Chapter 6

Saturday

It was past one in the morning by the time I was standing outside Liza's apartment building. I lifted my hand to touch the number for her apartment when it beeped at me.

"What are you still doing here?!" Her voice sounded shrill over the intercom.

"I..."

"Jesus, stop talking. Get up here before someone sees you." The door buzzed.

I grabbed the handle and felt a sigh of relief escape me as the door locked behind me. The vigilante said I'd be safe here. And I already felt significantly better than I had when I was walking through the city. The building was nice. The floors were marble on the way toward the elevators. I was expecting something less extravagant. Was this Liza's actual home?

I looked up at the small camera in the corner of the elevator as I stepped on. It seemed to swivel slightly so that it was pointed directly at me. Most likely, it was her. But I still turned away from it. I didn't want anyone to follow me to her apartment like they had followed me to my hotel room.

As soon as the doors dinged open, I walked down the hallway. There were no lights flickering or rats scurrying by. The carpets were clean, the walls freshly painted, and there was a pleasant smell in the hallway.

"This way!" Liza hissed from behind me.

I spun around. If I thought she had looked mad at me the last time I had seen her, then I didn't know what mad was. She had her hand on her hip and her hair was askew. It actually looked like her nostrils were flaring.

"Come on," she said and gestured for me to hurry the hell up.

I stopped a few feet in front of her, almost scared to get closer.

"Why would you come to my home?! How did you even find me? You're supposed to be gone, what are you doing here?" She pushed me into her apartment before I had a chance to answer her assault of questions. "Well?"

"The vigilante told me it was okay."

"Well, he didn't ask me." She pushed her glasses up her nose as she glared at me. "You keep...waking me up!"

"I'm sorry. I tried to leave. I bought the bus ticket out of here and everything, but then..."

She held up her hand for me to stop talking. "Did he at least say something about me?"

"Who? The vigilante?"

"Yes the vigilante! Who else?!"

Whoa, calm down. "He knew your name."

"That's it?" She pursed her lips as she waited for my response.

It only took me a second to realize the look she was giving me. It was the same look Kins had on her face when she talked about Miles. Liza liked the vigilante. As more than just a hero, which is what her blog claimed was the reason for her writing. Crap. My realization had just made things incredibly awkward. I couldn't imagine her throwing a fit like Kins did when she saw me almost kiss Miles, but I wasn't going to risk it.

"He said I'd be safe here, so he definitely trusts you."

A small smile spread across her face as she turned away from me. "I need something to drink. Do you need something to drink?"

"Um...no, I'm okay."

"You can't make me drink alone. You're the only reason I'm up." She walked into the kitchen and grabbed two glasses out of the cupboard.

I looked around at the granite counter tops and stainless steel appliances. "Your place is really nice."

"Yes, it is." She slid a glass toward me.

I didn't even know what was in it. But she wasn't looking at me like she wanted to kill me anymore, and I didn't want to upset her again. I took a small sip and it burned my throat.

"You're in a shitload of trouble."

I looked at her over the brim of my glass. With her? "I really am sorry that I came..."

"Not with me. Don Roberts has gone dark."

"I don't know what that means."

She rolled her eyes at me and opened up a drawer filled with forks and knives. She shoved the bin holding the utensils to the back of the drawer and pulled out a laptop.

Who keeps a laptop in their utensil drawer?

She set the laptop down on the kitchen counter like what she had just done wasn't weird at all. "I'm talking about this."

I walked around the kitchen island so I could see the screen she was pointing to. It was just the homepage for the Colorado Post. There was nothing wrong with it. "It looks fine."

Her index finger shifted to the line of text that said, "Your search for Don Roberts did not match any results."

I looked back at her. "I know. His record's been cleared. And I guess the case got dropped?"

"No, not dropped. It disappeared. Along with his rap sheet. It all vanished. With him."

"He's gone?" For the first time all day I felt a little hope.

"Yes. I've been watching the feeds all day. He hasn't been spotted on any cameras since last night. I thought he followed you out of the city."

I swallowed hard.

"But then I saw you check into a hotel room like a freaking amateur so I knew you didn't leave." She set her glass down on the counter and stared at me expectantly.

"I'm sorry, Liza. I have no idea what you want me to say."

She pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. "A thank you will suffice for starters."

"I am grateful for you letting me stay here..."

"Not that. After you left my place last night, I kept digging because I still wanted to help the vigilante once you were gone."

Harsh.

"And do you know what I found out?"

"Something useful I guess?"

"Obviously." She narrowed her eyes at me. "I found out that your identity was stolen."

What? "I don't get it, who would want to steal my identity?"

"No, you misunderstood me. No one stole your identity. You stole someone else's."

"What are you talking about?"

"Sadie Davis is a real person. And she looks almost exactly like you. Same brown hair and brown eyes. Same height. Same birthday as you, minus the year." She turned her screen toward me.

There was video footage of a woman stepping onto a subway car. It was in black and white and slightly grainy, but I could still make out the similarities. Honestly, if someone had shown me this picture, I might have thought it was me. "I don't..." my voice trailed off. Something seemed to catch in my throat as the woman turned to face the doors as they closed. She looked almost exactly like me. Which meant she looked like my mom. It was like time stopped as I watched the subway car drive away. I knew that my mom had red hair and blue eyes like me. But in this black and white image, the similarities were uncanny. I knew it wasn't her. But it still felt like I had seen a ghost.

"She's one of Don Roberts' associates. I think that maybe they needed a scapegoat if things went south or something. That's probably why he changed your name when he adopted you."

It felt like my veins were filled with ice. "Don never adopted me."

Liza lowered her eyebrows slightly. "Yes he did. In 2012."

"No." I shook my head. "No he didn't."

"I can show you the paperwork..."

"He didn't adopt me!" My voice seemed to echo around the apartment. This wasn't possible. This couldn't be happening.

"I read the articles before they disappeared." For the first time she actually sounded like she felt bad for me. "I know what he did to you." She put her hand on top of mine.

"Don't touch me." I took a step away from her. I had a father. A wonderful, perfect, loving father. How dare Don tarnish that? It's like he had somehow taken that away from me too. Like he had pissed on my father's grave. He adopted me? I put my hand on my forehead. That disgusting asshole.

"I can tell that you don't want to talk anymore tonight."

Then why are you still talking? I turned away from her. I didn't want her to see me cry.

Liza cleared her throat. "But as soon as Roberts went dark, the real Sadie Davis appeared. I did some more digging and there was a huge drug bust out west. I think he went to go clean up the mess. And I think she's here to make things run smoothly in the meantime. Which means you need another name."

"No."

"What?"

"I'm done running. Don isn't here. So I'm going to be here waiting for him whenever he gets back. I'm not scared of whoever that woman is. I can handle her."

"Sadie..."

I turned back toward her. "My name is Summer." I needed someone to call me that. I needed someone to know I was still alive. I needed someone to remind me that I wasn't dead.

"Okay, Summer. There's a guest room down the hall. We can talk more about this in the morning."