Amantha continued to ignore Kathleen’s many messages. One night, Roland sensed her distress and asked what was wrong.
“It’s Kathleen.”
“Kathleen?” he asked quizzically.
Amantha nodded. “She’s become so pushy lately, yet the more I ignore her to try to get her to back off, the more she pesters me.”
“Wow, really?”
Again she nodded. “I never would’ve thought she’d be this way. She always seemed so easygoing and like the type that would never want to do anything to make anyone uncomfortable. But now it’s like she’s become obsessed with me.”
Roland took a few minutes to digest his wife’s words. Then he asked, “Is there anything you’re not telling me?”
Amantha felt her heartbeat quicken. “Well, sort of.” Then she burst into tears.
Should she soften the truth? Tell it like it was? Or deny it all? Maybe her best bet was to go somewhere in the middle.
“I didn’t want to worry you.”
“It’s okay, hun, whatever it is,” Roland said, gathering her into his arms. “I’m here for you no matter what.”
They embraced for a few minutes, and then Amantha pushed back and looked into his golden-brown eyes. “I liked Kathleen as soon as I met her. She always seemed so nice, so professional, and just an all-around good person. I sensed that she liked me as well—only I didn’t get the extent of it at first. I thought she was just a really friendly person who was also married.”
“Yeah?” Roland asked curiously.
“But it turns out that her husband died in a car accident a while back. They never had any kids either.”
Amantha hesitated, but Roland urged her on.
“Well, I guess she’s been very lonely. She also seems to like me a lot more than I bargained for. Whenever she goes to hug me goodbye or something, I think she’s going to do it in a friendly way, like any normal friend would. But then she hugs and kisses me in a way that suggests she likes me in a more serious way than just a friend. Seriously, Roland—she wants to kiss me, experiment with me, and do all kinds of things with me every free minute she has. I let her know that I’ve had enough, told her I was busy, but she won’t stop calling and trying to get a hold of me online.”
Roland let out a sigh. “I guess it’s time to find a new dentist.”
Amantha nodded sadly, hating to give up her dentist. She’d seen her for many years and really felt comfortable with her and the rest of her staff—excluding Kathleen. But she simply didn’t feel comfortable being a part of anything that Kathleen was a part of.
Questions raced through her mind. Should she cancel the appointment soon? Wait until it got closer? Should she tell the dentist why she was canceling and warn her about Kathleen in case there were other complaints?
Too exhausted to make any decisions at the moment, she let herself unwind with an audiobook after Roland left. He was needed on third shift that week at the warehouse, but she didn’t mind. It was good pay, and he wasn’t on graves very often.
Amantha listened to her book until she began to feel sleepy. A glance at the clock told her it was nearly 1 a.m.
She stopped her Echo device from reading, and then a split second later she heard a beeping sound followed by a mechanical whir. Her mind went through a WTF moment as she sat on the edge of the bed, back ramrod-stiff. And then it hit her…
Someone had just decoded the lock on the door—and it couldn’t have been Roland. If Roland were coming home early, he would have said so on Skype.
Amantha froze, horrified, eyes glued to the bedroom doorway.
“Hello, Amantha,” said a black-leather-gloved Kathleen a moment later.115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYPqvIijJUj
and then Add to home screen.