Page 112 of The Donor’s Dilemma

“I gotta go,” he told Jesse, hanging up without another word. “Stella!” he yelled, darting for the door. “You got that number?”

His last appointment of the night was waiting for him, but he ignored them, marching up to Stella’s desk. She held up a sticky note, looking bewildered.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” he said, returning to his office.

The line was busy, someone trying to call him, but he hung up the phone and keyed in the café’s number. If Jesse couldn’t call him something was wrong with his phone. Maybe Verity wasn’t ignoring him. It wouldn’t explain why she felt it necessary to file a complaint about him, but…

“Good morning, Corner Cafe. Can I help?” chirped a female voice.

“Is that Cora?” he asked.

“It is,” Cora replied.

“Is Verity there?”

A brief pause before she asked, “Who’s asking?”

“It’s Theo… Chapel…” He realised that he was not sure what he planned to say to Verity. Was he sorry? Had he never meant for it to go that far? Would he make it up to her if she allowed it?

“You’ve got some fucking nerve,” the woman spat. “How dare you call here after what you did!”

Oh gods, she’d told Cora.

“Cora, please. I just want to talk to her. Just ask her.”

“Now you want to talk to her?” she shouted. It was rare for a human’s ire to make Theo cringe, but Cora managed it. “She’s way too good for you, you know?”

“So, I’ve been told,” Theo mumbled.

“You ignore her calls all night but now you want to talk? After reporting her? You can go fuck yourself!”

Reporting her? What was she talking about?

“What do you…”

“Abandoning her like that…”

“Cora, stop, please. She reported me!”

“What?”

Something was wrong. Something was terribly wrong. If Verity believed that he had reported her, if she were upset enough to tell her friend about them, then his letter was fake. Someone was trying to split them up.

“Let me talk to her,” he demanded.

“But… she…” the woman began to flounder, her rage dying.

“Cora, I am worried about her,” he said, far calmer than he felt. “I’ve been trying to call for hours.”

“She isn’t here. She left ages ago.”

Theo cursed, checking the time. “Is her phone working?”

“I think so. She texted me a minute ago.”

Twenty minutes to sunrise. He had time.