Chapter 3

The rain was still coming down.

Graham glanced out the window and grabbed his car keys.

"It's pouring. I'll drive her home. It's not safe for her to go by herself."

With that, he reached down to pet Bagel in her bed. "Be good and wait for Daddy to come back."

Anna leaned down and kissed Bagel twice. "Bye, baby. Mommy will come see you tomorrow."

I watched in silence as the two of them walked out together.

It had been raining for days.

Just last weekend, I'd had to work until eleven at night.

It had been pouring then, too, and I'd taken my e-bike to work.

I'd texted Graham to ask if he could pick me up.

It took him a while to reply.

Graham: [Why are you still working this late?]

Graham: [Bagel freaks out during thunderstorms. I need to stay with her.]

Graham: [Just get a rideshare home. If you're scared, we can stay on a video call.]

But my phone was almost dead. I couldn't video call him or order a ride.

In the end, I rode my e-bike home through the pouring rain.

I checked the time. It was only eight.

Apparently, Graham thought it was perfectly fine for me to take a rideshare home alone at eleven at night, but he was worried about Anna being out alone at eight.

My vision blurred, and my eyes began to sting.

I'd felt the same way four years ago when I found out I'd been switched at birth.

Lightning flashed across the sky. A moment later, thunder cracked overhead.

The lights went out, plunging the house into darkness.

"Meow!"

Bagel let out a sharp, frightened yowl.

Then I heard her coming toward me.

I tried to move away, but as I stood up, my knee slammed into the coffee table.

A second later, Bagel leaped onto my back.

She clawed and bit at me in a panic.

"Ah..."

The pain left me unable to make another sound.

When the lights finally came back on, I managed to shake her off.

Bagel landed on all four paws, her back arched and her fur standing on end as she bared her teeth at me.

At the next rumble of thunder, I hurried into my bedroom and shut the door.

My back stung all over.

When I touched the back of my neck, my fingers came away bloody.

My hands were shaking as I called Graham.

Once.

Twice.

No answer.

I didn't try a third time.

Instead, I texted Chase.

Me: [Didn't you want a chance?]

Me: [Here's one.]

Then I sent him my location.

There was no reply.

I didn't know if Chase would come.

But I was genuinely scared.

Bagel was still yowling outside my room, and thunder kept rolling outside.

Graham had been right about one thing. I really had grown up pampered.

Back when I still lived with the Langfords, who had raised me as their daughter, my beautiful mom would sleep beside me whenever there was a thunderstorm.

Still trembling, I opened the drawer and took out the ointment I'd bought last week.

But the injuries were on my back. No matter how I twisted, I couldn't reach them well enough to put it on.

Eventually, I gave up.

I picked up my phone again and, almost without thinking, opened the webpage I'd found that morning after scanning the QR code on Bagel's collar.

Anna's contact information was listed there.

I looked her up on the messaging app.

Her nickname was Bagel's Mom.

Graham's was Bagel's Dad.

I'd once teased him about it, asking if he wasn't worried his coworkers would make fun of him.

He'd said there was nothing wrong with loving your cat.

So their nicknames matched.

Even their profile backgrounds matched.

Both were close-up photos of Bagel.

My finger slipped, and I accidentally sent Anna a friend request.

To my surprise, she accepted almost immediately.

A new post from her appeared at the top of my feed.

I opened it.

The photo showed Graham in an apron, brewing a pot of hot tea in Anna's tiny apartment.

Her caption read:

[Someone's making way too big a deal out of a little rain and insisting on taking care of me. I think he's forgotten he's my ex.]

I stared at the steaming tea, then at the blood still on my fingertips.

Somehow, my back hurt even more.

I opened Anna's profile.

All of her old posts were public.

I kept scrolling.

Piece by piece, the story came together.

She and Graham had been high school sweethearts.

[Someone confessed to me after high school graduation, and his ears turned bright red. So cute.]

They went to colleges in the same state.

[Going back and forth between our schools is exhausting, but he's way busier with school than I am. I don't mind making the trip more often.]

[This kitty is always hanging around near his campus. I see her every time I visit. She's basically watched our whole love story unfold, so I'm adopting her.]

[Someone's allergic to cats. What am I supposed to do?]

[Graduation came. I wanted to get married, but he wanted to focus on his studies. We fought and broke up. I left the cat at his place when I moved out. I could cry.]

The doorbell suddenly rang.

A message popped up on my phone at the same time.

[Open the door.]