Whisper in the Shadows

with you

I jumped so hard I dropped my phone and it smashed on the floor. I picked it up, and let loose my held breath, relived it wasn't shattered. The knocking started round two. I peeked out of the peephole and was incredibly happy Layla stood on the front steps, although she looked very worried.

I yanked my door open and before I could even greet her, she began, "Mae, what the hell, I've been worried sick. You didn't read any of my text or call me back. I thought something happened!"

As she was talking I looked down to what was swinging in her hand as she was talking. She was holding a bag from the Italian place she knew I loved.

"Oooo is that for me?" I asked, without explaining the ordeal with Dorian I had dealt with. I held the door open for her and waved my hand for her to come in. She walked inside and I shut the door before her before following her to the dining room. Her head turned in the direction of the bowl laying on the floor. She stopped and turned to look at me, and I shrugged my shoulders. "I might have been in a bad mood last night", she simply nodded like she understood without asking anymore details. I was grateful she didn't press the issue.

We walked into the kitchen and I didn't see anything else out of place. Dorian must have taken his towel and drink with him. Thankfully, I didn't feel like having to come up with a lie for that as well.

We ate, and she talked about some of the cases she was working on at work. I could tell she wanted things to feel normal for me, besides the fact that I would never feel back at normal without my stepfather working a couple floors up from me. We eventually ran out of things to talk about and she left to go back home, leaving me alone again.

-

I started thinking about what Dorian had mentioned about Rumens past. As if my feet were walking on their own I started walking to his study.

I pushed open the double doors and in front of me stood a massive book case that covered the entire back wall, with his huge wooden desk sitting right in the path of the door. I remembered sitting in this room and playing with big books like I was reading while he worked. I would tell him I was going to be just like him when I grew up, and I think he took that with pride even though I didn't understand most of the words in the law books I was trying to read.

I made my way over to the desk and sat in his big leather chair. I shifted through some of the paperwork on top of his desk, putting together current cases I knew would be needed back at the office for other lawyers to take on. I sat those in a stack to the side. I pulled open the drawers, as if I was looking for some secret to pop out so I could have a "Ah Ha!" moment so everything would finally make sense.

After a while of digging and looking through old paperwork, I twirled around and looked at the huge book shelf behind me. I glanced at some of the titles and stood up to read some of the books at the top a little better.

My phone started buzzing on the desk and scared me. I looked down and seen Mr. Bogdan's name flashing on the screen.

"Hello Mr. Bogdan", I answered.

"Mihaela, can you go into your fathers office and see if he has a folder for '10 Sutherfield Lane', there is a contract I need to have for a meeting tomorrow and I don't have a digital file with signatures on it".

"Well I'm actually in his office now, let me look", I shuffled the folders around and found the one he was looking for, "yes it's here, I can drop it off tomorrow if that would work?", I asked.

"Yes that would be great, I will see you then." he replied and we hung up.

-

The next morning I woke up early enough to make it to the office around lunchtime, thinking I would ask Layla to lunch as a thank you for being there for me lately. I also had my list of work files I wanted to grab from my office so I could have something to occupy my mind and to keep me busy, even if I wasn't prepared to go back to work just yet.