Shattered Appearances ✓

t h i r t y - s e v e n: It's a Deal

I called my dad two times but when he didn't answer the phone, I decided to dial Monica instead.

Weird, I know.

When she answered I immediately asked, "Where are you guys?"

"Hello to you too. After you left, your dad was insistent on going to the police station. He took the box with all those letters and drove all the way over there. I think it would be best to meet us there."

"Where Stephanie and Giselle?" The last time I checked, Giselle was very confused about the situation and I wasn't sure if Monica would be willing to take her to the police station.

"Stephanie is taking Giselle to a friends house. I don't want her to be scared unnecessarily. I will have to talk to her though about talking with strangers. See you there."

"See you," I responded before having up. I flinched at the thought of going back there. The last time I was at the police station, I discovered the first note from Ryan in my old journal. Since then I haven't written another word, in fear that someone will take it and read my most private stops.

I knew however that a case can not be made if I wasn't there so I put my doubts away and took a bus there.

It wasn't a long way away, at most a ten-minute ride, but when I got there Monica and my dad were already talking to a police officer.

Immediately recognition dawned on my face. He was the same police officer that told me he couldn't do anything all those months ago.

I walked up to them and sat down on the empty chair. All three looked at me as I sat down and uncomfortable with the situation, I avoided looking at any of them.

"Good afternoon Ms.Newman. Your father showed me all the letters and notes. Do you by any chance a paper explaining those incidents and saying how it affected you?"

"It's at the bottom of the box." He then proceeded to look for the yellow paper at the bottom. I explained what time I got each letter and everything else. While Stephanie might have thought I was being careless with this, I was actually really attentive.

Not attentive enough if I allowed it to get this far.

He nodded when he got ahold of the paper and started writing something down into a report that he was creating.

"Zoey, have you seen Mr.Johanson at any point since this began?"

"No. The last time I saw him was two years ago when we were in that jewelry store. That was the last time I've seen or heard from him until recently."

"Do you have any idea why he might be suddenly targeting you?"

"If you're asking if I tried to reach out to him then no. I never want to talk to that bastard again after he did to me. He must have found out I moved back here because he didn't know I lived in Maryland."

"I wasn't implying that at all." He kept asking questions to which I hastily responded. I wanted to get out of here as soon as possible. Eventually, the officer left his small cubicle to talk to another officer and I was stuck with my dad and Monica.

"You're doing great honey." My dad tried to reassure me but I shrugged my shoulders.

"I didn't know why you didn't tell us earlier Zoey. We could've helped you before it became this messy. We're lucky he didn't do anything to Giselle. If he was capable of almost beating a man to death because he didn't want to get caught, I don't know what else he could've done to our daughter."

"Both our daughters." My father corrected.

I didn't know if Monica was genuinely trying to be supportive or if she was blaming me in a sense for this whole thing happening.