Page 116 of Claimed By my Father's Enemies
And I know why.
This cat has some significance to him tied to Sienna. He is waiting for her to name the cat.
I scratch the cat's side. She exhales.
Our phones go off.
All three at once. Same note, same second.
Mine is on the coffee table. I reach it first. The notification shows before I've unlocked it.
Two letters above Sienna.
Hi.
I unlock the screen. Just that one word. And bellow it the dots are dancing.
I look up. Adrian is holding his phone with both hands. William seems to be holding his breath while waiting. None of us says anything.
The dots stop.
Start again.
Adrian's thumb hovers near his screen without touching it. William's hand tightens on his phone, barely.
On my screen the dots go again: stop, start, stop. She's either writing something long or writing something and deleting it and starting over. I don't know which.
The dots stop. Three more seconds.
"Fuck this," I say, and I dial.
Adrian makes a sound. I'm already standing, phone to my ear, and William moves toward me and then Adrian does the same, the three of us standing together in the middle of the living room listening to the line ring.
One ring.
I hear my own pulse under it.
Two.
William is completely still beside me. Adrian's fingers are loose at his side.
Three.
The line opens.
"Hi," she says.
I haven't heard her voice in weeks.
"Hi," I exhale.
Adrian starts making gestures. I don't know what he's trying to communicate. I tune him out.
A short silence on the line. Not hostile. Careful.
"I was just texting you," Sienna says.
"I know," I say. "We saw it. We're all here together, we all got it at the same time, so I just— I thought I'd call. All three of us arehere, I mean, so—" I stop. That was not a coherent sentence. "I thought calling made more sense," I finish.
