This is either the most romantic thing I've ever seen or the beginning of a Dateline episode." She sets everything down carefully. "Please tell me you're not actually considering this."
"I'm going."
"WHAT?"
"I have to. I need to know who this person is. Why they sent the money. What they want."
Chloe starts pacing, which means she's shifting into lawyer mode. "Jade, think about this. This man, whoever P.C. is, has been watching you. He knew your exact debt. He knows where you live. And now he's asking you to fly across the country to meet him."
“What are you saying?”
“You don't even know who he is or his name. Just two initials and he’s stalking you. ”
"But the money is real. The ticket is real. Something about this is real."
"Or something about this is a very expensive trap." Chloe shakes her head. "Do you hear yourself?"
I sit down on my bed, suddenly exhausted. "My mother has been hiding things my whole life. Who my father is. Where we came from. Why she walked away from wealth. And I'm tired, Chloe. I'm so tired of living in the shadow of secrets I don't understand."
Chloe's expression softens. She sits next to me. "I know. But this is dangerous."
"Everything is dangerous. Staying here is dangerous. I'm drowning in a life I hate, working three jobs that barely keep me afloat. At least this is a different kind of risk."
"The money is already spent?"
"I paid the hospital this morning. And the student loans. It's done."
Chloe picks up the letter again. “'This person is obsessive."
"Or romantic."
"Or OBSESSIVE."
"Maybe I need someone obsessive. Maybe I need someone who cares… about something."
The words hang between us. Chloe knows about my dating history, the string of men who couldn't handle my schedule or my debt or my complete lack of emotional availability. She knows I'm twenty-five and I've been hurt.
"You don't know this person," Chloe says quietly. "You don't know what he wants."
"So I'll find out."
"And if it's something you can't give him?"
"Then I'll leave. He said I can leave anytime."
"And you believe that?"
I don't answer. Because the truth is, I don't know what I believe. All I know is that someone out there knows things about me, has been watching me, has decided I'm worth almost four hundred thousand dollars. And that terrifies me and thrills me in equal measure.
"Jade." Chloe takes my hand. "If you're really doing this, we need rules."
"Okay."
"You text me every day. Multiple times a day. I want to know you're safe."
"Done."
"Location sharing stays on. I need to be able to find you."
"Fine."
"First sign of danger, first moment that feels wrong, you leave. You call me and you get on the next plane home."
"I will."
"And you keep your credit card accessible. Don't let him control your money or your exit."
"Chloe, I'm not stupid."
"I know you're not. But you're desperate. And desperate people make choices they wouldn't normally make." She squeezes my hand. "Promise me you'll be careful."
"I promise."
We sit in silence for a moment. Through my window, I can see the Boston skyline, gray and cold even though it's nearly May. I've lived here for years and never felt at home.
Maybe that's the real reason I'm going. Not because of the money or the mystery, but because staying here means accepting that this is all my life will ever be.
"Maybe this is your moment," Chloe says quietly. "Maybe this is the universe telling you to stop drowning and start living."
"Or maybe it's the universe setting me up for the worst mistake of my life."
"Could be both."
I laugh and broke the tension. Chloe pulls me into a hug.
"If he hurts you," she says into my hair, "I will hunt him down and make him wish he'd never been born."
"I believe you."
"And Jade?"
"Yeah?"
"Maybe pack some nice clothes. Just in case it's not a Dateline episode."
We spend the next hour going through my closet, which is depressing because I own approximately three outfits that aren't coffee-stained or workout clothes. Chloe makes a list of things I need to buy, then revises it when I remind her I just spent all my money paying off debt.
"The check might have covered your bills," she says, "but you're still broke."
"Story of my life."
She leaves around noon with another hug and a reminder to text her the moment I land. After she's gone, I sit at my laptop and stare at the blog post I started earlier.
I delete it and write something else instead.
Sometimes the only way forward is through the unknown. Sometimes you have to jump and hope someone catches you.
I'm jumping.
God help me, I'm jumping.
I post it before I can change my mind.
Three days later, I'm standing in Logan Airport with my terrible suitcase and a first-class ticket to Los Angeles. My mother called this morning to beg me not to take on more debt. I told her I was visiting Chloe's family in Connecticut.
The lies are piling up.
The gate agent looks at my ticket and her eyebrows rise. She doesn’t say it out loud but I can feel her thinking, First class? Lucky you.
I board the plane and sink into a leather seat that probably costs more than my monthly rent. Another flight attendant offers me champagne. I take it because I need something to calm my nerves.
As the plane takes off, I watch Boston disappear below me and wonder if I'm flying toward answers or just toward a different kind of drowning.
Either way, there's no turning back now.
The decision is made, the wheels are in motion, and whatever waits for me in Malibu will either save me or destroy me.
I just have to hope I'm strong enough to handle whichever one it turns out to be.