Chelsea’s hand clenched the phone so tightly I thought it might shatter. “What do you want?” she demanded.
“What I’ve always wanted,” Gabriel said smoothly. “The truth. You see, dear Chelsea, you’re not as untouchable as you think. And unless you want the world to know about your little… experiments, you’ll do exactly as I say.”
Chelsea’s jaw tightened, but she didn’t respond.
“Oh, and one more thing,” Gabriel added, his tone dripping with malice. “Tell Kristie to run while she still can. Because next time, I won’t miss."
The line went dead.
I stared at Chelsea, my chest tightening. Her secrets, my identity, and Gabriel’s vendetta—it was all spiraling out of control.
“What do we do now?” I whispered.
Chelsea didn’t answer. She just stared into the darkness, her expression grim.
Calvin glanced at me, his jaw set. “We fight back.”
That’s the point. But… how?
“We need to go to my safehouse.” Calvin spoke.
We pulled up to a rickety old house. I hurried myself to walk inside, standing in the corner of the living room, trying to make sense of the chaos unraveling around me. The place—it was functional, cold, and barren of the luxury I had thought defined him. Just four walls, a couch that looked like it belonged to a garage sale, and an air of suffocating tension.
Mom—no, Dr. Chelsea, because I wasn't even sure of what Calvin told me. I stood a few feet away, pacing furiously. Her sharp voice sliced through the silence like a whip.
I could remember in the car, they were arguing about what Calvin did. And now, Dr. Chelsea had the courage to confront him.
Of course, Dr. Chelsea won't ask if he's telling the truth. She knows he is. Calvin got her trust, that's what I noticed.
"Calvin, you’ve gone too far this time! You switched my baby? Who even does that?!"
Calvin leaned against the wall, arms crossed, his face unreadable. "I did what I had to do, Chelsea. You don’t understand the stakes here."
"I don’t understand?" she snapped, her voice rising. "You stole my child, Calvin! You let me believe Kristie was mine while you hid Kelsey away like some... some pawn in your twisted little game!"
I sat frozen, watching them go back and forth like a tennis match. My head felt like it was about to explode from all the revelations being thrown at me.