Chapter 62

Joseph’s POV

“I’m afraid you are mistaken, Miss Parker,” I said, stepping into the room and closing the door behind me.

She was trembling in the bed, her lips quivering.

“No, I’m not!” She yelled. “You’re a vampire. You have the same darkness as the others!! You’re one of them. Th…the dudes who attacked me…”

Tears spilled from her eyes.

“I assure you, I am not here to hurt you,” I said, stepping closer to her bed.

She recoiled, but she was hooked up to a bunch of machines, so she wasn’t able to go anywhere.

“Please…” she begged. “Please leave me alone.”

Once I reached her bed, I lowered myself, so I was at eye level with her.

“I’m not here to hurt you, Miss Parker. Due to the trauma, you are very confused. My name is Dr. Evergreen. I’m only here to evaluate you,” I said to her, narrowing my eyes at her feeling her mind being hooked.

She fell silent and her shaking was growing less apparent.

“Oh…” she breathed, still keeping her eyes locked on mine.

“There are no such things as vampires. You were confused during the attack because of how frightened you were. It was an animal attack. Do you remember that now?” I asked calmly.

She was quiet for a moment as she thought about the events that unfolded during the attack. The events that I was placing in her mind.

“It was a terrible thing that had happened, and you felt terrified. You were walking home at night and then you saw an animal coming towards you. Do you remember the animal, Miss Parker?”

After another beat of silence, she finally nodded.

“It was a bear,” she said in a soft whisper. “A bear attacked me.”

“That’s right,” I said, nodding my head. “You were attacked by a bear. I’m sorry such a terrible thing happened to you. But now that you remember the truth, you can forget about this whole vampire thing. Right?”

She nodded again.

“Vampires don’t exist,” she said, her eyes becoming nothing more than a void.

“Exactly,” I agreed. “You are safe now. Nothing and nobody can hurt you. Those animals can’t get you. These doctors only want to help you. You should sleep now… but then tomorrow, you should tell them that you were mistaken about the vampires and that it was an animal attack.”

“Yes. I will tell them the truth,” she agreed.

I stepped away from her.

“When I leave, you will forget this conversation ever happened. I was never here, understood?”

She nodded slowly.

I didn’t stick around any longer. I left without another word.

As soon as I was outside, I called Chief Mulligan to tell him that the job had been completed. I returned home just in time because it started to near morning.

It would soon be ready to start the day, and Tessa would be waking up.

…

Tessa’s POV

It was only a few hours of sleep, but it was an incredible few hours. I woke up with the faint sunlight trying to make its way through the shielded window.

Looking at the clock, I saw that it was 7:30 a.m.

School didn’t start until 9 a.m., so I had plenty of time to get dressed.

I slid out of bed and grabbed a clean pair of clothes, which consisted of a hoodie and a pair of jeans. It was nice not having to dress to impress Brian’s friends. I shuddered at the very memory. I don’t know how I allowed myself to get so wrapped up in him.

I should have listened to Ruby from the very beginning.

Grabbing my clothes, I went into the bathroom and hopped in the shower. The shower lasted for about 15 minutes before I got out and got dressed. Once I was dressed, I made my way down the stairs and into the kitchen.

Joseph’s house always amazed me because of how big it is. It was far too big for only one person to live here, and I wondered why he chose this particular villa. I had a feeling that was a question I would never get the answer to.

The house was very quiet, so assumed he was probably asleep. Hopefully, he’ll wake up in time for me to go to school. I know how he gets when I go there alone and yet one of his rules was to not disturb him while he was asleep.

I shook my head at the very thought.

He was ridiculous sometimes.

I went into the kitchen and searched through the cupboard. I smiled when I saw the box of unopened chocolate pop tarts.

I ripped the box open and opened the package. The flavors burst into my mouth, and I smiled with satisfaction. It was so delicious, and I missed it so much.

“How did those get there?” I heard a familiar voice coming from the doorway.

