Chapter Sixteen #2
Stag tapped my shoulder, and eased the helmet over my head when I turned, fastening it securely for me, mouthing the word ‘okay’ at me.
I nodded, and maybe cried a little inside that helmet on the ride to his friend’s place, but that was my secret.
That was me letting go of the home I thought I’d share with Marissa for a long time yet.
The place we’d decorated together, amid giggles and fruity drinks.
The sofa we’d curled up on together to watch movies, with the subtitles always at the bottom of the screen.
The bathroom we’d tiled together, which had its imperfections that we’d grown to love. Leaving there hurt like hell.
Henley directed people in with my stuff, sending the essentials to the room he’d assigned to us, or me, because that was yet to be decided. The less vital stuff was going into the spare room next door to the room I would be staying in.
He kept me updated, signing to me as he called out orders to them. It was such a relief to have someone with us who spoke fluently like this, so I could relax a little from the intense concentration it took to lipread, when I was so physically and mentally drained.
Henley’s girlfriend, Glory, had fussed over us, bringing drinks and offering snacks, but the thing that struck me the most was those moments when the two of them were in each other’s vicinity, the looks, the small smiles, the way they effortlessly fit into each other’s space.
It was beautiful to watch, especially when he looked at her, and I could tell she was his whole world.
What would it feel like to be that for someone?
What would it feel like for someone to want me that much, to love me so completely that their happiness was contingent on mine, just as mine would be on theirs?
Stag was a real sweetheart, but was he looking for more than a brief fling?
We’d kissed a few times, but nothing more, and suddenly we were moving in together, into a beautiful house that was fortified like a secure facility.
Was he even now wondering what the hell he’d got himself into?
Going from a kiss in a club, to a ride on his motorcycle, an innocent night spent together, and now this…
that’d be enough to scare any man away. I wasn’t necessarily needy, but he’d had to adapt how he functioned, so he was including me in everything, and he had my insane twin to worry about too.
Insane. Why would I call her that? She wasn’t insane.
She was troubled. She was stressed. These weren’t things to judge.
She possibly needed help. Maybe it was time to reach out to my parents and let them know what was happening. Maybe they could help her.
Marissa was my twin, the other half of me, so why were we in this situation where she was the person I was running from? Hiding from in this damn fortress of a house?
*Are you okay?* Henley signed as I looked at him again, my mind whirling over all the things I’d miss, and all the things that’d driven me to this decision.
“I love my twin. I just don’t get why she’s become so overbearing. I’m not her burden. I’m her sister!”
He nodded, pondering for a moment before he signed again.
*Maybe she’s convinced herself that the roles or dynamics have changed, and she needs this reset to remember she’s your sister.*
Maybe. I picked up my phone, twirling it in my fingers morosely.
“She’s not all bad. She may have broken my old phone, but she bought me this one to replace it. Even had it all set up for me before she gave it to me.” It was switched off for the moment, but it may be my only link to her.
A hand snatched it from me, and my head shot up in surprise.
“What… why did you… what’s going on?”
Henley stared grimly at it. “She knew where you were last night. You said she follows you around, and she gave you this phone, already set up. Can I get our tech guys to check it for you?”
He was speaking because his hand was busy, but I caught every word. He wanted to check it for what?
“I don’t understand.”
“She might be using it to track you, or spy on you.” Cold dread seemed to pour down on me, my head, then my shoulders, chilling with sudden fear. My hands trembled as I twisted them together in my lap. It was insane, but it sounded feasible. Possible, even. Would she do that?
“Why?” I breathed, misery filling me at the very thought of her using the gift she gave me as a method of following me, controlling me.
Henley tapped my knee to get my attention.
“She cares, but I think she’s gone too far. This? This is obsession. This isn’t safe, Claudia.”
I felt Stag sit down beside me, his arm looping around me to hold me close, letting me steal his warmth, since my own seemed to have fled. I watched his lips as he stared at me.
“What happened?”
I swallowed hard, glancing at the innocent looking phone in Henley’s hand. Or rather, the formerly innocent looking phone, since it now looked like a tool of cruelty and possession.
“He thinks Marissa was using my phone to track me.”
Stag’s jaw tightened and his arm seemed to tighten involuntarily as he looked at Henley. I could see his lips just enough to pick up certain words. The ones with hard sounds, if I could have heard them.
I caught ‘bitch’, and what looked like various swearwords, and then he looked at me again, his tension softening as he met my eyes.
“I’m sorry, love. It’s probably just as well you couldn’t hear all that. I just lost my shit.”
I nodded and leaned my face against his shoulder.
I didn’t want to see any more of what they were saying.
I wanted to hide in the silence for a while, and pretend it wasn’t happening.
That I wasn’t running from my twin sister, my only familiar person in this entire city, and hiding out with a man I barely knew, and a bunch of complete strangers.