Chapter 10: Her Old Number

Kieran sat up and turned on the lamp.

"Show me," I said.

He put the phone in my hand.

The thread under my name was long.

It began in December, the week after the anniversary, with a message that said, "I need space. Please don't call."

There were forty-one more.

"I'm staying with a friend."

"I'm fine. Don't come."

"Tell Odile I'm all right."

Every one of them was written in my voice, short and polite, the voice of a woman who had never asked for anything.

I had never typed a word of it.

Under each, Kieran's replies climbed the screen.

"Can we talk?"

"I'll come tomorrow."

"I miss you."

The last was from three weeks ago, and it said only, "Are you coming back?"

My chest hurt.

"You wrote back to every one," I said.

"And every time, you told me not to come."

"I never saw a single word of it."

I put the phone down on the sheets, and my hands were steady.

"Where does the line come from?" I asked.

"I don't know."

"You pay for it."

He stared at me.

"The family plan," I said. "Five lines. Yours, mine, Odile's, Victoria's, and the office. You pay the bill."

Without a word, he picked up the phone, opened an app, and typed in a password.

It took only a moment.

Then he turned the screen to me.

There were five lines listed, with names.

Line four said "E. Bishop (old)."

Beside it, in small gray letters, it said, "Account manager: V. Saxon."

The SIM had been reissued in the first week of December.

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