Georgia didn’t care what she did or didn’t mean. She just wanted to get away from her. Coming here had been a horrible mistake. ‘Please,’ she said again, ‘please let me out of here.’
Cadence swung back around and jabbed at the buttons again. Georgia’s pulse raced. The elevator made a clunking noise and then shuddered back into action.
First floor.
Ground floor.
The door opened slowly. God, it was slow, excruciatingly slow. Georgia could barely breathe. Let me out, let me out, let me out. Who knows what she’s capable of? Who knows what’s going through her mind right now?
Cadence turned side-on. She looked straight at Georgia. ‘Just go,’ she said.
Georgia was shocked. What had changed her mind? Why was she letting her go?
The door finished opening and Georgia lurched past Cadence and out into the foyer of the building.
She didn’t stop running until she reached her car.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Luke was sitting on the couch with his head in his hands. Georgia had decided not to call or text him about the events of the past twenty-four hours; instead she’d waited until he arrived home. He was already worried when he walked in the door, asking if she was okay after the message from Cadence the previous evening.
She’d given him a look and said, ‘Oh, there’s a lot more now.’ Then she’d proceeded to tell him everything.
His face had taken on a more and more tortured expression as she described each moment, and now she couldn’t tell what he was thinking.
‘Luke,’ she said quietly, ‘are you annoyed that I went to see her?’
He lifted his face out of his hands and looked at her. ‘Annoyed?’ he asked. ‘How could I be annoyed with you? I feel awful. All of this, every single thing that’s happened is my fault. I hate this. I hate that you’ve had to go through it.’
Georgia shook her head. ‘It’s not your fault,’ she said firmly. ‘This is her fault and her fault alone.’
‘But still, just the thought of you here alone this morning, reading that horrible message, not knowing if you were safe in your own home. I’m so sorry.’ Her pulled her towards him and she rested her head on his shoulder.
‘Listen,’ he said. ‘I need to make you an offer. If you . . . if you don’t want to be with me anymore . . . if it’s too much to take, all of this shit with Cadence, I won’t blame you. If you need an out, as much as I want to be with you, your safety is more important to me.’
Georgia shook her head. ‘No way. I’m not letting her win. I don’t want to lose you.’
‘Thank God,’ Luke said with a relieved smile. ‘Here’s what I’m going to do, tomorrow I’ll go and see her myself. I don’t know, maybe I can appeal to the part of her that once cared for me. And then I’ll go to the police as well, find out if everything she’s done is enough to warrant a restraining order and see what I have to do to put it into place. This is going to end, I promise you.’
*
Georgia had already showered and was picking out some nice underwear when she heard Luke’s key in the front door. She clipped on her bra and headed out to the living room to meet him.
Things were definitely improving. When Luke had confronted Cadence the other day, he told Georgia she’d completely broken down and confessed to hassling Georgia in an attempt to scare her away from Luke. But the threat of a restraining order had snapped her out of it and she’d promised to back off.
Tonight, they were going out to a bar in Parramatta so that Luke could finally meet Georgia’s nursing friends.
‘Hey there, sexy. I’m liking this new way of greeting me.’ Luke dropped his bag on the couch, placed his hands on her waist and kissed her on the cheek.
‘Thought it might make a nice change from you finding me waking up from a day sleep with a bird’s nest on my head. Now get changed, we’re leaving in ten.’
She made to pull away and head back into the bedroom, but Luke caught her hand and pulled her back. ‘Wait, don’t tell me you’re about to cover up that gorgeous body.’
‘Yep, ’fraid so. Sexy times later. Come on, move it.’
She headed back into the bedroom and started looking through her wardrobe for something to wear. Her hand fell on the green top she’d worn last week when Cadence sent that nasty message. She gave an involuntary shiver, then yanked it off the hanger and stuffed it to the back of the wardrobe. She heard a ding from her phone, and walked over to check it where it was sitting on the bed, assuming it would be Amber or Rick.
It wasn’t.
It was a Facebook private message from another old school friend.
