Clean out your bank accounts. Read your emails. Monitor your phone calls and activities. Take over your social media accounts. Send letters to your friends and colleagues that will convince them you’re bi-polar. Destroy every romantic relationship you attempt to have. Make Addie a social pariah by frightening the parents of her friends. Is any of this sinking in?”

Kathleen starts to speak, changes her mind.

“Say it,” Callie says.

“You’re evil. Pure evil.”

“Not true. If I were pure evil I’d kill Addie to prove I’m serious.” She pauses. “But I would never punish her for something you did.” She pauses again. “Unless I had to.”

Kathleen says, “You won’t have to.”

Callie tosses Kathleen’s cell phone back to her and says, “Call him.”

“Excuse me?”

“Call Creed. On speaker. Tell him it was nice to see him last night, but make sure he knows it’s over. You want no contact. You can’t be friends. Be convincing.”

“I don’t have his number.”

“That’s a lie.” Callie says. Then adds, “I didn’t realize you were a liar.”

“I’m not a liar. I simply forgot.”

“That’s the first thing a liar would say.”

Kathleen has a different concern in mind, and voices it. “When I call Donovan? What if he says he wants to see me?”

Callie says, “That would be really bad. For both of you.”

She removes a handgun from her bag and attaches a silencer to it. Then points it at Kathleen’s face and says, “Call him. Let’s see what he has to say.”

12.

CREED ANSWERS THE phone by saying, “Not a good idea, Kathleen.”

“I agree. That’s why I’m calling. I wanted to be clear.”

“Go ahead.”

“Last night was fun. And good for Addie, I think. But I didn’t want you to get the wrong impression.”

“What’s the right impression?”

“I have no interest in reconnecting. It’s not you, it’s your lifestyle.”

“I feel the same way. But I thought I made that clear last night, before leaving.”

“You did.