An American Cinderella

She wanted to destroy me. I had thought I might be able to find a way out of this, but now I didn’t have any ideas. I was trapped with no escape from my evil stepmother.

Chapter 15

I didn’t take a shower.

Instead, I pulled up my phone contact information, wrote them all down on a piece of paper along with any other information that I thought was important in my phone. Then I checked my recording app. It hadn’t taken a thing. All that remained was two recordings of static. If I had given this to the authorities, they would have laughed me out of the room.

I had been used. Hacked. Tricked.

I thought about just throwing my phone in the garbage. I thought about smashing it with a brick or throwing it in the bathtub or possibly the garbage disposal. Although, I just bought a new garbage disposal and I didn’t want to wreck it.

Besides, if I did that, my stepmother would have more power over me. She would ask for my new number so she could contact me. She would be able to find access to me. I shivered at the thought.

Better I keep this phone with nothing important on it. It was better to know my weak points and defend them than just make more. So, I put a piece of tape over the camera and duct taped the microphone. I would have to look up what else to do on the internet to make it so that it couldn’t record anything.

I logged out of every app on my phone. Then, I went to my computer and changed every password to something with numbers, letters, special characters, and made them all ridiculously long. I knew I would regret it later when I wouldn’t be able to remember any of them, but it made me feel like I was doing something now.

I wasn’t going to take this cursed thing out of my purse anyway. I put it in a plastic baggie full of cotton balls and then stuffed it all the way to the bottom of my purse. It still felt like I had a pit viper in the bottom of my bag, but at least I knew where it was and that it was safe.

I grabbed my wallet, leaving the purse and the cursed phone in my apartment, and went down to the supermarket next to my apartment building. I didn’t buy panko crumbs. I bought a cheap phone and a new number. With cash.

When I came back upstairs and put the phone numbers in the new phone, the first person I texted was Henry.

* * *

Hi Henry. It’s Aria. This is a new number. My old phone broke. Please call me.

* * *

I would tell Jaqui my new number in the morning at work. I wanted to keep it quiet that I had a new phone number, just in case anyone accidentally told my stepmother. No one knew just how evil she was. I didn’t even believe it myself until tonight.

I sat in my dark apartment with nothing to do. Now that I had a new phone and had wrapped the old one up, I was at a loss. My stepmother had a photo of a document that only I had access to. She owned me.

And she was going to destroy me. I didn’t know what to do, but my brain couldn’t seem to slow down long enough to come up with a solution. All I could do was sit in the dark and try not to panic.

The burner phone began to ring. I nearly jumped out of my skin. It was a loud jangling sound that was terrible, but still better than my stepmother being able to track me.

“Aria?” Henry’s voice came over the phone and I nearly collapsed with relief. Just hearing his voice made me feel so much better.

“Henry. Thanks for calling.” My voice cracked saying his name. I sat down hard on the couch.

“Are you okay? What happened to your phone?” His voice held so much concern I felt like crying. Someone cared.

“It’s a long story,” I replied, not wanting to infect him with my stepmother’s poison. “I just needed to hear your voice. It’s been a really long day.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” he said. “Have you eaten?”

I shook my head even though he couldn’t see it. “No. I just got home. To be honest, I just want to take a shower and go to bed. It’s been a rough day.”

“I’m in the neighborhood,” he said. “Let me take care of you.”

The kindness in his voice nearly broke me. He wanted to take care of me.

I needed that right now. I felt so lost in the dark. I’d been betrayed by my stepmother and I had no one to turn to.

If all he did was bring me food and hug me, I would at least feel better. I would be able to think of a solution if I could calm down.