Chapter 62 A Voice That Feels Safe

Chapter 62 A Voice That Feels Safe
POV: Zara

My thumb hit Eli's name before I let myself read my dad's text a second time.

I need to talk. It's about Naomi's mom.

Six words that made absolutely no sense and somehow scared me more than anything else that had happened tonight, and I didn't want to sit with them alone for one more second. I didn't want to think about what they meant, or why my father, of all people, would know anything about Naomi's mom, or why he'd choose tonight, this exact terrible night, to send them.

I just wanted to hear someone who felt safe.

The phone rang once. Twice.

"Zara?" Eli's voice came through fast, breathless, like he'd answered mid-stride. "Hey, I'm at my house, the room's empty, nobody's here, I think the video call was some kind of glitch or"

"I'm not calling about that," I said, and my voice came out smaller than I meant it to, thinner, like it had to squeeze past something stuck in my throat. "I just needed to hear you."

He went quiet for a second. I heard him moving, a door clicking shut somewhere on his end, the background noise dropping away until it was just his breathing and mine.

"I'm here," he said, softer now. "What happened?"

"My dad called."

Another pause, this one heavier. "Your dad."

"Two years of nothing," I said, my eyes burning even though I'd already cried myself dry once tonight. "Not one birthday. Not one Christmas. And he calls right now, tonight, as he can just feel when I'm already too broken to fight him off."

"Did you answer?"

"No." I pulled my knees tighter against my chest, my back still against the side of my bed, the floor cold underneath me. "I let it ring. I just sat here and watched his name until it stopped."

"That's allowed," Eli said. "You don't owe him anything just because he finally remembered your number."

Something about hearing him say it out loud, plain and certain, loosened a knot in my chest that had been tightening since the second I saw Dad light up my screen. I closed my eyes and let his voice fill the space where panic had been sitting.

"He texted after," I said. "Three words. I need to talk."

"About what?"

I hesitated, my stomach twisting all over again just repeating it. "He said it's about Naomi's mom."

The silence on the other end stretched out so long I thought the call had dropped.

"Eli?"

"I'm here," he said, but something in his voice had changed, gone careful, gone slow, like he was choosing each word with both hands. "Zara, why would your dad know anything about Naomi's mom?"

"I don't know," I whispered. "I don't know anything anymore. I don't know why he's calling, I don't know who's been outside my window, I don't know why someone's using Naomi's phone, I don't know if Naomi's even okay right now, and I am so tired of not knowing things, Eli. I just wanted to hear one voice tonight that wasn't trying to scare me."

"You have me," he said simply. "However tired you are. However long this takes. You have me."

I let out a breath I'd been holding since the moment my dad's name first lit up my screen, and for the first time in hours, my shoulders actually dropped an inch, the tension easing just slightly under the steady sound of him still on the line, still there, not going anywhere.

We didn't talk about anything important after that. He told me about a stupid joke Naomi used to make when they were kids, back before any of this, back when summer just meant pool days and nothing more complicated than sunburn. I found myself almost laughing, a small broken sound that didn't quite make it all the way out, but it was something. It was the first something in two days that didn't hurt.

"Stay on the phone with me," I said. "Just a little longer."

"As long as you need."

I closed my eyes, my head resting back against the mattress, his voice low and steady in my ear, and for a few minutes the whole terrifying night shrank down to something almost survivable.

Then I heard it. A new sound, sharp and sudden, cutting through the quiet on his end of the line.

A knock. Not gentle like mine had been on Jade's door. Hard. Urgent. Three fast hits against wood, followed by a voice I didn't recognize, muffled but frantic, calling Eli's name from somewhere on the other side of his door.

"Eli?" I sat up straight, every nerve in my body lighting up at once. "Eli, who is that?"

He didn't answer me right away. I heard him moving, footsteps, the creak of his door opening.

Then I heard him say four words, his voice gone tight and strange in a way I'd never heard from him before, words that landed in my ear like ice water down my spine.

"Wait. You're supposed to be"

The call cut off.