Chapter 33
My heart pounded in my chest. Did Nat’s stalker know where she lived? Was he waiting for her to get back home? The thought sent chills down my spine. I looked around the kitchen for a weapon. Carefully navigating around the glass on the floor, I grabbed the biggest knife in the block and made my way to the front door.
I froze in front of the door, heart thumping loudly. What would I find on the other side? A crazed stalker? Or worse…Nat’s body? I shook the thought from my head.
I heard a second scream, and at that, threw the front door open.
“Who’s there?” I said, holding the knife straight out in front of me. “I have a knife! And…and…the police are already on their way!” I lied, but hopefully that would scare whoever it was.
I heard a rattling in the trash cans to my right. I jumped backwards, hitting my back against the porch column closest to the door.
“I…I’m warning you!” My voice was much quieter and shakier this time. Tears stung my eyes and I thought my heart was going to beat right out of my chest.
A moment later, a bright red fox ran out from behind the trash can. It froze when it spotted me, then opened its mouth and released a most terrifying, human-like scream before running off into the night.
I clutched my chest with my left hand and slid down the column until my butt hit the ground. I took several deep, calming breaths. Once my heart had returned to its normal speed, I stood and re-entered the house. I walked back into the kitchen to clean up the mess I’d made and grab something maybe a little stronger than water.
I grabbed the first bottle of wine I found and took a long drink straight from it. It was a dry red, my least favorite kind, but it was good enough to get the job done. I changed my cleaning plans and instead carried that bottle back into the living room with me. The mess could wait until I was drunk and my heart returned to a somewhat normal rate.
I’m not sure what time Natalie actually returned home from her date, because I passed out on the couch almost as soon as I had sat on it after cleaning up the glass I had dropped. Which is honestly quite a feat after drinking an entire bottle of wine. But next thing I knew, the sun was pouring through the living room curtains, rudely waking me up from my drunken slumber.
I sat up, stretched, and yawned. I looked at the wall clock. 7:30. I frowned. Thanks to my internal body clock, I very rarely slept past this time each day, no matter how late I had gone to bed the night before.
I shuffled into the kitchen and headed straight for the coffee pot.
“Good morning to you too,” Mom said from the kitchen table.
I jumped and turned. I was surprised to find my entire family sitting at the table eating breakfast.
“Uh…sorry, I didn’t see you,” I said. And also you usually ignore me, I wanted to add. Instead, I pulled a mug from the cupboard and poured myself some coffee.
“So anyway,” Natalie said. “Not only did he order us the most expensive bottle of wine on the menu, he had paid the restaurant to close to the public so we could enjoy our dinner without any interruption.”
I sat next to Nat at the table. That first part sounded like Logan, maybe, but the second part…those were the kind of date ideas he was turning down when we were helping him plan one. That put my mind at ease some.
“So who is this guy?” I asked. “What’s he like?”
Natalie looked at me suspiciously. I understood why, I had asked her way more questions about her personal life in the last 12 hours than I had in years. “You know, just my type. Tall, ripped. Rich.” She smiled and raised her eyebrows at that last one. Then she took a bite of pineapple that was in her bowl of fruit and looked down at her phone.
I studied her. It was unlike Natalie to not gush about her life, especially in regards to a guy she was into. She normally gave anyone in earshot every little boring detail. I looked to Mom for an answer and she shrugged.
“Don’t ask me,” she said. “We haven’t gotten any more than that out of her either.”
I switched gears some. “So this stalker guy, that’s pretty scary! Is it someone you know?”
Natalie groaned. “Oh my god. How many times do I have to say that was a misunderstanding?”
Her phone dinged and she picked it up. She smiled at the screen. “Looks like I have another date tonight!”
Natalie grabbed her bowl of fruit and walked out of the kitchen. I looked at my parents, bewildered.
Mom ignored me and stood to clear the breakfast dishes. Dad had turned to his newspaper.
“So…” I started, unsure what to even ask to get the information I was searching for.
“We don’t know any more than you do,” Dad said, his eyes glued to his paper.
I inwardly sighed. I went to the fridge to find something to eat, and my eyes landed on a police report newspaper clipping that was on the outside of it. I removed the magnet and pulled it off, my eyes quickly scanning it.
“What’s this?” I asked.
“It’s the police report from the night the cops were called on Nat’s stalker,” Mom said, being surprisingly forthcoming for once.
I looked down at the clipping. There was hardly any information, it was just a basic 911 report they put in all the papers:
“Police were called about a domestic disturbance at Sunset Studios around 8:30 pm on Friday, April 12th. One person was arrested and taken in for questioning.”
April 12th…why did that date sound so familiar?
After Natalie left for her date, I snuck into her room. I knew I was acting very irrationally about the whole thing, but I needed concrete evidence that Logan and Natalie were not together so I could actually get some sleep over the weekend. No matter how many times I told myself the odds of it being her were so slim, my anxiety just refused to listen.
I opened her laptop. A photo of a smiling Natalie greeted me when the screen lit up. Of course she has herself as her background photo. I rolled my eyes.
I clicked the mousepad, hoping maybe I could get in easily. But nope. Password protected.
“I need to learn how to hack into computers,” I muttered to myself. I typed “ImABigBitch” into the password space and pushed enter. “Incorrect password” popped on the screen.
“Yeah, yeah,” I said. I closed the laptop and opened her desk drawers one by one. They were pretty sparsely filled. A couple call sheets from her films stuffed into one, some headshots that she had signed in another. I shook my head at those. I did find a nice leather-bound journal in one drawer, but when I flipped through the pages I found it to be empty.
“Such a waste,” I said, returning the journal where I found it.
I looked through her vanity next. Those drawers were filled to the brim with make-up and hair products.
I looked through her dresser, her closet, under the bed and then under the mattress. I came up frustratingly empty each time.
After I overturned her whole room, I went back to mine and flopped backwards onto the bed. Why was this bothering me so much? Even if Natalie were the mystery wife, would it affect me any?
My gut said yes.
I pulled the newspaper clipping from the fridge out of my jeans pocket and read over it again. April 12th…
I pulled out my phone and opened my work calendar. I scrolled back to April 12th, which was just a few weeks prior. It had a small red line across the date, indicating something important. I clicked on it and gasped.
April 12th was the night of Logan’s welcome party.
The night I bailed him out of jail.
