Chapter 9 - The Meeting Request
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Her cell phone rang, shattering the early morning silence.
The caller ID displayed Chloe.
Natalie stared at the name blinking on the screen.
She strongly considered ignoring it. Let it go to voicemail. Then she thought of Chloe’s face the night before—not entirely innocent, exactly, but definitely not triumphant either. She looked like a girl who realized the ground beneath her was crumbling.
She answered the call.
For a very tense second, neither sister spoke a word.
Then Chloe whispered, her voice incredibly small, “Are you completely alone?”
Natalie looked back toward the closed bedroom door. “Ethan’s still asleep.”
“I really need to talk to you right now.”
“We are talking, Chloe.”
“No,” Chloe said urgently. “Not on the phone.”
Natalie’s pulse quickened slightly. “Why not on the phone?”
Chloe exhaled a very shaky breath. “Because Mom is obsessively listening to absolutely everything at the house. She physically took my tablet away last night because she paranoidly thought I’d try to message you.”
Natalie sat very still, gripping her coffee mug.
“You’re twenty-six years old, Chloe,” she pointed out firmly.
“I know.”
The deep, humiliating shame in Chloe’s voice was unmistakable.
Natalie looked out the kitchen window. A large delivery truck rolled very slowly along the curb below, the only sign of life on the street.
“What exactly do you want, Chloe?”
“I want to explain.”
“Explain why Mom aggressively asked me for sixty thousand dollars on your behalf and then slapped me when I said no?”
“It wasn’t for me, Natalie.”
Natalie closed her eyes tightly.
There it was.
The very first, massive crack in the official story.
“Then who exactly was the money for?” Natalie demanded.
May you like
Chloe’s voice dropped so incredibly low Natalie almost couldn’t hear her over the phone.
“I don’t know exactly. But she severely owes someone a lot of money.”
