Chapter 2: She's Done This Before
Victoria didn't dial.
She stood there, phone in hand, and looked at Daniel like she was waiting for him to take it back.
To say he was joking.
To give her a way out.
He didn't.
"I'm waiting," he said.
Her voice came out small.
"Daniel, please.
I didn't know who she was—"
"That's the part that concerns me most," he said.
I hadn't moved.
I was still standing in my wet clothes, watching her.
The neighbor across the street hadn't moved either.
Victoria turned to me.
Her whole face had changed.
The confidence was gone.
What was left looked almost like the beginning of tears.
"Clara." She said my name carefully, like she was testing it.
"I am so sorry.
I genuinely had no idea.
If I had known—"
"You would have been polite," I said.
"Yes.
I know."
She flinched.
"That's the problem, Victoria."
Daniel looked at me then.
Something passed between us — the kind of look that only exists between people who grew up in the same house, who know things about each other that no one else does.
Then his phone buzzed.
He glanced at the screen.
His expression changed.
"Clara," he said quietly.
"You need to see this."
He turned the phone toward me.
It was a message.
From a number I didn't recognize.
May you like
Four words.
*She's done this before.*
