Chapter 17
CHAPTER
FOR MY THIRTY-FOUR-WEEK checkup, I decided to go alone. I didn’t even tell Max I had a doctor’s appointment—and Mom and Ellie were both busy.
Walking into the clinic, I felt strange, exposed.
The last time I was here, I had a total meltdown.
A justified meltdown—but it probably hadn’t been fun to watch.
The smiles of all the staff members as they greeted me had an air of sympathy to them.
I didn’t like being pitied, but I suppose sympathy was warranted.
“Well, everything looks good—I’d say you have nothing to worry about,” the doctor said after my exam.
I sighed with relief. “Speaking of things to worry about—were you able to find out anything from DCS?”
“No, I haven’t—and that’s what’s puzzling me.
I called the local DCS office and gave them your name, and the name of the investigator who came to your apartment.
The person I spoke with couldn’t see any open cases in the system linked to either of you.
He’s going to talk to his supervisor about doing a wider search and get back to me. ”
I chewed on my lip. Was that good or bad? Could it possibly mean that my case had been closed, since my toxicity tests were clean? Was that why nothing was showing up in the system? But I thought she said they had to monitor me all the way up to birth?
“My advice is, try not to think about it too much. All of your tests have come back perfectly normal, and I’m sure all your character witnesses had only wonderful things to say.”
I smiled weakly. “Thanks, Dr. Quinlan.”
As for the leak of my medical information, she said she was still interviewing all the staff members and would let me know soon what she was able to determine.
As I left the exam room, someone tapped me on the shoulder from behind.
It was Jamie—my spy.
“I’m about to go on my break,” she whispered. “Can we please talk?”
She wasn’t getting her phone back, if that’s what she was after. But maybe I could pump her for information. “Fine,” I said tersely.
I met her around the side of the building a few minutes later. We walked down the street into a more residential area, where there was a small city park with benches, and sat down.
“What do you want?” I said.
“I … was hoping I could have my phone back? I can’t afford a new one, and I have to have a way to stay in touch with my babysitter. In case anything happens with my son.”
I leaned forward. “Look, I need answers. You were spying on me for Madison Clark, weren’t you? She’s the ‘Her’ in your phone?”
Her eyes shot up quickly and met mine. “You looked in my phone?”
“Yeah, I did. I saw all the photos of me, and all the text messages between you and someone called ‘Her.’ That’s Madison Clark, isn’t it?”
Her cheeks were bright red. “Look, I’m sorry. For all of that. But I had no choice. Madison made me do it.”
“Why? Why does she keep messing with me?”
“Well, she’s incredibly jealous that you’re having Max’s baby. That’s the one thing she’s always wanted.”
“They’re married, aren’t they? She tried to get pregnant and couldn’t—am I right?”
She nodded. “I don’t know the specifics, but she has some kind of condition. I think it runs in her family.”
I chewed on this information for a second. “She cloned my phone, didn’t she?”
She nodded. “Yeah. She copied your SIM card and put it into a burner phone. I’m pretty sure it was her mom’s idea.”
“Her mom?”
“Oh, yeah.” She laughed bitterly. “You think Madison’s bad? Her mom is crazy.”
“How do you know that?”
“Well, I couldn’t figure out how Madison always knew where you were going to be.
You know, how she always knew where I should go to spy on you.
She said her mom taught her how to clone someone’s phone.
She bragged about how easy it was.” Jamie shook her head.
“Her mom had done it in the past in order to steal clients from other real estate agents at her firm.”
“Why is she doing this to me, though?”
Jamie looked at me like I was stupid. “To get full custody of the baby when it’s born.”
I could have sworn my heart stopped beating for a full five seconds.
When it started again, it was pounding fast and strong in my chest. Of course.
It all added up. Madison had tried to get me fired …
convince everyone I was an alcoholic … set Children’s Services on me.
She’s trying to set me up so I’ll be declared unfit to parent my own baby.
That’s her game. I felt dizzy. “And she sent you to slash my tires and scratch ‘whore’ into my door too?”
“What?”
“The night of my work meeting at the Alto Lounge. When I got back to my car afterward, my tires had been slashed, and someone had scratched the word ‘whore’ into the paint. It cost me almost fourteen hundred dollars for all the repairs.”
Jamie looked panicked. “No, I swear that wasn’t me! Madison just asked me to follow you to the meeting, then take a picture of your car and tell her where it was parked. She must have done that herself, or had someone else do it for her.”
“What about the fraudulent charges on my credit card, and a picture of me buying tons of booze at a liquor store?”
Jamie frowned. “No … she never mentioned anything about stuff like that. But it does sound like something she would do, or make someone else do.”
Dammit. How many people does Madison have doing her dirty work for her?
“So, what does she have on you?” I asked, remembering the texts about pills.
Jamie sighed and looked down at her hands. “Madison works at this other women’s clinic, over near Potrero del Sol—the Trident Clinic. She’s a part-time administrative assistant.”
My eyebrows popped. Madison has a job? I didn’t think her royal highness bothered with things like that.
“I used to work at the Trident Clinic too, up until recently. In fact, I’m the one who got her the job there, about a year and a half ago.
We went to high school together.” A shadow seemed to fall over her face as the memories came back to her.
“Madison was always one of the most popular girls in high school. She was beautiful, wealthy, had tons of friends. She had this entourage who always followed her around, like puppy dogs.” Jamie shook her head.
