Status (Social Media 4)

The screen flashes to our fight outside the hotel. She’s crazed, I can tell. Her eyes are wild and they are darting all over the place. Trying to take in the scene. Trying to come to terms with the fact that the life she built, no matter how fake and fabricated, is over.

I want to stop watching as the scene repeats over and over, but I can’t. I just want to see her face. I just want to be able to see her face and I don’t have any pictures of her.

Wait. I reach for my phone on the nightstand and pull up my videos.

I smile big as I press play. It’s of the two of us arguing on the beach that first night we met. It’s only like a fifteen-second video, but I play it over and over. Because even though she’s mad, she’s not sad. She’s not scared. She’s vibrant and alive. She’s full of fight and demands.

That footage they are running outside the Bellagio, that’s not Grace at all.

That’s Daisy Bryndle.

Scared, defeated, lost Daisy Bryndle.

The door chimes and I walk out to the foyer and open it up. “Felicity, thank God.” She comes in without saying a word and takes a seat on the couch. She pulls out her laptop and sets it on the coffee table.

“Conner is on his way. He’s getting things set up for the Tray thing.”

“Did he tell you what happened to Grace?”

“Not all of it, he says some of it he needs to tell you in person. And I’d just like to caution you, V. Make sure this is how you want to find out about it. Because once you know, you can’t unknow. Things can’t be unknown, you understand?”

“I need to know,” I say quickly. “I need to know now.”

“Why?” Felicity asks, with an edge to her question. “Why do you need to know? Because if this will change your opinion about her, then I’d advise you to drop it. And drop her while you’re at it. Because this girl, Vaughn, she needs a win right now. She really needs a win. She needs someone who will stand by her, because this shit is about to get…” Felicity pauses, her eyes searching mine.

“What? It’s about to get what?”

“Disgusting. Revolting. Nauseating. Repulsive. It’s about to stop being about who murdered her family and start being about something else entirely. Something much, much worse.”

I sit on the couch opposite Felicity and stare at her. “You of all people, Felicity, should know me better.”

She nods and swallows hard. “I know, V. I do know you better, but I just need to make sure. Because Grace is gonna need you. She’s gonna need you like I needed you. And she’s never gonna admit that, ya know?”

“Like you never wanted to admit that, either.”

Felicity nods. “Yeah. Because this shit is private. And I don’t really want to show you, but I have always known you to be a good man, Vaughn. I know you have a shitty reputation and I also know you’ve earned it. But those people who see that side of you, they are the outsiders. Us insiders know that there’s a big difference between the man and the actor.”

“Felicity, I promise you. I have no intention of walking away because of what I find out. I promise you.”

She lets out a long breath and then she pulls up a file. A police report. “This is her criminal file. All public record stuff, sealed, of course, since she asked the court to do that on her eighteenth birthday. Police report, pictures of the crime scene, which I am telling you now, you do not want to see.” Felicity stares hard at me. “The perp used a knife. Enough said. And all kinds of other procedural things that go into a criminal file. This was not hard to get, but there’s something else mentioned in this file that’s not accessible. Her health records. I can’t get those, Vaughn. I can’t. I mean, I could, but I’d probably go to prison. Besides, it’s one thing to go looking at her prescriptions at the drug store to see if she’s on the pill. Yeah, I’m a cunt for doing that for you. But it’s baby shit compared to what might be in those hidden records from her teens.”

The blood leaves my face. My hands go cold, my legs start to shake, and my heart speeds up. “What happened?”

“She was not the murderer. The lawyer convinced the FBI somehow. Got Daisy to make one statement. Only one. These were only words she gave to authorities. Ever. And she said…” Felicity pulls up another page on the computer. Another procedural form with the title Witness Statement at the top. She zooms in to find a signature at the bottom. Daisy Bryndle.

And then she scrolls up to the portion where the witness gets to write down what they saw. There’s only one sentence and it says, ‘I was abducted.’

I realize I’m holding my breath and when I read that sentence, it all comes rushing out. “How long was she missing?” I ask.

“Eight months.”

I have to sit down. “And what happened to her during that time?”

“They have no idea.”

I have to take deep breaths. “Where is the guy who took her?”

“They have no idea.”

I stand back up. “So he’s still out there?”

Felicity shrugs her shoulders. “I have no idea. These are things Grace never told anyone, as far as I can see. There are no statements. There’s a mention of psychiatric appointments, but that’s it. Just a mention. All those health records are locked away with whoever was treating her at the time.”

“Is there a mention of the doctor’s name?” I ask.