Not again.
Her entire body clenched as she opened it up and read it:
Fool you twice. Shame on you.
You still haven’t figured out what’s missing, have you?
She dropped the phone onto the bed just as Luke walked into the room.
‘Hey,’ he said, his voice bright. Then he stopped. ‘Babe, what’s wrong?’
‘It’s a message. Another message. She’s doing it again!’
Luke took quick steps across the room and snatched up the phone to look at the screen. ‘She promised,’ he said. ‘She fucking promised.’ He wrapped his arms around Georgia. ‘You’re okay,’ he said, ‘I’m right here with you. Nothing bad is ever going to happen.’
They sat down on the bed together and Luke rubbed circles on her back. ‘Try to slow your breathing,’ he said gently.
Georgia was sucking the air in and out again as she had the other day, without even realising it. She was almost hyperventilating. She tried to calm down. Tried to focus on drawing the air in through the nose and out through the mouth.
Luke looked at the phone again. ‘Phoebe James,’ he read out. ‘Who is that meant to be?’
‘Another old schoolmate.’ Breathe in. ‘I’m sure I accepted that friend request ages ago.’ Breathe out. ‘I’m an idiot. Obviously, I need to go right through the whole list and clean it out.’ She realised that tears were starting to well up and she tried hard to stop them from falling. Pull it together, Georgia.
‘You’re not an idiot. And we’ll do that together, okay?’ He kissed her forehead and continued to rub rhythmic circles on her back. And then his hand stopped mid-circle. ‘Georgia?’ he said, his voice strained.
‘What’s wrong?’
‘Remember when you lost your keys?’
‘At the movies?’
‘Yeah, when you thought they’d fallen out of your bag or something.’
‘Yes.’
‘What if it was her?’
‘What? How?’
‘Well, she followed us to the Persian restaurant. What if she also followed us to the movies? It’s dark in there. She could have sat right behind us without us even knowing. What if she stole them from under your seat?’
‘But . . . but I got my keys back.’
‘Two days later. That would have been enough time for her to make a copy.’
Georgia’s skin turned cold. ‘Jesus.’ She grabbed the phone back off Luke and re-read the message.
You still haven’t figured out what’s missing, have you?
‘Then she has been in here. She’s been in here and she’s taken something. But I checked! That day the first message came through, I looked.’
‘Maybe we should have another look around, together this time.’
‘You mean now?’
‘The sooner the better. We need to know what she’s taken.’
Georgia nodded. ‘In that case I think I should cancel our plans.’
‘Shit,’ said Luke. ‘I feel awful about this, you look so sad. I don’t want you to have another night ruined.’
‘Me neither,’ Georgia said with a shrug. ‘But to be honest, I don’t even feel like going out tonight anymore.’
‘All right, let’s check through this place. I can’t believe I fell for her act the other day. I can’t believe I let her trick me into thinking she was so
rry, that she was going to stop. No more warnings now, we have to go straight to the police.’
‘I agree.’
They scoured the apartment to within an inch of its life. Every now and then, Luke would tap on a shelf or a tabletop and ask, ‘What about here? Anything used to sit here? Anything missing?’ But each time Georgia would shake her head.
They were almost done when Luke called her into the bedroom. He was standing in front of her tallboy. ‘At the back here,’ he said when she walked in. ‘There’s a circle shape in the dust, like something used to be sitting there. Do you know what it was?’
Georgia stared at all the various ornaments and things sitting up on top of her tallboy. She was about to say there was nothing missing. That one of the candles had probably been moved and that’s why there was a circular shape in the dust, but then Luke put a hand on her shoulder and spoke gently. ‘Close your eyes and think. Try and picture it. What used to sit here?’