“I don’t know. To me, she always seemed so …
fake. She acted like she was this sweet, innocent girl, but she could be really mean.
“The day she came in to apply for the admin job, I recognized her. I was like, ‘Madison Clark? You went to Woodgrove High School, right? Class of 2015?’ She got this huge smile on her face and insisted on taking me out to eat for my lunch break so we could ‘catch up.’ She asked me all sorts of questions about the doctor I worked for. She kept saying how fun it would be if we worked together—how we could hang out all the time and be ‘such good girlfriends.’ It was a little bizarre … but also kind of nice. Ever since I had my son, I haven’t really had many friends.
My ex kind of turned all our friends against me when he broke up with me.
” She released a shuddering breath. “Anyway, she asked me to talk to the doctor and put in a good word for her. So I did. I definitely had to stretch the truth for her; she didn’t have any experience in a medical office at all—I actually don’t think she’d ever had a job before.
” She shook her head again, as if chastising her former self for doing it.
“One day, months ago … she caught me doing something that I’m really not proud of.
Everything changed between us. The second she had something she could use against me, it became super clear that I was just a means to an end for her.
Eventually, she forced me to apply for a job at Dr. Quinlan’s office so I could keep an eye on your pregnancy. ”
“You stole some pills, right?” I asked gently.
Jamie’s eyes widened in fear. “Oh my God. Please don’t tell anyone.
It’s just … I can’t afford health insurance.
” She laughed bitterly. “Ironic, huh? Given that I work for a doctor?” She looked away for a moment as her eyes turned glassy.
“I didn’t take them for myself, or to sell them, or anything like that.
It was for my son. He had a really bad ear infection.
I couldn’t afford to take him to urgent care.
So … I tried to take some antibiotics from the medicine supply for him.
Madison caught me. If she turned me in, I’d not only lose my job, but I’d never be able to get another job in a medical office again. I could even be charged with a crime.”
As much as I despised what Jamie had done to me, had put me through, I felt my anger at her softening. In a way, we were both Madison’s victims. “I’m sorry that she blackmailed you. That’s horrible.”
“And I’m sorry I told her your baby’s gender. I thought she just wanted to know whether to buy pink stuff or blue stuff—honest. When you showed up at the clinic that day, so angry …”
“You ran.”
Jamie nodded.
I was right. I sighed and leaned back on the bench, staring up at the blue sky as I digested Jamie’s story. This bitch is not only ruining my life, she’s ruining this girl’s too. And Jamie has a son she’s taking care of all by herself.
“Can I …” Jamie’s voice was soft, hesitant. “Can I please have my phone back? I know what I did is terrible. But I have a kid, and I can’t afford to buy a new phone. I feel like my job’s already on thin ice—I know Dr. Quinlan suspects something. Please?”
I sighed. “Alright. I can drop it off at the clinic for you tomorrow.” After I download all the evidence.
Jamie smiled with relief. “Thank you. And—I’m really sorry. I felt like I had no choice.”
“Look—you have to stop doing Madison’s dirty work. Stop letting her hold this over you. It sounds like you’ve done more than enough. Tell her you’re done.”
Jamie laughed. “I would love to. And maybe I could get Madison to back off … but her mom is a different story. That woman—she’s scary. And anytime Princess Madison doesn’t get what she wants right away, she goes whining to Mommy.”
I shivered involuntarily.
“One time, in high school … Madison was in the homecoming court. It was obvious she wanted to be queen, badly. But everyone knew it would be Tara Briggs. Tara was nice to everyone, she did volunteer work, you know, got straight As—there was no way Madison would win over her. A few days before the big game, all of a sudden, some pictures started spreading around school. Naked pictures. Of Tara. Someone started the rumor that Tara was sending them to all the boys in the school to get them to vote for her. Madison’s mother took them to the principal and got her kicked out of the homecoming court and suspended from school.
“Thing is … I saw the photos. It looked like someone snapped them while she was in the locker room changing. Tara was so humiliated; she left school and never came back. It was really sad.”
A cold feeling started spreading through my body.
“You want my advice? Be careful. Nora Clark is one of the top real estate brokers on the West Coast. She’s a very influential woman.
I’m pretty sure she’s been fixing things for Madison her whole life.
I have so many stories.” Jamie shook her head.
“And look—just because you got a new phone … she’s not going to stop, Savannah.
She’ll find some other way to spy on you.
She won’t stop until she has everything she wants. ”
“I’m meeting with a lawyer and taking steps to stop her. But you—you need to cut the cord. Stop letting her blackmail you. Can she even prove anything?”
“Well, I ended up putting the pills back, so I don’t think so. But you know Madison. I didn’t want to risk it.”
“She can’t prove it, and at this point, it’s been months since it happened. So tell her you’re done.”
Jamie gave a weak smile.
Bracing against the back of the bench with one hand and supporting my belly with the other, I managed to stand. “I’ve got to get back to work, and I know you do too. I’ll swing by tomorrow with your phone.”
“Thank you.”
I gave her a sad smile and walked back to my car.
That night, I opened a new cloud account under a fake name, with a new password. I plugged Jamie’s phone into my laptop and copied everything I could find—all the photos and screenshots of her entire text history with Madison.
When I met with the lawyer on Saturday, I was going to be prepared.