For Real? ✅

Chapter 40

TESS

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw Adam at the hospital.

"Heather told me to, otherwise I wouldn't have bothered." He shrugs. "I don't give two shits about your friend, whether she's pretty or not."

My mind conjures a wild scenario of me murdering Adam with my bare hands, but thankfully Dr Scharf sees us and beckons us into her office.

Once we're inside, Dr Scharf starts speaking.

"Adam, I just need you to answer a few questions, after which you can leave. I need to confirm what Leah had said."

"Okay", Adam says nonchalantly.

"When was the first time you had seen Leah?"

"Yesterday, when she'd slapped me."

I roll my eyes at his words, but Dr Scharf nods. She continues to question him.
"Leah mentioned that she had first seen you doing push-ups at a party, around a month ago. Is this true?"

"Yes, I did a hundred push-ups that day." Adam beams as he says this, and it makes me want to puke. He's so full of himself.

"Okay. How many siblings do you have?"

"None. I'm an only child."

"Leah mentioned that you have an older brother." Dr Scharf raises her eyebrows.

Adam shakes his head. "No, I have two younger cousins."

"Yeah, I remember Leah telling me about your older brother, Jason," I add, to which Adam gives me a wide-eyed look.

"Has anyone died in your family when you were younger?"

"Nope. My grandparents had died before I was born." Adam replies.

"She'd killed off your dad," I mutter under my breath, but Adam hears me. He gasps, but Dr Scharf doesn't notice.

"Thank you for your help, Adam. It has been crucial." Dr Scharf says, politely pointing Adam out of her office.

However, Adam stays put.
"I'm not leaving until you tell me the truth."

It is a tense moment for a second, then Dr Scharf relaxes, "Okay fine, have it your way."
She proceeds to play us the video of Leah being hypnotised on her computer.

As I watch the video, a single thought echoes in my head.

LEAH HAD IMAGINED A WHOLE RELATIONSHIP WITH ADAM?

How had I not noticed?

I am in tears by the end of it, thinking of how desperate Leah must have been to have completely imagined a whole relationship.

Also, she had been naive enough for Greyes to fool her. I don't think Leah considered doing drugs until Greyes put the idea in her head.
I feel stupid for even thinking that Greyes has finally changed.

Meanwhile, Adam nervously runs his hands through his hair. He then swears loudly, to which Dr Scharf slightly frowns.

"She MADE UP a whole relationship in her head? That too with ME?" Adam shouts in disbelief.

"There's no need for you to panic. She now knows that she had it all in her head." Dr Scharf replies. "This has nothing to do with you."

"But it's insane! How did you not find out?" Adam asks, turning towards me.

"She said that the relationship was a secret. That you didn't want people to see her as your weekly girlfriends, because she was special."

Adam scoffs at me and turns towards Dr Scharf. "This is unbelievable. Is this some sort of a ploy so that she could get to date me?"

"Shut up, Adam! This is not about YOU! Can't you see that Leah's been through so much..."
I answer angrily before Dr Scharf speaks.

"This is exactly why I didn't want to tell you, Adam. Now, if we're done, I would kindly ask you two to leave my office and fight somewhere else." She leans back in her chair, waiting for us to leave.

"Fine!" Adam gets up and walks outside.

"I'm so sorry Doctor," I pipe up, "Sorry for everything. I should've kept a check on Leah."

Dr Scharf shakes her head at me. "It's hard to find out what's going on in her head, especially when she wanted to hide it from you."

I stare at the video of Leah, unconscious on the huge chair. A huge wave of sorrow washes through me, and I think of ways as to how I could've prevented it from happening.

"Did you know that Leah used to do drugs?" Dr Scharf asks me.

"No, I had no idea. I'm pretty sure that Greyes was the one to influence Leah, I had a bad feeling about her all along."

"Is she the same friend who called saying that she had found Leah?" Dr Scharf asks carefully.

"Yeah," I say, blaming myself for not seeing through Greyes schemes.

"Could there be any connection with Greyes regarding where Leah had disappeared?" Dr Scharf questions. "Any connection between Greyes and Andy?"

"Yeah, Andy and Greyes are friends. I heard that his dad's going to marry her mom. Greyes is completely different from him though. Andy is like your typical nerd." I tell her, wondering if Greyes and Andy were closer than we'd realised.

"Do you remember that Leah mentioned this 'Andy look-alike' who gave her the poison?" Dr Scharf points out.

I look back at her, confused. "I thought that that was a part of her hallucinations."

"No, Teresa. She didn't hallucinate about that part. She was right about Bys Street too, a lot of drug dealings happen in those areas." Dr Scharf explains.

Wow. This was going a lot deeper than what I had expected.

"I would like to speak to Andy and Greyes if that's possible. Thank you for your helpful insights, Teresa." Dr Scharf says in a final tone.

"Your welcome," I say and walk towards the door. I pause before turning the handle.
Turning around, I see Dr Scharf, who was busy typing away on her computer.

"Dr Scharf?" I ask tentatively. "Will Leah be alright?"

Dr Scharf looks up at me and suddenly breaks into a smile.
"Yes, she will. She needs a lot of support, especially yours." Dr Scharf says, her tone reassuring.

I return her smile. "Thank you," I tell her.

I leave the office, just when I receive a message on my phone.

It's my dad. He's sent me pictures of the new apartment he's bought, captioned "Your mom would like it."

I find myself zooming in on the picture of the balcony, which is filled with flowers, including the pink flowers which resemble her apple blossom.

Wiping away a single tear, I type back,
"Yes, she would. :) "