Paper Hearts (Camren)

Chapter 14

“So how are things with you and Lauren?”

Camila glanced up at the tall officer and shrugged.

“Still refusing to talk to her?”

Camila looked away and said nothing.

“Look,” Normani started, “What happened with you and Lauren, there’s a perfect explanation as to why she’s-”

“Wait- You know?” Camila stared back at her.

“I forced her to tell me since you both were acting strange.” Normani replied, “So? You’re going to continue ignoring her?”

Camila sighed, “It’s been weeks, Mani and she hasn’t tried to at least offer an explanation. Can we not talk about this anymore?”

“Do you still care for her?”

“W-What-the-“ Camila was taken aback by the sudden question.

“Please don’t give up on her.” Normani pleaded, “Not until you’ve heard her explanation. Just give her time.”

“I… I...” Camila bit her lip. ‘I wouldn’t be able to give up on her even if I wanted to, Normani. I think I’m already in too deep. That’s the sad part.’

She gave Normani a weak smile before entering Ally’s office.

Normani followed with a sigh. ‘Come on, Lauren. Just make things right with her.’

---
Lisa scrolled down the webpage she was on, she was on some computer hardware company website that Noah Cabello used to work for and stopped at the profile of a familiar looking man.

“Alejandro Cabello.” Lisa read out loud to herself. She did a quick search of the name and was surprised to find out that he was the deceased brother of Noah Cabello, Camila’s dad.

‘Alejandro and Noah worked in the same company?’

Lisa scrolled past the results until an article heading caught her attention.

‘18 February 1994

Fire on Penn Station kills masses

The Penn train disaster left 198 people dead and 147 injured. Arsonist Joseph Brown set fire to the train. The fire spread to the incoming train from the opposite direction a few minutes later. The victims’ families of the tragedy have since fought to find out the exact reason as to why it happened.’

The names of the victims were listed below the article. She scanned the names to find Alejandro’s name. Listed beside his name was his spouse and Camila’s mother, Sinuhe.

“Camila’s parents were killed in that fire.” Lisa mumbled to herself, “So that’s the reason why she had to live with Noah.” Her hand automatically moved the mouse to copy the information, accidently knocking off a few sheets of paper onto the floor as she did so.

Lisa sighed and mentally scolded herself for being so clumsy. She leaned down to pick up the scattered sheets of Noah’s EEG results. She took a glance at the scribbly lines and thought nothing of it as she placed it back into its original folder. By doing so, she noticed a slightly larger frequency in the lines on some of the questions answered by Noah.

“What the…” Lisa furrowed her eyebrows, the difference between some of the lines were subtle and could’ve easily have been missed yet she was still disappointed that she let this slip from her usual sharp-eye skills.

She began taking another look through the results. ‘Strange…’

---
“Look, I’ve said this many times already, please let me go, I am not Ludo!” Noah shouted as Lauren sat back in her chair calmly and observed him.