Page 136 of The Last Man on Earth
Chapter 64
Ari
“Why did you justgrab my phone?”
Vincent looks over at me, a deer in the headlights. “Huh?”
“Why do you have my phone?”
He pushes out a laugh I know is fake. “I was just gonna put it on silent. I don’t want no interruptions while we’re having family time, that’s all.”
My eyes narrow at this obvious lie.
“Cookies, Daddy?”
“Yeah, just a second.”
“Why do you have my phone, Vincent? Tell me the truth.”
“I am.”
I march over to him, prompting him to hold the phone behind his back.
“Seriously? Grow up. Why are you playing?”
He twists out my reach. “It’s nothing, Ari. We’ll talk about it later.”
“No!” I grab again, frustrated when he gets away. “Tell me now. If you make me wait, I’m gonna get anxious.”
His head drops. Shoulders, too. “Fuck. I…this is not…”
“What?” I demand. “You’re scaring me.”
He blows out a breath. “Alright, look. Somebody took pictures of us. On the beach. The day we got rescued.”
“So?”
He dips his head to capture my attention. “Do you not remember what we were doing?”
My mouth drops open, and I bring my hand up to cover it. “No!”
“Baby, I swear, I tried my best to stop it, but the pictures got out.”
I make my way over to the bed and sit on the edge, my knees weak. “When you say out…”
“All over the internet,” he says.
Now I wish I hadn’t made him tell me.
The tears come first, then the sobs. I’m just so fuckingtired. One step forward, two steps back. Every day it’s something, it seems.
I can’t.
Vincent paces while JR runs around the room. He’s jumping. Stomping. Yelling. Being a toddler. But we’re so on edge right now that it sounds like torture.
He calls somebody on speakerphone.
“Bob,” the man answers.
