Disillusioned (Swept Away, #2)(42)

“What am I looking at, Bianca?” He sounded exasperated.

“Look.” I leaned forward and ran my fingers over the screen so I could enlarge the photo. “Look.” I pointed to the dimple in the woman’s right cheek.

“So she has a dimple, so what?”

“So does the lady in the street.” I sighed. “Didn’t you look? That woman in the photo is the same one who’s been begging in the streets.”

“You think so?” He frowned and then closed his eyes. “Let me think.” He stood there for a few seconds as he pictured the woman he’d just seen. His eyes popped open and he stared at me, staggered. “It’s the same lady.”

“I always wondered about her.” I ran to the window and looked down at the street. “She’s been there, in that spot, for the last year or so, and I always had a weird feeling about her. She’d always quote Bible verses at me, and she never really looked like someone that should have been in the street. There was one time I saw her and I noticed that she had perfectly even, straight, white teeth. I always wondered how her teeth were so white when it was unlikely that she brushed them twice a day and who knows how often she went to the dentist. I barely go every few years and . . .” I shook my head in disgust. “I can’t believe I didn’t suspect her before.”

“I mean, what would you have thought?” Jakob sat down on my couch. “What was there to think?”

“Why is someone that appears to have money begging in the streets?” I groaned. “I’m an idiot.”

“Should we go down and see who she is?” he asked me softly.

“Yes, let’s.” I nodded.

“What if she’s your mother?”

I rolled my eyes. “My mother is dead, Jakob. You need to get over this fixation you have about my mother and your father. Larry obviously lied. Why can’t you just accept that? My mother didn’t have an affair with your dad. The beggar in the street is not my mother. The lady in the photograph is not my mother. My mother’s dead. I don’t know that lady from Eve.” I was about to pull him up from the couch when my phone rang. I saw Rosie’s name and groaned.

“Don’t answer it.” He shook his head. “We don’t have time right now.”

“I’ll tell her I’m going to call her back.” I shook my head. “Hey, Rosie.”

“Bianca, where are you? I’ve been calling you.” She sounded frantic. “I was worried about you after our call. You never called me back.”

“I met up with Blake.”

“Blake, your history-nerd friend?”

“Yes, I told you the history department was calling me. We went and got a coffee.”

“Did you change your locks? How are you feeling? Do you want to come over and stay with me?” She kept rambling and I quickly interrupted her flow of words.

“Rosie, can I call you back?” I sighed. “You won’t even believe what I found out today.”

Her voice rose. “What did you find out?”

“There is no Mattias Bradley!” Jakob frowned at me and shook his head. I turned around and ignored him. “David created him.”

“What?” Rosie’s voice dropped. “He what?”

“Let me call you back, I have to go downstairs. There’s a lady following me.”

“What?”

“There’s a lady watching me.”

“Watching you?” Rosie repeated slowly.

“It’s a long story. I’m going downstairs to confront her now.”

“How do you know she’s watching you?”

“I . . .” I paused as Jakob’s hand went across my mouth. I turned to him with a frown and his eyes were a deep, fiery midnight blue as he shook his head. “I’ll tell you later.” I sighed. “I’ll call you later.”

“Bianca, wait.” Rosie sounded worried. “Shall I come over?”

“No, no. It’s fine.”

“Bianca, hurry up,” Jakob hissed at me.

“Who’s there with you?” Rosie’s voice rose.

“What do you mean?”

“I just heard someone in the background.”

“No, no.” I lied. “Maybe the TV.”

“Okay.” She sounded doubtful.

“I’ll call you, okay.” I hung up quickly. “What are you playing at?” I frowned at Jakob.

“Don’t give away all your secrets.” He frowned. “You don’t know who you can trust.”

“I can trust Rosie. She’s my best friend.”

“Uh-huh.” He walked to the window. “Well, there goes our biggest clue.”

“What do you mean?”

“Your beggar lady just hailed a cab.” He sighed. “And for some reason, I don’t think she’ll be back.”

“Shit.” I ran to the window and watched a yellow cab pulling away from the curb. The pavement directly in front of the apartment was now empty. The strange woman was gone. “Maybe she saw us watching her.” I stared at his blank expression. “Maybe she realized I’d caught onto her.”

“Yeah, maybe.”

“Wait.” I froze as I remembered something that Larry’s wife had said. I put my fingers to my lips and grabbed Jakob’s hand, leading him to my bedroom.