An Anonymous Girl by Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen

Author:Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Macmillan

CHAPTER

THIRTY-SEVEN

Sunday, December 16

I make myself walk two blocks away from Dr. Shields’s town house before calling Thomas back, even though the whole time I was with her, all I could think about was his message.

She’s dangerous. Watch yourself.

The question searing through my mind is: How does Thomas know Dr. Shields arranged my meeting with him?

He picks up on the first ring. Before I can ask, he says, “How do you know my wife?”

My legs buckle and I stagger, falling against a tree to balance myself. I flash to the picture of the dark-haired man with the beard in the photo in her library, the one who appeared to be about Dr. Shields’s height. I’m certain she said she was married to him.

So how could Thomas be her husband? Yet Dr. Shields clearly knows him; she called him by name at the end of our meeting.

“Your wife?” I echo. Nausea roils my stomach and my head begins to spin. I stare down at the sidewalk to ground myself.

“Yes, Lydia Shields.” I hear him take a deep breath, like he’s trying to steady himself, too. “We’ve been married for seven years. Although we’re separated now.”

“I don’t believe you,” I blurt.

There’s no way Dr. Shields, with her rules about honesty, would have created such an elaborate lie.

“Meet me and I’ll tell you everything,” he says. “That book sticking out of your bag . . . The Morality of Marriage. She wrote it a few years ago. I read the first draft in our living room. That’s how I knew she was behind this.”

I wrap my free arm around myself, bracing myself against the blustery wind.

One of them is lying. But who?

“I’m not meeting you until you prove you’re really her husband,” I tell Thomas.

“I’ll get proof,” he says. “In the meantime, promise me you won’t say a word to her about seeing me.”

But I can’t agree. This interaction could be a test. Maybe Dr. Shields wants me to prove my loyalty.

I’m about to hang up on Thomas when he says one final thing.

“Please, Jess, just be careful. You’re not the first.”

His words land like a physical blow. I feel myself recoil.

“What do you mean?” I whisper.

“She preys on young women like you.”

I’m frozen in place.

“Jess?” I hear him repeat my name. But I can’t speak.

Finally, I disconnect the call. I slowly lower my phone and look up.

Dr. Shields is two feet away.

I gasp and instinctively shrink back.

She materialized out of nowhere, like an apparition. She isn’t wearing a coat to protect her against the elements. She’s standing there, motionless, except for her hair, which is whipping in the wind. How much of my conversation did she overhear?

Adrenaline floods my body.

“Dr. Shields!” I cry. “I didn’t see you there!”

She looks me up and down, as if assessing me. Then she stretches out her clenched hand and slowly unfurls her fingers.

“You forgot your lip balm, Jessica.”

I stare at her, trying to make sense of it. She followed me all this way just to return my lip balm?

I have an almost uncontrollable urge to blurt out everything Thomas has just said.

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