Chapter 10 #2
“And the best part? I don’t think Zonnique suspected a thing.”
Talia scoffed in amusement. “You really did all this for a job? If you wanted it that bad, you could’ve just said that. I would’ve put in a good word for you or something. You didn’t have to drug me, steal my identity, and kidnap me in my own damn house!”
“Girrrrrrrrl,” I dragged. “Have you not been listening to anything I’ve been saying?
You really think I did all this over a paycheck?
” I scoffed loudly. “Please! Talia, if this was just about money, you’d still be upstairs sleeping peacefully.
I want the position because of Merge,” I admitted, smiling to myself.
“The baby is just the bonus. And once this works?” I clasped my hands together excitedly.
“I’ll be carrying his child, living in his house, waking up beside him again…
exactly how things were always supposed to happen before everything got ruined. ”
I tilted my head with a dreamy smile.
“So yeah,” I murmured happily, “I’d say things are working out pretty perfectly right now… and I have you to thank for that. I’m just waiting on the call that I should be receiving any day now.”
“How are you so certain you’ll even get the job? I was told there’d be other applicants.”
Honestly, I thought she would’ve tried to press me further about my feelings for “Merge.” But… I assumed my reaction earlier concerning him helped her understand that pushing me too far about certain topics wasn’t exactly the safest idea.
“Oh, I’m pretty sure I will,” I replied confidently. “Especially considering the other ladies won’t exactly be competing anymore.”
Talia’s face tightened. “What do you mean by ‘won’t be competing anymore?”
A slow smirk spread across my face.
I leaned back in my chair, oddly proud of myself.
“Well…” I crossed one leg over the other, “to my advantage, Zonnique got sick during the interview. She rushed to the bathroom so fast that she left the files of the other applicants sitting right there in front of me. Names, phone numbers, addresses… everything. So, while she was in the bathroom fighting for her life over that little smoothie situation, I took pictures of everything.”
Fear slowly crept back into Talia’s expression.
“Listen! I had to! Zonnique left her all the other applicants’ information sitting right in front of me. It felt like fate was helping me out. So, naturally… I handled the competition.”
The color nearly drained from Talia’s face. “W-What did you do?”
I really hadn’t planned on Talia living too much longer to rat me out to anyone, so I told her the truth.
“First girl? Poor thing had an early morning jog. Real tragic accident too. Clumsy ass tumbled right down a flight of concrete stairs.” I winced sympathetically.
“Snapped her ankle clean in half. Doctor said recovery’s gonna be long.
The second one? Whew. Food poisoning.” I shook my head sadly.
“Terrible situation. I may have encouraged a certain takeout decision. Let’s just say she won’t be answering any more calls. ”
Talia’s mouth trembled as she stared at me in horror.
I continued, unfazed. “And the third one?” I laughed softly.
“Girl, she folded so easily. One little anonymous message, a fake warning, a few creepy pictures outside her apartment, and suddenly she didn’t ‘feel comfortable moving forward. She withdrew her application completely. Can you believe she moved out of the city overnight? I guess she figured carrying a billionaire’s child just wasn’t for her after all. ”
I stood, brushing the dust off the back of my pants.
“See? No blood, no mess, no witnesses… just a few unfortunate coincidences.”
“You won’t get away with this!” Talia fumed.
I tittered. “That’s the thing about smart people, Talia… most of the time, they do. Even if they get caught later, usually, they still accomplish what they set out to do.”
With that, I flicked the light switch, leaving the basement in a dim half-darkness.
“Later, sis,” I winked, blowing her a kiss. “Try to get some rest. Big things are coming. And be good while I’m gone. You know what happens to bad girls… or maybe you don’t, but you will.”
The moment I turned and started up the stairs panic finally broke through Talia’s composure.
“Haelyn, please!” she cried, struggling against the restraints. “You can’t keep me down here!”
I kept walking.
“You’re sick!” she screamed after me, her voice cracking with anger. “Do you hear me?! You’re fucking sick!”
So I’ve been told… plenty of times.
Desperate sobs mixed with frantic pleas were heard behind me as I reached the top of the stairs.
“Haelyn, wait!” Talia practically begged.
I paused briefly, glancing back over my shoulder.
