Page 7 of Hunted to the Altar
I couldn’t go on like this.
As if a sign from Jesus himself, my phone started ringing. I looked down and saw it was Mya. We hadn’t really spoken since she disappeared to Italy without a word, then popped up married with a new man, deciding to stay overseas for work. She had me looking crazy trying to find her whereabouts and ensure she was okay.
But I guess I should let go of that hurt. I just thought we were closer than that. I guess it was easy forgetting I existed once she went transcontinental. I sighed. I may as well get this conversation over with. Not wanting it to go to voicemail, I answered the call.
“...hello?”
A pause, and then her voice crackled on the line. “Nina?”
“Mya,” I said, colder than I’d meant to. My hand tightened around the phone. “I see you’re alive and well.”
“I am.” Another pause. “I wasn’t sure you’d answer.”
“Neither was I.”
A groan came through on the end of the line. Her breath trembled. “I owe you an explanation.”
“Yeah, you do.” My voice cracked. “You had me looking crazy trying to get the FBI to find you.”
“I-I’m sorry. It’s complicated.”
I scoffed. “You were so busy over there you couldn’t let me know that you were safe? Or that you were moving? For God’s sake, Mya, they couldn’t find a trace of you.”
She sat in silence for a minute before she said. “One day I can tell you, but I can’t right now.”
“What, did you sign some kind of NDA?”
Her voice sounded farther away, like she wasn’t as close to the phone as before. “Something like that.”
“Then why did you bother to call me?”
“That’s not fair,” she said.
I shook with anger. “Not fair?” I asked quietly. “You don’t know the meaning of those words.”
“Look, I know you’re angry and you have every right to be. I can’t justify what I did–”
I cut in, not wanting to hear any more excuses. “I thought you were my friend. I thought you were my friend, and you failed.” I choked up. I wasn’t going to cry at this confrontation. I wanted to be stronger than that.
But what she did cut deep.
“And, while I’m happy to hear that you’re not tied up in someone’s basement or thrown into the back of their trunk, I’m not sure if I really want to hear anything else from you,Dr.Mya.”
“Nina, I swear if I could go back and–”
I cut her off again. “What’s done is done. I hope you have the future you deserve.” I hung up and tossed the phone on my kitchen counter.
I inhaled a shaky breath.
It was rare that I called Mya by her title, but she was supposed to be my person. The sane one between us who kept it real. I thought she would always be in my life. I guess I was grieving her. When she first went missing, I did the same. Even while scrambling for updates on her case.
A case no one was looking into.
I went insane trying to find her. I called hospitals, shelters, and even her old professors. When nothing turned up, I went to the FBI. Told them my friend was missing. That something was wrong. That she’d never disappear without telling me.
They didn’t care.
They smiled, nodded, and filed my report like it was a joke.
