Her Twisted Fiction by C. L. Jennison

Author:C. L. Jennison [Jennison, C. L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-05-31T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINETEEN

I force myself to leave the house to meet Rae. The spring sunshine is a sharp shock to my red-rimmed eyes after being holed up all weekend, fobbing Aydan off with a mystery illness despite him hoping we could make up for the weekend before, beside myself with grief for the loss of my revised and re-annotated manuscript for the second time, and fury at my own stupidity for leaving it unattended at the book fair.

Briar was brilliant, immediately announcing the theft – I’m sure some thought I had simply misplaced it and was over reacting judging by some of the looks thrown my way – and encouraging a search of the halls, but to no avail. Renee, Rae and James tried their best to calm me down, even Sylvie, Kenny and Guy seemed empathetic, despite their ingrained inclination for practical solutions rather than placating rising hysteria.

After an hour of looking under every table in the hall as well as frantically retracing my steps even though I knew I had stowed it safely upon arrival, I had to leave. I pinned my fading hopes on Briar’s promise to ring me if anyone located my bag after I had gone, thankful for the small mercy of keeping my phone, my bank card and my house key in my pockets. As I rushed out of the hall, desperately trying to stem my tears until I was somewhere more private, James caught up with me. He held my arms and turned me to face his imploring blue eyes.

“Paige, let me drive you home, you’re in no fit state. Please, talk to me, let me help you.”

“Leave me alone!” I raged, wild eyed and defiant. “Just leave me alone!”

With impeccable timing, his mobile rang. Freezing for a split second, I could see him mentally deliberating whether to allow the intrusion. He tutted, sagged, and whispered, “I’m so sorry, I’ve got to answer this.”

I shook my head at his decision, taunts of Sofia invading my brain, broke free of his hold, ran out to my car in the side street, and sobbed my heart out once inside. I hadn’t stopped for the remainder of the weekend. Rae and Renee both emailed to check how I was, and I acquiesced to seeing Rae this morning, in the hope that she will work her cheerful magic and help yank me out of this terrible slump I have found myself in.

As Rae’s house is still being commandeered by builders and I need a change of scenery, we have agreed to meet at our newly preferred coffee shop. Rae’s late but, as always, I’m early so I nurse my latte at a table in the window for a few minutes while I wait. My mind is in turmoil, yet again going over everything, and I feel another stab of sadness at losing my favourite photo of my parents which was inside my purse in my bag. I’ll have fines to pay for the loss of the library books that were in there too.

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