Page 26 of Taking Adalisa

“I don’t know,” I whisper, looking up at the ceiling.

CHAPTER 9

ADALISA

“Have none of them confessed to giving you the stuffed zebra stuffy?” I ask, walking into the store.

Margery looks up and shakes her head. “No, they haven’t. I don’t think it’s one of them.”

“What makes you think that?” I start to unpack my lunch from my bag.

I’m hoping that, if Matthias is watching me, he sees that I’m eating, so he doesn’t buy anything for me. I don’t need him coming in with a disguise or having someone else deliver the food. What if he got one of his men to bring it to me?

I still as I think about that. No, he wouldn’t. He said he works for someone, so he wouldn’t have men to look after me or do anything like that. Or would he?

No, I can’t think about that. I need to come up with a way to get away from him, to find a way to escape and get him to stop wanting me. That’s what I need to do. I don’t need to think about him anymore.

“Adalisa?” Margery touches my shoulder.

“Sorry, in my head.” I give her a small smile. “I was just thinking about lunch and how I can’t wait to eat it,” I lie.“Anyway, what makes you think it wasn’t one of your dates who gave it to you?”

She shrugs. “I don’t know. It’s just a feeling. They don’t know where I work. And unless they followed me, they wouldn’t know. And if it was them, why wouldn’t they just give it to me in person?”

Those are all very good points, I hadn’t thought about those.

“Okay, so then who could it be?” I ask, sitting down. “Could it be an ex? Someone you know from high school? An uncle you don’t know about?”

She shakes her head and sighs. “I don’t have any ex-boyfriends. I only dated Ethan… he was the only one. And as for people I know in high school, I didn’t have many friends. They didn’t want to be friends with me.”

“Uncles or aunts?”

“Nope. I don’t talk to them, and they don’t like stuffed animals.” She rolls her eyes. “But I don’t know who else it could be.”

“A secret admirer. Maybe someone walked into the store, you helped them out, and they took an interest in you. Or they could have been walking past and saw you through the window,” I suggest, but immediately regret it.

That’s just how Matthias found me. He saw me, walked into the store, and then stalked me for a little while. Now I can’t get rid of him.

Margery laughs. “I don’t think that’s the case. This stuffed zebra is like the one I have at home… the exact same.”

My shoulders shrug. “So it’s a coincidence. Things happen like that all the time.”

She looks at me, unsure, and I smile.

“You can’t be paranoid. It’s just a zebra,” I suggest. “Whoever gave it to you will show their face eventually, and you’ll realizethat you’ve known them for a long time. You don’t need to worry.”

“I guess,” she mumbles, looking off into the distance.

“Not I guess, but I know. You are going to look back at all of this and laugh at how paranoid you are being.” I sit back and relax. “Everything is going to be fine. It’s harmless what the person is doing.”

Margery has something harmless while I’m over here getting told I belong to Matthias, his mother says not to fight it, and he breaks into my apartment. He also watches me and has done for a while, changing his appearance so I don’t know I’m actually talking to him. How much else does he do that I don’t know about?

I’ve tried not to think about it since I don’t know him. I don’t know what he’s capable of. The possibilities are endless, which is scary to think about. Has he been in my apartment before waking me up? The only way into my apartment is through the front door.

I’m on the fourth floor, so unless he scaled the side of the building to get in through my window, he got in through the front door. Does he have a key?

“Adalisa?” Margery places a hand on my shoulder.

I look at her. “Sorry, in my thoughts again. What did I miss?”

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