Chapter Nine: Reason to Stay
Good news met me upon my return. The commercial was a success. Within the
first 24 hours the website had several thousand hits. That turned into several
hundred million after a week’s time. Mikael and Xenia added a comments section
to the site after the first day; while some people insisted we were crazy,
insane, needed to be locked up for life, there were even more who asked what it
was like, how did it feel. They believed; even if there was only a hint of
belief, it was enough.
Drei, still worried about me—never straying too far, always looking over
his shoulder, watching for signs that something was happening again—and
wouldn’t let me hold a group meeting to discuss our budding success and the
next set of commercials. If he could have, I think he may have swept me away
somewhere new to hopefully forget about everything again—likely a better option
than fighting himself. Time and second chances weren’t luxuries we had, though;
he eventually compromised on individual meetings with my team.
Caroline was first because she had demanded it. I needed to talk to Ian about
the next set of commercials, but there wasn’t a point in arguing.
“Missed you at the party,” she said, sitting down across from me in the
living room. “What happened?”
“Long story;” I hoped she would drop it. “I’m better now.”
“Well, at least you’re better.” She waited a moment as though vainly
hoping the silence would drive me to reveal my secrets. “Anyway, you saw the
numbers, right?”
“Most of them,” I said, nodding toward my notebook. “You won’t show me
how much you’re paying for everything.”
Smirking, she said, “Good. That’s how I wanted it. And…we’re ahead of
schedule;” she crossed her legs and leaned forward on her elbows. “So we only
have two more rounds of commercials and two more additions to the website left
before we go live.”
“We’re not going live with broadcasts; we’re going live—”
“As in speaking publicly,” she finished, waving a hand to the side. “I
remember. More my point was, with a website, we could put together mini
broadcasts that people could download for free. That way people who can’t see
either of us speak can still know what’s going on.”
“I’ll talk to Mikael and Xenia about it.” I liked the idea; I had already
planned to discuss making the commercials available on the site with them, and
this tied rather nicely into that. My primary goal with the website was to keep
the message accessible, especially as it evolved.
“Also, did you plan on keeping the apartment as your office?”
“I don’t see why not.”
Shrugging, she replied, “Nothing wrong with it. I was just wondering.”
“You didn’t buy something, did you?”
Caroline stood, denying it. I couldn’t help but feel she had, or was
looking to, at least. “I’d best be going,” she said, giving me a hug before
heading toward the door. “I’ll see if I can find any of my old research and
bring it over. You can look through and see if anything’s useful,” she
explained over her shoulder. “Take care, Abs.”
“You, too.”
I was surprised Caroline hadn’t thrown a fit,
but that might have been because she’d already thrown it to Drei or someone
else. She was behaving strangely, though, more secretive than usual; she also didn’t
try to make me talk about it like she usually would have. How much did Drei
tell everyone, if anything at all? Or was this something else entirely?
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