Georgia closed her eyes. She let the image of the tallboy float across her mind. She saw the three photo frames in different shapes and colours. In one was a photo of her and Marcus in a canoe on a holiday up the coast, the canoe tipping sideways, the two of them about to tumble out into the lake. In another was a black and white shot of her parents on their wedding day. Her mother’s long hair was braided over her shoulder, the same way Georgia liked to wear her own hair sometimes. Her dad’s grin exploding out of the photo. And in the third was a terrible photo of all of her nieces and nephews on a picnic rug at a park — Gertie in tears, Joshua facing the wrong way, Hattie in the middle of shoving Max — but she loved it anyway.
Behind the photos was a collection of various things. A ballerina ornament her grandmother had given her when she was a small girl. A Jemima Puddle-Duck toy she hadn’t been able to bring herself to throw away. Several different candles: the green one that was supposed to smell like a rainforest but instead smelled like marijuana; the fat white one — vanilla and cinnamon; the two matching gold pineapple-shaped ones. What else? What else sat up there?
Her eyes flew open. ‘My happiness jar,’ she said.
‘Your what?’
‘It was an idea that I got from . . . a friend. You get a jar and decorate it. Then every time you feel grateful for something, or happy about something, you write that thing down on a scrap of paper and put it in the jar. At the end of the year, you open up the jar and get these reminders of everything you’ve felt grateful for throughout the year. But I haven’t thought about it for ages . . . not since . . .’
‘Since what?’
‘It’s a bit embarrassing . . . Since the night I met you. I wrote myself a note about the fact that I’d met someone. But I haven’t done another one since then.’
Luke smiled at her. ‘Don’t be embarrassed, it’s nice that you wrote that.’
‘But why would she take that?’
He rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. ‘I don’t know,’ he said, shaking his head. ‘But this is the only thing we’ve come across. I guess she must have thought it was important to you. Probably thought you’d notice it was gone straightaway. But her plan backfired because you didn’t even realise it was gone.’
‘It didn’t completely backfire though.’ Georgia shivered. ‘Because now that I know she has it, I can’t bloody stand the thought of her reading through all those personal thoughts. Those were for me, for my eyes only, not for some obsessed stalker to find out my innermost thoughts. She doesn’t deserve to know those things about me . . . she has no right.’
Luke hugged her. ‘I know,’ he said. ‘She absolutely does not have any right to know a bloody single thing about you. She has no right to have ever even looked at you. You don’t deserve any of this.’
He guided her by the hand out to the living room, where they sat together on the couch. ‘I’ll organise a locksmith for tomorrow and I’ll talk to the police as well. I’m so sorry, I should never have fallen for her act when I went to see her the other day. This is on me. I should have realised she was just saying whatever she needed to, to stop me from going to the cops. I’m an idiot.’
‘No. You’re not an idiot, you’re lovely and kind and trusting, and that’s not a bad thing.’
‘Thank you, but I still feel like a moron.’ He drew her into his arms. ‘What do you want for dinner? I can cook you something? Or order in?’
Georgia shrugged. ‘I don’t really feel all that hungry.’ She snuggled closer into him. ‘I just want you to keep holding me. And never let go.’
‘Easy,’ he said. ‘I can do that in my sleep. No, I mean I could literally hug you all night long while I sleep.’
She laughed and tipped her head back to kiss him. He kissed her back, long and slow. Their tongues entwined and suddenly Georgia felt all of the emotion and drama from the last few weeks coursing through her body. She kissed him harder, grabbing at his shirt, pulling him closer and closer still. Tears started to slide down her face, the salty taste intermingling with their kisses.
Luke pulled back, worried. ‘Are you okay?’
‘Don’t stop,’ she replied, climbing on top of him and kissing him again. ‘I want you,’ she whispered, ‘I want you so much.’ He pulled off her shirt and kissed his way down her neck to her breasts, reached around her back and unclipped her bra. She pressed her body against his.
They didn’t make it from the couch to the bedroom.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Jerry was sitting on the edge of his bed, looking out of place dressed in normal clothes rather than pyjamas. He looked sheepish as he pulled the yellow stone out of his pocket and held it out to Georgia. ‘Ah, here you are, love. I think it’s done its job.’