“Talia, do yourself a favor and calm the hell down. Nobody’s coming to save you.
All that screaming isn’t changing anything except my patience.
I’ll have you know that the more difficult you become, the uglier this situation can get.
And right now, your survival depends entirely on my mood.
You don’t want me waking up one day and deciding you’ve become more stressful than useful,” I warned softly.
The fear that spread across Talia’s face after that was immediate and raw. Her lips parted slightly while her eyes glossed over with panic.
It was then she probably realized that wasn’t just a kidnapping. At any moment, she could become a problem I decided to stop dealing with.
Good.
Message received.
I shut the basement door between us and locked it.
Afterward, I adjusted my purse and continued on with my day. Sitting around entertaining panic attacks wasn’t exactly high on my priority list.
***
Two days later, I sat across from Dr. Loomis with my legs crossed neatly and my hands resting in my lap while he reviewed paperwork from my release file.
“So,” he said after a moment, finally looking up at me. “How are you settling into the apartment?”
I offered a soft smile. “It’s… quiet.”
He lowered the file slightly and peered at me over the rim of his glasses. “Too quiet?”
“No. Quiet feels safe.”
He nodded slowly, making a note.
“And how have things been going since your release? Do you feel like you’re coping well with being back in the real world again?”
“I’m managing,” I shrugged lightly. “Then again, it’s only been a week, so I don’t even know if that’s enough time to really answer that honestly yet. But with me not having any family or friends, I mostly stay to myself.”
Dr. Loomis set his pen down. “Haelyn, it’s normal to crave solitude after spending so much time in an environment where you were under constant supervision, rarely felt relaxed, or mentally at ease.
But… too much isolation can also become dangerous.
Loneliness has a way of making unhealthy thoughts sound reasonable after a while.
Human beings need some level of connection, even when they convince themselves they don’t. ”
My face stayed neutral, but I listened as he continued.
“There’s a difference between protecting your peace and disappearing into yourself.
One heals you, and the other slowly distorts reality.
I’d really like you to consider finding some form of healthy support outside of these sessions…
perhaps a support group, community activities, or even part-time work eventually.
Structure and human interaction matter more than people realize. ”
With all due respect… fuck no, Dr. Loomis.
I wasn’t a “join a support group and make friends” type of person. Willowgate had already forced enough of that on me.
Sitting in freezing rooms with strangers and talking about my feelings for an hour straight felt less like therapy and more like psychological punishment.
Half the patients lied, the other half looked one inconvenience away from climbing the walls like Spider-Man, and the staff sat there fake-nodding with those little clipboards as if they weren’t mentally ranking us from “doing okay” to “might fight the vending machine by lunch.” You couldn’t tell who was genuinely healing and who was just saying whatever sounded sane enough to earn extra pudding cups and outside time.
After a while, the whole thing started to feel less therapeutic and more like a room full of emotionally damaged people auditioning for stability.
If I didn’t think Dr. Loomis would’ve had my pretty ass dragged right back behind locked doors the second I started going off in his office, I probably would’ve told him exactly where he could’ve shoved those support groups and community circles.
Instead, I nodded slightly and forced a thoughtful expression onto my face.
“That doesn’t sound too bad. Maybe a support group or something small to ease myself back into social settings again. I’ll definitely look into it.”
Dr. Loomis’s demeanor turned noticeably stern, as he leaned back slightly in his chair.
“Have you been taking your medication consistently since your release?”
“Like clockwork!” I answered a little too quickly. “Every single day.”
That was probably one of the biggest lies I’d ever told.
I stopped taking them the exact day I found out about the surrogate position.
No, I wasn’t sure if I’d get the job the day I stopped…
or if I’d get it at all. Still there was no way I could risk antipsychotic medication showing up in my labs.
Truthfully, I didn’t even fully know how long traces stayed in your body after stopping them.
Days?
Weeks?
Longer?
And that uncertainty alone was enough to make me paranoid.
Still, I wasn’t taking any chances. One flagged result and suddenly every doctor in the building would’ve started speaking to me in that slow, cautious voice people use before calling security.
Dr. Loomis’s eyes lingered on me briefly before he nodded. “How’s the job search going?”
“I’ve put in applications here and there, but nothing official yet,” I lied.