Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 65346 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 327(@200wpm)___ 261(@250wpm)___ 218(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 65346 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 327(@200wpm)___ 261(@250wpm)___ 218(@300wpm)
“That’s huge!” All right, back to less worrying. This conversation was turning out to be a hell of a roller-coaster ride.
“It can be, yes. So let’s hold on to that. All right?”
“I will, Theo. Thank you for the update, and for all the work you and your team’s been doing.”
“Of course, not a problem. When Mav told me about what was going on, I knew I had to jump in and help.”
Mav. Hah, they’re already on nickname terms.
I’d have to bring Theo up the next time Maverick and I talked.
We hung up, and I felt much more confident about where things were headed after talking to him. The last bit of information he dropped was critical: they had a phone number. If they could get a phone number, they could track the person down to whatever ball-sweat-soaked basement they were hiding in. And there was also the lead on the tech store, which sounded like a bit of a longer shot if Theo couldn’t narrow down the date, but still, it was a shot. And the tape still hadn’t been leaked, even though the threat’s deadline expired a week and two days ago (I’d been keeping the exact count since midnight).
Maybe I was in the clear. Maybe their text to Theo was a dying gasp. Maybe someone deleted the video by accident, or the file was corrupted, or maybe they grew a heart overnight, deciding to delete it themselves.
These were all possibilities I rarely ever entertained, except for now. I allowed myself a little bit of hope.
With that hope, I went to get back to work. I still had time before Benji was done, but I’d have to be quick. I hurried into the living room and opened all the boxes, setting them down on the floor. I grabbed a bag out of the box closet to me, tearing it open with my teeth. I took out the puffy white clouds of cotton and started to place them around the room, bunching them together in clumps on the windowsill and near the fireplace.
I grabbed the next package, opening it and pulling out the folded-up white-and-black plastic. I found the blow pin and brought it to my mouth. Before I could even start on inflating it, my phone buzzed again. I checked to see if it was Benji or maybe Theo. He might have forgotten to tell me something.
It was neither of them. It came from a number I didn’t recognize.
I read the message, the blow pin still in my mouth, my eyes widening and my stomach somersaulting into my throat.
The message read:
“You have three days left. Send 500k to the account specified below and the video won’t leak. Don’t pay and ruin yours and your family’s life. Decide.”
The inflatable slipped from my mouth and floated down to the ground.
19
Benjamin Gold
Today felt like a good day. A really good one.
God, it’d been a while since I had so many of them in a row. Finally, there was a bright white light at the end of this musty old tunnel, and this one didn’t lead me to any kind of pearly gates. I could actually see a better life on the other end, not an afterlife.
There would still be work that needed to be done, that was clear. I was standing outside the medical center, flipping through a pamphlet the doctor had given me about the medication he had prescribed. He warned me we might have to try out a few different ones before finding the right one, and it might take a couple of weeks to even feel any effect, but if how I felt walking out of there was any indication, then things were on the right track.
Rex pulled up in my car, window down and waving like a parent picking up a kid from school.
I couldn’t help but laugh. I got into the passenger seat, the drive back to the sanctuary so short that it didn’t make sense to switch.
When he asked me, “So how was school today?” I started laughing even harder.
As he drove out of the lot, he put a gentle hand on my thigh. “Seriously, though, it looks like it went well?”
“Very well,” I said. “Obviously, nothing is cured yet, but he did diagnose me with depression and walked me through a few different options for medication. I feel good, Rex. I really do.”
“I see it in your eyes. There’s a light in there.”
“That could just be the RedBull I drank earlier.”
Rex laughed, although it sounded a little clipped. “I’m real fucking proud of you, Benj. I really am.”
“Thank you, but it’s something I should have done a long time ago.”
“That doesn’t matter. What matters is that you did it, and because of that, you can get your life back.”
I nodded, looking out at the passing trees. A pasture of spotted cows zoomed past. “You helped a lot. I kept feeling sparks of my old self around you. It was enough to remind me of what this depression was stealing from me.”