Georgia guessed he was feeling embarrassed about his dramatic talk of prophetic dreams now that he was being checked out of the hospital again, having been given a clean bill of health. Anxiety had been the diagnosis for his unexplained pain. When there was nothing physical to be found, it seemed to be the best explanation.
‘Why don’t you hang onto it for a tiny bit longer?’ Georgia suggested. ‘Eileen’s exchanged details with me, so I can come visit some time and get it back then.’
Jerry hesitated. He gave Georgia a look, as though he was searching her face for something. ‘But what if you need it?’
Georgia sat down beside him. ‘I’m fine,’ she said. ‘Don’t need it at all at the moment.’
‘Really?’ he said. ‘Because it looks to me like something’s taken a bit of the spark out of your eyes lately.’
Georgia sighed. ‘Maybe you’re right . . . a bit. But it’s nothing I can’t handle. A jealous ex-girlfriend of Luke’s has been hassling me, making it hard for me to go out and have fun when I’m off work. I guess I didn’t realise how much I need that time for myself. This job . . . it can really drain you.’
‘So,’ said Jerry, ‘take the stone, carry around some of this sunshine for yourself.’
Georgia shook her head. ‘Nope,’ she said. ‘And I’ll tell you why. The reason that nurse Kathy first gave it to me was because I was suffering from depression. I was in a dark place, Jerry, a really, really dark place. But right now, I’m not headed back there. Whereas you? You, I’m worried about. I know you don’t like the fact that Dr Kouzeleas has diagnosed you with anxiety. Eileen told me you called it a load of mumbo jumbo hogshit. I’m here to tell you it’s not. Mental health problems are very real. I need you to take this seriously, okay? For Eileen and me.’
Jerry didn’t look convinced, but he dropped the stone back into his pocket. ‘All right. I’ll keep it for now. But only so there’s a reason for us to meet again. Maybe we can have you round for a barbie one weekend.’
‘Sounds like a plan,’ said Georgia, giving him a hug.
Once she’d said goodbye to Jerry, she snuck outside for a break, telling herself it was for the fresh air and that she was not going to ask anyone for a spare cigarette. She was sitting on one of the milk crates when a message came through on her phone. S
he hated that her immediate reaction was one of fear. Who was it this time? She was relieved to see it was a message from her dad. It was written in all caps, although she didn’t think he’d intended for it to come across as shouting.
G, YOUR MUM AND I HAD A CHAT. WE WOULD LIKE TO PAY FOR YOU TO FLY TO BALI WITH US FOR A LITTLE MEDITATIVE GETAWAY SATURDAY AFTER NEXT. LOVE, DAD.
The offer took her completely by surprise. Her parents were well-off but they’d always been very firm in their belief that their kids should start paying their own way as soon as they had the capacity to work.
Her initial reaction was excitement — who wouldn’t be excited at the idea of a free trip to Bali? She would have to get someone to cover one or two of her shifts, but it should be doable. It was followed by apprehension though. What exactly did a ‘meditative getaway’ mean? And why did they think that was something she needed?
On top of that was the fact they obviously weren’t extending the same invitation to Luke — not that she would expect them to. They didn’t know he’d moved in. And even if they did invite him along, he was terrified of flying. After seeing what he was like on a short flight to Melbourne, there was no way he’d cope with a trip to Bali. Would it be wrong to take off overseas and leave him behind? Would he be offended? Especially considering the situation with Cadence. Was it harsh to say, ‘Right, I’m taking off and leaving you here to deal with all of this shit’?
Once again, she wouldn’t mind chatting to Marcus, but she hadn’t heard from him once since he’d gone off on his honeymoon, which was perfectly understandable — who’d want to talk to their sister while they’re honeymooning? But she was finding it really difficult not being able to shoot him a text any time of day.
A shadow appeared in front of her and she looked up to see Amber. Her hair was platinum blonde now and she’d had a blunt fringe cut across her forehead.
‘Hey honey,’ Amber said as she sat down beside her, and Georgia released a huge sigh. ‘That was dramatic, what’s up?’
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