Five People, Four Rejections, They Voted to Erase Me, So I Erased Them novel · Chapter 7 of 24

Chapter 7: The Drive

I pulled the second drive out of my laptop.

The bar had been at ninety-nine percent.

I did not know if that meant it had finished.

"Give it back," Corrine said.

"No."

"It's mine. I bought it."

"You copied my files without asking."

"They're not your files, Ness." She said it gently. "They're ours. We're all in them."

She set the mugs on the dresser and crossed her arms.

"I wasn't going to do anything with it. I wanted to see what Dad did to you. I thought if I could watch the real tape, I could talk to him."

"You could have asked."

"You'd have said no."

"Yes. I would have."

She looked at me for a moment, and her face did something I had never seen it do.

It went flat.

Then her phone buzzed on the dresser.

It buzzed again, and the screen lit up with a preview line.

Ballots: Colm: did she see the lens thing. dad says hold the line.

Corrine picked it up without looking, and I saw her thumb move to turn it off.

I was faster.

I held out my hand.

"Give me the phone."

"No."

"Corrine. What's Ballots?"

"It's a group chat," she said. "It's nothing. It's the family."

"I'm in the family."

"You were in a vote," she said, "and you lost."

The mugs rattled against each other on the dresser.

She heard herself.

She pressed her lips together and tried to take it back.

"I'm sorry. I'm tired. I mean that Dad really is angry, and you humiliated him in front of Hearth, and I'm trying to protect you from what happens next."

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