The Trapped

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37

- S U T T E R -

11.12.16 // 10:03 a.m.

MY HANDS SHAKE as I hold the newspaper tightly, re-reading the same words over and over again. It is as if something has lodged itself into my chest as my stomach drops like I am on a roller coaster.

Hadley Brown? Missing?

In my other hand, I hold my phone which glows brightly, the words 'The message to HadleyBrown@CPA.com failed to send. Please try again.' Something inside me doesn't feel right as my eyes flicker back and forth between the newspaper and my phone.

I lean my head against the cool marble wall in my kitchen, running a shaky hand through my hair as a loud sigh escapes from my lips. My heart is thrumming in my chest, my breathing is uneven and another bead of sweat has found it's way to my forehead.

Hadley, in one way or another, had to be connected to Blaire, it is the only explanation to why I feel dread coursing through me like a river.

I try to think of something, anything, but my mind is running at one hundred miles per hour, the wheels in my brain turning so fast that they just might break off. I think back to what has happened over the last week. Something wasn't adding up, I could feel it.

And then it clicks. Just like that, realization hits me so hard that I have to grip the kitchen table tightly, my knuckles turning a deathly white color.

At the search party, I had asked Victoria if she knew if Hadley was coming. She had told me then that Hadley had a cold, and I believed her and brushed it off like it was nothing, but now, I wonder if I should have questioned her more.

I take a look back at the newspaper and read it more throughly. My eyes skim and scan across the paper quickly until something pulls me back to look at the date.

Last seen November eighth around one a.m.

If she was last seen that day around one a.m. and the search party was at six in the morning, how did Victoria know that she had a cold?

"Shit," I mumble under my breath as I go to the contact list and hit Victoria's name hard with the pad of my thumb. I feel as if steam is coming out of my nose as the phone rings three times before she picks up.

"Hey, Sutter," she says, her voice happy and light, definitely not the way she should sound when her bestfriend is missing.

"Where is Hadley?" I growl out and I can make out the sharp intake a breath through the phone. It is silent for a minute, so quiet on the other end that I think she has hung up on me.

"Why would I know?" She laughs. Is this a joke to her? I run a hand through my messy hair as I try to even out my breathing.

Think happy thoughts; getting a home run in baseball, watching my favorite movie, falling in love with Blaire.

It isn't working.

"Something isn't right here, Victoria. Hadley didn't really have a cold when you told me she did," I seethe.

"Sutter, I have no idea what you are talking about," she tells me, but I don't believe her for a second.

"You must think I'm stupid or something! It says here, in the newspaper, that Hadley was last seen November eighth at one a.m. You told me she had a cold at six a.m. that same day. How did you know she had a cold?" I ask angrily and Victoria laughs again.

"What is this? Some kind of interrogation? I'm not the bad guy here, Sutter. And for your information, Hadley texted me," she says, but I can hear the slight tremble in her voice, the tremble she gets when she is lying. I have been around her long enough to know.

     "Her phone got disconnected somehow, my email didn't get sent to her," I say and Victoria's breath falters.

     "That's not my fault," she says and I want to throw my phone across the living room.

"I always struck you as someone who would never lie to me," I whisper and Victoria sighs loudly through the phone. "What is going on? Where is Hadley Brown?"

"Sutter, I have to go," Victoria tells me and I roll my eyes, thrusting a hand into my already disheveled hair.

To hell with you then.

"Don't think for a minute that I will ever trust you again," I snap, feeling the pressure in my head start to increase.

"It's okay. If I were you, I wouldn't trust me either," she says and the line goes dead.

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