𝐏𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐨𝐦

CH1 P2

Sedrik's POV

My last client walks through the room and proceeds to sit down on the couch in front of me. The female seemed stressed at first, so I decided to introduce myself first.

"Hello, my name is Sedrik, Sedrik Martinez" The client glances at me and then starts fidgeting with her fingers. I prepared a glass of water beforehand so I offered the female some water to cure her anxiousness a bit.

"Can you please tell me about yourself?" I ask. The female then puts down the glass of water and finally says "My name...is Layla." "Well hello Layla, It's nice to meet you," she replies by nodding. I then proceed to begin the questioning.

"Is there anything that has been troubling you lately?" I ask her. It's obvious to me that she doesn't seem interested in opening up, so then I throw in another question."Why did Do you want to start therapy? Do you feel there's something wrong in your life?"

Layla remains silent, her breathing pattern is odd. I assumed she had social anxiety because of how she acted towards me. After some seconds, Layla decides to break the silence."Meaka brought me here"

I look at her before saying "Who is Meaka?" I ask. "My step-sister." "I see, my I know why she brought you here?" She shakes her head and says "I don't know why she did..." I started taking notes of the information I gathered so far, which was basically just her first name and how she acted in the session."What are you writing?" Layla points at my notepad.

"It's where I keep my thoughts for the time being," I tell her."Really? I also like to journal my thoughts" It seems like she's starting to open up, so I took the opportunity to ask "What do you like to journal about?" She then starts twirling her hair and says "My family"

I put my focus on her hands which seemed to be trembling in fear for some odd reason. "Do you like your family?" I ask her. She takes some time to think, "Maybe" Maybe? What? "Ma'am, I'll need a more specific answer. No response. Maybe she has family problems and decides to write about what's been bothering her to heal her stress and anger.

"Can I have another answer?" I say. She looks me straight in the eye and says "I only like some of my family." "May I know who it is? And the reason why you don't like the other family members?" She nods her head again and says "I like my dad, my step-sister, and..." She stops talking for some seconds then continues "And that's all.."

Before I ask another question, The session is already over."Ah, it seems like our session is over, Mrs.Layla" She then replies "Oh..can I stay longer?" She surprisingly asks, "Not today, but you can come for another session" There's a visible frown on her face.

My assistant then knocks on the door, I give him the green light by loudly saying "Come in" He walks in and looks at me then Layla." Hello Mrs.Layla" he greets her. She turns around and greets him back. He then says "Your time is unfortunately over Mrs.Layla, So I'd like you to come with me so I can escort you out safely."

She gets up and walks towards my assistant. They leave the room, meaning it's only me now. I take my phone to check if I got any messages from my wife. There was nothing, so I assumed she was still asleep. I have nothing else to do so I begin tidying up the place.

Once I was done cleaning up the mess, I went back to my phone. I opened my home screen and the huge date text caught my attention. I realize that our anniversary is in 4 days. I get up and decide to get ready to go home.

I didn't pay attention to where I was going and accidentally bumped into my assistant."Sorry, my bad." I apologize to him."Your fine don't worry, not like it's the first time anyway" I scoffed at his response and was about to leave, but he stopped me from doing so.

"Wait, what's wrong with that Layla girl?" He asks. I shrug and say, "I don't have an idea, I'm assuming she has family problems. But she didn't answer half of my questions." He then says "She was weird the whole time I was walking her out, she kept on looking at the receptionist."

"She seemed interested in another session, so there's a chance she might come back," I inform him. He was about to say something but got interrupted by someone calling him. He looks at his phone and then excuses himself."Sorry, it's my cousin. He's staying over this week so I have to get back."

"It's alright, go ahead. I'll be heading off now." He nods and slowly walks away. I got to my car and started driving home. I still didn't receive any messages from my wife which got me worried sick. While I was driving, someone suddenly ran past my car. They were wearing all black, but I caught a glimpse of their shoes.

I recognized them quickly, they were Layla's. It was a bit odd, okay, it was extremely odd and suspicious that she was there in the middle of the night with only black clothing on. I started thinking about some reasons why she was there which got me shivering.

But, I couldn't be too sure that it was her. I brush it off in the meantime and continue driving. I still didn't receive any messages from my wife which only worsened my mood.