Chapter Seventeen #2
But how was I going to get access to that footage?
You can’t, Reason said. But you know someone who can.
Jimmy.
Jimmy Johnson was my nerdy friend who helped me with the fake ID I used to bypass security at the Hargrove Annual Investment Summit.
If anyone could get access to that footage, it was him.
I rushed over to the table, grabbed my phone, and dialed his number.
It rang on the other line.
“Come on, come on, come on, pick up…” I murmured, the words flying out in a desperate rush.
“Hello?” he answered.
“Hey, Jimmy, hi,” I said, my voice smooth and bubbly.
“Aria, is that you?” he asked, his tone tinged with a hint of excitement.
“Uhh, yes.” I raised my brows, wondering why he asked me that when he already had my number.
“I’m sorry, I answered the phone without checking the caller ID,” he said. “What’s up? Do you need something?”
That question caught me off guard. “What—why—why would you think that?” A nervous chuckle fell off my lips.
“Because you only call me when you need something.”
“That’s not true.” I denied it because hearing it out loud made me feel like a terrible friend.
“Really? Mention one time you called just to check on me.”
Silence.
I couldn’t.
There wasn’t a time like that.
Damn, I was a horrible person.
He laughed on the other line. “Don’t beat yourself up. I’m not mad.”
He should be mad at me for only using him when I needed his help.
I lowered my head, fingers rubbing my eyes. “I’m sorry, Jimmy. I’ll make it up to you, I promise.”
“It’s fine. Really,” he said. “What’s up? How can I be of help?”
I hesitated, already feeling bad about my behavior. “Are you busy right now?”
“Uhh…not really. Why? Do you wanna meet up?”
“Yes, please,” I answered. “If that’s not too much to ask.”
“No, no, no, it’s fine.” He cleared his throat. “Where’d you have in mind?”
***
Less than an hour later, we met at my favorite café. I got there first, but before I walked inside, I spotted him across the street.
Jimmy waved at me, quickening his pace as he approached the shop. “Hey,” he greeted me, his hazel eyes crinkling at the corners.
“Hey.” I smiled back at him.
“Wow!” he said softly, his gaze sweeping over my body. “You look…amazing.”
I raised my brows; my smile remained. “Jimmy, I’m dressed in my regular outfit, and my hair is a mess.”
“Just take the compliment, will you?” He adjusted his wire-rimmed glasses.
“All right.” I laughed lightly. “If you say so. Thank you.”
“See? That wasn’t so hard.”
I spotted the leaf in his dirty-blond hair and asked teasingly. “What, did you run through the woods to get here?”
His eyes squinted slightly. “Why? What do you mean?”
“You got a little something in your hair.” I reached out to brush it off.
“Ohh. Thank you.”
Jimmy helped me with my backpack after it slipped off my shoulder. He even opened the café door for me and didn’t move until I was already inside.
“Awww. Such a gentleman,” I said in a soft tone.
He followed me inside, and we sat at my usual spot, laptops on the table. I waited for him while he picked up our orders. Jimmy knew exactly how I liked my coffee. Black. Neat.
“Here you go.” He placed the cup on the table in front of me.
“Thank you.” I looked up at him with a smile.
He sat across from me. “All right. So, what’s this about?”
I leaned in. “Can you pull up the CCTV footage from the festival on campus?”
“The one from weeks ago?”
I nodded.
“Yeah. Of course,” he answered, confident as ever. “It’ll take a while, but it can be done.”
“Fantastic.” I beamed at him. “What about the CCTV footage of this café from, uh, say, a few weeks back? Can you get those too?”
“I can.” He looked at me for a moment. “But exactly what are you looking for?”
I hesitated. “Someone.”
“That’s oddly vague.”
“I know. But that’s all the information I have right now.”
“That’s all the information you have, or that’s all the information you’re willing to share with me?”
Guilty as charged.
Jimmy didn’t ask any further questions; he just went straight to business. His fingers rattled across the keyboard as he did what he knew how to do best. Ethical hacking.
I pulled my hair and sat next to him so we’d go through the footage together. He asked which area of the festival I wanted to cover, and I gave him the exact location where I was that night.
Like magic, he actually pulled the footage, and we viewed it from different angles.
“That’s you right there.” He pointed at his screen. “And that’s Iris.” A pause. “Is it just me, or do you two look overdressed for that festival?”
“Yeah, we were actually going somewhere before we decided to stop by,” I said, my eyes never leaving the screen.
“Hmm.”
“Wait. There.” I spotted a familiar figure in the crowd, dressed in all black.
Jimmy paused the footage.
“Can you zoom in on that man?”
He did, and my heart stopped for a moment.
It was him.
It was Anton—I mean, R.T.
The camera had captured his face from that angle, identifying him as my mystery man at the second event.
Just to confirm what I already knew, I asked Jimmy to go over the footage from the café. I gave him the exact date and approximate time, and when he did, I spotted Anton leaving the café and walking over to a black SUV parked across the street.
I recognized the SUV.
It was the same car that I spotted behind us on the night Iris and I were heading home after the incident at the festival.
Anton was R.T., and R.T. was my mystery man. Essentially, they were all the same person.
My legs were too weak to carry my weight, and my heart was racing in my chest. I had no idea what to do with this information, and contrary to what I thought would happen when I finally found out my mystery man’s identity, I had more questions than before.
“…Aria? Aria.” He snapped his fingers in my face.
I blinked back to reality.
“Are you okay?” Jimmy asked me, concerned.
“Yeah. Yeah, I’m okay. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.” I grabbed my laptop and shoved it into my backpack.
“Uhh, what’re you doing?”
“I’m sorry, but I gotta go.” I flung the backpack over my shoulder and headed toward the door.
“Aria!” he called after me, confusion lacing his tone.
I didn’t stop; instead, I quickened my pace until I was outside in the evening sun. I hurried over to my car parked by the curb, got in, and drove away.
Anger, confusion, fear, and anxiety washed over me at once. I hated myself for not piecing this together sooner. This man used me. He tricked me. He played me. And still fucked me.
Dang it!
I put my foot down, accelerating onward as my car shot through the highway like a rocket. Unshed tears stung my eyes, and my grip tightened around the steering wheel.
A myriad of thoughts tugged at my mind, threatening to rip it to shreds. Everything made sense now, and at the same time, more questions popped up in my head.
Why did he play with my intelligence the way he did?
If he was the same man I saw at Meridian Solutions, why didn’t he just tell me from the beginning?
What was his reason for following me around?
Why did he save me from those thugs in that alley after knowing what I had witnessed him do?
Why did he bother moving me out of trouble when, this whole time, I was nothing but his target?
The import consultant thing was a lie.
The website was fake, and the physical office I visited was just a front.
He went through all that stress to hide his identity, but for what?
And to make matters worse, I just might be pregnant with his baby—the same man responsible for my mental health issues.
There, I finally admitted it.
Those weren’t signs of my monthly visitor; they were signs of pregnancy.
Nothing was certain right now, and so I’d have to wait until my period date before jumping to conclusions.
What if you’re truly pregnant with his baby? Reason asked. What’re you gonna do then?
The question lingered through the drive back home.