Betrayed in Blood

Chapter Nineteen

The other end of the phone picked up after a few rings, but the voice that greeted Camilla wasn't what she expected. It was lower, duller than what she was used to from Ava.

It's not her, Camilla realized.

"Um, hello," she began unsteadily. "Who is this?"

She heard a small scoff on the other line. "Uh, it's Ava. You're the one who called me, Camilla."

Camilla's brows tensed as she held her breath. A moment of silence passed before she proceeded, muttering, "Well, you don't sound like Ava. I'm not stupid. Who is this, really?"

"God, you're so paranoid," the mysterious voice noted. Before Camilla could veer it back on track, though, it continued. "I am Ava, miss genius valedictorian—"

"Don't even try to mess with me. Whoever you are, you're not Ava. You sound nothing like her."

"If you'd let me finish," the voice seethed, "I could explain that the voice you normally hear from me isn't my real voice. This is my real voice." Camilla paused, unconvinced, but the voice suddenly shifted, becoming higher and brighter. "But this is the voice you're used to. That's my fake voice, this is the real one."

It was clearly Ava's voice, and although Camilla remained skeptical, she decided to trust Ava and listen to her story. But Camilla planned to not reveal anything about herself until she was absolutely certain.

"So, what, you can change your voice?" she inquired.

"Yup," Ava replied, her voice relaxing, "it's a skill I've been working on, changing my voice. I guess it's kind of voice acting."

Camilla raised an eyebrow. "Why bother learning something like that?"

"Well," Ava started with a dark chuckle, "if I didn't, André would recognize me." When Camilla said nothing, Ava resumed. "I can tell the full story if you want. It might explain a lot."

"Hold on. Is anybody with you right now?" Camilla asked under her breath.

"No, of course not. I'm not a newbie, Camilla. Besides, I live alone."

"Alone? How old are you?"

"19," Ava answered. "My mom died on my 18th birthday, and nobody else in my family wanted to take me in, but since I was legally an adult, I was sent to live at my mom's home by myself with no help."

"On your birthday? Really? I'm so sorry." As soon as the words left Camilla's lips, she wondered why she felt the need to feign sympathy. After all, Ava was like her.

But Ava moved on as if she hadn't noticed her lying. "Why would you be sorry? I hated my mom. That's why I killed her."

Camilla's eyes widened and she sat up. "Really? What did you do?" She asked it out of genuine curiosity, but she made sure that everything she said would sound completely innocent in case her parents eavesdropped.

"I was so sick of her shit, really," Ava grumbled. "She was never there for me, it's no wonder my dad left her. She was a druggie and alcoholic all rolled into one. In short, she was a hot mess. She's gotten a few warnings from child protection services, I know that. Anyway, I knew drugging her would be too easy; it would just look like she overdosed and killed herself. And since the police found her stashed and record with child protection services, they didn't doubt that she'd died from overdosing. It was just so easy, they didn't even consider murder."

"What did you use?"

"Heroin. She taught me a thing or two about drugs, even though it wasn't intentional. And I did my own research at school and in my free time."