A Thousand Lies

Chapter 45

Trigger warning. Also, there's an important note at the bottom

Chapter Name: pills

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Temperance

I sit in the middle of my room with my clothes tucked away neatly into a backpack. I can at least look like I'm going along with this shit plan.

I am supposed to be picked up today by my buyer. My cousins are at school and my caretakers are at work, leaving me along with my wandering thoughts.

A loud ringing pierces my ears, causing me to jump in shock. Once my ears adjust to the sound I realize it's the house phone.

I thin my lips in question since no one ever calls the house phone.

I stay on my mattress for a second, waiting until the ringing comes to the end, bringing back the silence from the almost empty house.

With only a few seconds of silence in between, the wretched phone starts to ring again, stirring up my annoyance.

I curse under my breath, standing to my feet and leaving the room. The sound gets louder as I approach and stop in front of it.

It's an old white phone that sits on a coffee table beside Austin's recliner. I have never seen him use it before.

I look at the number displayed on the phone. My eyes grow wide when I recognize it as Alec's number.

Pushing all of my questions aside on how he got this number, I pick up the phone and place it against my ear.

"Hello?" I ask into the phone, hoping he didn't hang up already.

"Ah. Temperance, I was hoping to catch you." I hear a female voice coming through the end of the other line.

Why would a female have Alec's phone?

"Who is this?" I glance towards the door, fearing that Austin will come home early and yank me up for having the phone.

"Lidia." She replies sharply.

My eyebrows furrow as I grit my teeth. Of course, it would be Lidia. She's always had something for Alec, she's always had something against me.

I don't respond to her, unsure of what to say.

There has to be a reason she called me, and my gut churns with fear.

"I wanted to tell you something important." Her stern voice goes through the line again as soon as she realized that I wasn't going to respond.

"Ok spit it out," I feel my hands begin to sweat as I start pacing with worry.

Deep down I already know what it is, I know that his mind hasn't been on me since I left. I know that I was just a burden to him when I was with him.

"Alec and I.... well, we have been hooking up since you left. See, he didn't really care about you. I'm sorry it must really hurt to find that ou-"