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“Of course I am. Why wouldn’t I be?”
I look at Cyrus as he walks in, leaning on the bench and watching us. Eli walks in behind him, and I glare at him.
“What did you want to tell me?” I ask her, trying to get some reaction out of her.
She seems fine, but something is off. She almost seems happy, something I haven’t seen on her face in years. Her brows furrow in confusion.
“I… hmm… oh right. Cyrus said he could get me a job where you work,” she says.
I look at him, and he shrugs.
“No, you were going to tell me something about them, something about seeing them,” I tell her, and she shakes her head.
“No, I don’t know what you are talking about. What time do I pick up Maya?” she asks.
I let her go, stepping back. I look at Cyrus, confused.
“What did you say to her?” I ask as she walks off up to her old room.
She stops on the stairs looking down over the banister. “Ada, can I borrow your clothes?”
I look up at her. “Yes, of course, just help yourself,” I tell her, confused by the complete personality change.
Cyrus waits for her to be out of sight before talking.
“I erased all memories of her using drugs. I erased Ethan, so I will probably have to erase him from your mother’s thoughts, too,” he says, talking to himself.
“Wait, my mother? My sister has no memory of the last four years of her life and no memory of Ethan at all. She grew up with him,” I tell him, finding it hard to believe he could just erase a huge part of her life like it was nothing.
“You wanted your sister fixed. I fixed her. Now, get ready for work,” he says, turning on his heel and walking up the stairs.
Chapter Twenty
Adeline
I follow Cyrus upstairs to find him putting my clothes on the bed. I quickly snatch them up and get dressed. I have this strange feeling that whatever my sister was trying to tell me before was something important. I don’t understand how she knows about them, and I know Eli and Cyrus aren’t going around blurting out their secrets to just anyone, especially a drug addict.
“Are you dressed? Your sister is downstairs. You can introduce her to Bella when we get to work. She can work the front counter with her,” Eli says, and I nod.
This seems too simple. Everything about what Cyrus did seems too simple. Won’t she go through withdrawals? Could him just telling her to stop really remove years of drug abuse?
When we get to work, I introduce Taylor to Bella quickly before Cyrus grips my arm, pulling me away toward the elevator. He presses the button and pushes me inside.
“Geez, settle down. Why are you in such a bad mood?” I ask, rubbing my arm where his grip is a little too tight, and I can feel my arm bruising.
Eli steps into the elevator, pressing the button to our floor. When we get to the office, I walk out, heading toward my desk, when Eli grabs my arm.
“No, you are working in my office, where I can keep an eye on you.”
“What, why?” I ask, confused.
“You think I didn’t read your emails? I know that’s how you have been communicating with Sam,” he says, steering me toward his office.
Cyrus brings in a chair and places it next to Eli’s. Eli pushes me down in it, the chair spinning slightly and nearly tipping, and I grab the edge of his desk before I tip backward. Eli sits beside me, and I dump my handbag on the floor beside me, pissed off that he is making me sit in here like a naughty child. I feel like I am back in school and being made to sit at the teacher’s desk for misbehaving.
Cyrus walks in, dumping his laptop in front of me.
“Here, use this. I won’t be here for most of the day,” he says, and I open it, turning it on.