Ditched Cheating Alpha, I Led My Daughter to Life's Peak novel Chapter 187

I give him an angry look back. 'Stop it. There's no way they were working together.' I would trust Onai with my life. There's no way.

'Hey.' He puts his hands up in defense. 'Don't rule out the possibility. He is pretty close with that one friend of yours, Krys. The ex-Bloodmoon girl." He gives me a knowing look right before circling her name too. 'Sketchy, sketchy if you ask me.' He scribbles down, 'potential source of information... if still alive,' next to Mr. Reynolds' name and moves on.

I think about that for a moment, but no matter how I look at it, there's no part of me that could ever suspect Onai. Or Krys for that matter. If anyone should be distrusted, it's Ethel! That boy's a snake! ...Or maybe just a weasel... A rat? I don't know.

I look back at what Michael's doing.

He writes 'Crazy Coach Lady/Disappointed Soccer Mom?' above Ethel's name. Then 'The Dawn Pack' beside Bloodmoon. 'Suzie' and 'Mr. Olcan' go underneath Carson, and 'Juliet' goes beside Suzie.

Then Michael looks at me. 'What are the names of the ally packs they told you about today?' He hovers his pencil over some empty space, phone in the other hand.

I clear my throat. 'Um... the names of the packs?'

He nods. 'Yeah, the supposed allies. Who are they?'

I scratch the back of my neck. "Er."

He's silent.

I look away. "Can I rain check on that? I forgot."

"Mia," He says exasperatedly.

"Hey! It's a lot of information." I point at the paper. 'And look, you can't even remember names either so you have no room to talk.'

"...Hm." He rubs his chin, thoughtfully. 'I guess you're right. I can't remember shit.'

I smile smugly. It always feels nice to knock Michael off his high horse, even for a second. But before I know it, he's already climbed back on. "So here's what we'll do." He writes 'Allies' in big letters. "How many were there again?"

"Two," I say confidently. That I know.

"Alright then." Beside Allies he writes a second entry, 'Allies 2.'

"Oh," I say dramatically. "How creative."

Sensing my confusion, he decides to elaborate. "Okay, for example," he says out loud. "If you we're looking at this paper, what might you also notice in this room?"

"Where is this going Michael?" I groan.

"Humor me," he says.

So I do. I look up and then around the room.

"No, don't do that." He points towards the paper. "What would you see if I you weren't looking around. Just right here."

I look back towards the paper. I shrug. "I don't know. The paper. The carpet. Your hand."

"Exactly." He gets up. "But if I move it..." He takes the paper and walks towards the window. "You'll start to notice other things. Now you can see my weights. My desk. My games." He walks towards the door. "Now you see the door. The trash can. My rug. But what are you not paying attention to anymore?" He points behind me.

I look back and I see the window.

"Here's my theory." He sits back down in front of me, typing on his phone. 'Physical location and emotional closeness influence mindlink. Like a twitter feed or some crap like that. You follow all your friends, so you know what's going on in their lives, but you don't know what Bob down the street is posting because who the fuck cares about Bob?' He points at Juliet. 'So by the same principle, Aiden won't know what's on Juliet's twitter. But if he's right next to her, or if someone tells him to look at her, that's when he'll start paying attention to what's going on with her. Something has to give him a reason to look at that monitor, otherwise.' He scratches her name out. 'She doesn't matter to him.'