Jesse's grip loosened. Something lost and blank flickered through his eyes.
Then his phone started buzzing violently.
It was Michael.
"Jesse, it's bad! Edith's gone! After those people in the livestream called her a homewrecker, she turned off her phone. Her location's dead. No one can reach her!"
The color drained from Jesse's face. He walked toward me, step by step, and the look in his eyes was the kind of unhinged that made your blood run cold.
"Lucretia. Where are you hiding her?"
"I'm not! I have no idea where she is!"
The whip cut through the air and cracked across my back.
"Talk! Did you lure her out?"
I screamed. I begged. But every word I said, he took as another lie.
Jesse wore himself out. He dropped the whip, panting, and pulled his phone from his pocket.
On the screen were the photos that animal of a professor had taken of me all those years ago.
Jesse stared at me, his expression dark.
"If you don't tell me where Edith is, I'll send these to your father. Let him see what a fine daughter he raised. Let him see how filthy she really was."
Every drop of blood in my body went cold. My heart seized like a fist had closed around it.
"Don't... Jesse, please, don't send them..."
My father's health was so fragile. A shock like that could kill him.
I lunged for the phone like a woman possessed. In the struggle, I saw Jesse's thumb hit send.
Jesse froze too.
He stared at the screen. Delivered. The color drained from his face.
He scrambled to recall the message, to delete it, fumbling so badly he could barely dial his assistant's number.
"Go! Get to the hospital! Take the phone from Lucretia's father! NOW!"
That was when Michael burst through the door.
"Jesse! Found her! Edith bought a plane ticket overseas. She went on vacation. Her phone had no signal before, she just turned it back on!"
Dead silence.
Jesse stood rigid. The phone slipped from his hand and hit the floor with a crack.
He looked at me. Panic and regret tangled behind his eyes.
He scrambled toward me on his knees, trying to undo the chain, trying to wrap a towel around me.
"Lucretia, Lucretia, listen to me. He didn't see it. I sent someone to grab the phone. They'll get there in time..."
"Don't be scared. As long as he didn't see it, nothing will happen. Right?"
He babbled at me, incoherent, like a child who knew he'd done something unforgivable.
Then his phone rang again.