Page 138 of Scarred in Silence
I scroll up through our old texts. The last one was a thumbs-up she sent after I told her I’d be off-grid for a bit. That was months ago. Before the overdose. Before Lucien. Before everything.
She never responded to the follow-up. Not to anything after I said I was okay.
What if she wasn’t?
I chew on my nail, heart tightening with every unsent message I stare at.
I think of the note she left me once—You’re not crazy. Just haunted.
At the time, I laughed it off.
Now I wonder if it was a breadcrumb.
Sheknewsomething.
She warned me in her own cryptic, offhand Harmony way. And I didn’t listen.
What if someone got to her?
What if theyusedher the way they tried to use me?
A chill runs up my spine. I glance toward the hallway where Lucien keeps his files locked up.
No.
I can’t go down that rabbit hole again. Not yet. Not without proof.
I try calling again, straight to voicemail.
My thumb hovers for a beat, then tapstext.
ASTRA:I miss you. I’m okay now. I really need to know you are too. Just one word. Please.
I stare at the screen for minutes after it sends.
Nothing.
I throw the phone onto the cushion beside me and bury my head in my hands.
Maybe she’s just off the grid. Maybe she needed to disappear.
But something in my gut doesn’t believe that.
Not anymore.
Not with the way everything else has been unraveling.
Not with the way Lucien looked when I asked about her last week.
Guilt.
Brief, but sharp.
He knows something.
He’s just not ready to tell me.
I curl tighter into myself, blinking back the sudden sting behind my eyes.
