Wicked Chase

❖ Chapter Three

"No," I finally said and for a moment, I felt reluctant to tell my mother why. I hadn't told her about the nightmare I had last night but she did know there was a man in my nightmares, Alastair, though she was not aware of his name because I hadn't yet told her. "I'm meeting up with a friend." 

"Oh," she said and I heard the hint of disappointment in her voice. "What's her name?"

"His name," I corrected, hesitantly. "His name is Alastair."

There was no reply and I furrowed my eyebrows when I couldn't even hear the low, even breathing that my mother emitted through the phone. My chest swelled with the slight emotion of panic and I found myself pressing my mobile phone closer to my ear and saying, "Mum?"

"I'm here," she said almost immediately, almost too quickly. "What's his full name?" Her voice was piqued with curiosity and that made me wonder as to why she was curious about his name. I rarely kept anything from my mother, she was the person I trusted most, so I found no problem telling her what his full name was.

"Alastair Ignacio," I replied and for a moment I felt my heart stop because I heard how short my mother's breaths were coming in which only meant that she was remembering something or realising something.

"Mum?" I questioned again. Why was she so worried? It had already begun to worry me and I would be lying if I said that I wasn't scared when I saw all those calls, messages and voicemails. However, hearing her over the phone and how cryptic this whole conversation was only seemed to be scarier and made me much more anxious.

"When can I come see you? It's urgent," she said after a short silence had passed by. This whole conversation was full of pauses and my mother and I rarely paused when we talked over the phone because we always had something to talk about due to being so busy with university and work. So I knew something was wrong. Something had happened, I just knew it.

"Next weekend perhaps? You can come on Thursday or Friday and stay for the weekend. I do have one extra bedroom in my apartment still because I couldn't find a roommate - housemate to be exact - so does that sound good?"

When the immediate yes didn't come I knew the terms that I had set for her were not sitting well with her. What was so urgent? Was it that important that she needed to tell me face to face instead of over the phone? She would be saving up on fuel and expenses that way.

But I wouldn't be free until Thursday. Sunday was my meet up with Alastair and I had a feeling that he'd want to grab any opportunity to spend time with me on Monday and Wednesday since those were the days that I had lectures to attend to and I certainly wanted all his attention. I had to at least coax some information out of him by the end of next week.

"Alright," she said after sighing deeply. I hadn't heard her sigh like that before and that made me wonder why she was so tired. "I'll call you before you go to bed?"

"I don't think you'll last that long," I teased.

"You're right," she replied, the hint of a smile in her voice that made the weight on my chest lift and a smile to form on my pink, dry lips. "I'm so tired." She didn't say why and I suspected by the way she said it that she didn't want me questioning her either.

"Then you better head to bed. I'll talk to you tomorrow."

There was a tentative pause like my mother wanted to tell me so much more than what we had just conversed but something was holding her back. "Genevieve?" she said.

"Yeah, Mum?"

"That Alastair boy, trust him."

Her words were so sudden and unexpected that my heart immediately did a flip and my eyes widened with shock. "What do you mean?" I questioned, clutching the phone tighter that the edges had begun to dug into the inside of my palm but I ignored the slight pain that shot through my palm and up my arm because my mother's words seemed far more important.