Joseph was staring at the box of pop-tarts with a frown.

“I thought I told the shopper to not buy them anymore. They are so unhealthy,” he continued as he shook his head with dismay written all over his face.

I gave him a sheepish grin.

“I asked her to buy them,” I admitted.

It was a true statement. I happened to catch the shopper while she was over the other day. She was here looking through the cabinets and fridge in the kitchen, making a shopping list. I might have put a small bug in her ear, requesting the chocolate pop-tarts.

“I don’t see what’s so appealing about them,” Joseph said, rolling his eyes. “They are nothing but sugar.”

“That’s what’s appealing about them,” I told him, taking another bite.

He smirked at my response.

“Are you almost ready to go?” He asked.

I nodded just as I shoved the rest of the pop-tart in my mouth. I grabbed my backpack and grabbed his keys off the counter, jingling them in his face.

“Let’s go,” I said as I walked past him.

Per usual, when I got to school, I was the first to leave his car and go inside. I met up with Ruby at our locker. Joseph would soon be entering as well. He just needed to cover himself from head to toe before leaving his car to minimize the amount of sun exposure he got.

“I didn’t hear from you yesterday,” Ruby said with a frown. “Every time I went to look for you, I couldn’t find you. You also didn’t come to lunch. Are you okay?”

I haven’t told her about my conversation with Emily yet.

“Emily wanted to talk during lunch,” I explained.

She rose her gaze to meet mine.

“About what?”

“She just wanted to know if Joseph was seeing anybody,” I muttered. She gasped at my words.

“What??”

“Yeah,” I said shaking my head. “I couldn’t tell her he was seeing me, so I told her no. I guess she has feelings for him.”

“Does he have feelings for her?” She asked, eyeing me carefully.

“No, of course not,” I said, trying to sound convincing. I hated lying to her like this. Joseph and I weren’t seeing each other, but I couldn’t tell Ruby the truth. Not about this.

“Oh, good,” she said with a light laugh. “Then you have nothing to worry about.”

“Right,” I said in return.

She walked me to class and then we went our separate ways.

“See you at lunch,” she said over her shoulder.

I waved at her in return before heading into class.

I got through the rest of today without thinking too much about Emily and Joseph. I know Joseph told me he wasn’t interested in her, and it would have been fine if he had. It’s not like I’m seriously his girlfriend. That’s just a lie I told Ruby.

But I was still living with him, and I think seeing anybody would be weird under the circumstances.

I wondered how often Emily went to see him today, and if they had lunch together.

I brushed the thought out of my mind as I thought about asking him when I saw him in the library. But I was afraid I wouldn’t like the answer.

Joseph was already in the library when I arrived, and he had a laptop open in front of him. He looked to be working hard and barely noticed me approaching.

“Were you here long?” I asked, sitting beside him.

“A couple of hours,” he answered. “I didn’t have much to do today so I came here to get some work done. I’ve been analyzing your blog as well so I can figure out where to start with it. It seems your audience really likes the emotional stuff so we should work on making your stories longer.”

“How much longer?” I asked, meeting his eyes.

“Maybe 1200-1800 words,” he said.

I gasped.

“That’s practically a book,” I said in shock.

“Hardly,” he laughed. “A chapter at most. But it could be tied together to create a book if you have enough material. But they find your content relatable. There are some new comments as well asking for solutions for some of the problems you are facing.”

“Solutions?” I asked, raising my brows. “I don’t have solutions, or I wouldn’t have problems.”

“A lot of your readers are facing the same issues. So, when they read your posts, they expect a solution to those problems,” he continued.

That made sense, but I wasn’t sure I would be able to come up with solutions when I hadn’t figured it out yet.

When I was about to say just that, a very annoying voice sounded in my ears.

“Well, if it isn’t the happy couple at their finest,” Amanda sneered.

I looked up to see Brian and Amanda coming our way.