HauntingAdie {1}

C36

The Manipulator

I look down at my hands like a scolded child. After Satan’s Affair, I had admitted
Zade and I had sex, but I still didn’t confirm his identity to her, and she hadn’t
asked. I think she was too concerned with my mental health to think about it.
Rightfully so.
Regardless, if I had just been upfront and told Daya that I couldn’t share details
about Zade and Mark, I think she would’ve learned to accept it. It was lying to
her that hurt her most.
She followed me down to the kitchen, her anger a heavy gaze burning into the
back of my head the entire way. And now, she glares at me from across the island.
“How long have you known? And why are there men stationed outside the
house? And he trusts you to tell me what?”
I bite my lip. “For a little while,” I confess. “Look, I didn’t say anything
because his involvement with Mark is top secret. I didn’t want you to keep asking
questions that I wasn’t sure I could answer. It wasn’t my story to tell and what
he’s doing is incredibly sensitive.”
“Did you know who he was when I asked you about him before Satan’s
Affair?”
I cringe and nod my head, confirming what she already knew. Hurt flashes in
her eyes, and all I want to do is cry—the guilt I’ve been carrying for lying to her
bleeds from my pores.
She blows out a breath and nods, accepting my answer for what it is. “Okay,
fine. Can you tell me now?”
I go on to explain Zade’s current mission, outside of bringing down pedophile
rings. About the sick rituals being performed on little children and how hard Zade
has been working to find the location and bring it down. Daya listens attentively,
face souring as I explain the horrific things being done to innocent children, aside
from being tortured and trafficked.
As if that wasn’t fucking bad enough.
“I’d like to say I’m surprised, but I’m not,” Daya mutters, fidgeting with the
hoop in her nose. “So Zade killed Mark because of these rituals?”

“Not exactly, though it definitely played a part in it. Remember how we saw
him at Satan’s Affair?” When she nods, I continue. “Apparently, Mark targeted us
that night and had made a call for someone to come… extract us.”
I explain Zade’s role that night, and how he had made sure that Daya and I
never ended up in the back of a van. Even worse, how the Society has put a target
on my head, and that Mark was trying to fulfill that.
As I continue telling her everything I know, Daya stares at me with a somber
expression on her face.
When I finish, she stays quiet. Halfway through the story, I poured us both a
shot of vodka. We both needed the liquid courage to hear about just how fucked
up this world can be.
“I’ll be keeping an eye on you as well,” Daya says after a few moments.
Silence had settled in, and as it stretched on, I grew more and more anxious that
she was going to walk out.
I hurt her.
“You don’t have to do that,” I say, my voice small.
“It seems I do,” she sighs, a frown pulling her lips down.
“I’m sorry,” I apologize again. “Ever since he came into my life, shit has been
insane, and I’ve barely had time to come to terms with it all. Not to mention that I
still don’t know how to process… him. And I think I wanted just to pretend that I
was handling a stalker how I should be. Not by going off and… well—”
“Fucking him?” Daya finishes, her voice stern.
I cringe, biting my lip against the sting of her words. I deserved that.
“Yeah,” I whisper.
Daya’s shoulders drop. “I’m sorry, you didn’t deserve that,” she says, as if
reading my mind. “I’m not mad at you for your relationship with Z, Addie. I
mean, I don’t understand it… I don’t understand how anyone could accept that
their lover is a stalker. I also don’t think it’s the makings of a healthy relationship.
The dude obviously has issues.”
I nod, agreeing with her assessment. What she’s saying are the same things that
I have thought myself.
“But knowing that Z is your stalker oddly reassures me. I never knew him
personally, obviously. I didn’t even know what he looked like, but what he does…
it’s incredibly admirable. He puts his life on the line every day, walks into the
lion’s den himself and saves a lot of innocent souls. He’s helped countless people
and taken down so many rings already. And I don’t have to see what’s in the
videos to know that Z takes them to heart.”
She sighs, and a sardonic smile flashes on her face. “He stalks people for a
living, so I suppose it’s no surprise that tendency has bled into his love life.”