𝐌𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐇𝐞𝐫 𝐌𝐚𝐝𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬

14 | And Finally All is Revealed

"No Tom, you don't get it. I've never been asked to attend a meeting with this guy before... He deals with like, big stuff," I said buttoning up my freshly ironed business shirt and smoothing out my hair.

"Darling it's probably just updating you about the finger since we got back from the islands," Tom said rubbing my shoulders as I sat in my desk chair and adjusted my laptop screen.

"What if they figure out there's more fingers a-and they tracked them to us somehow and they figure out I'm living with you and come after us?" I said, my voice panicked as I glanced down at the time: one minute before the meeting.

"Y/N, listen to me. If we don't know who is sending the fingers, I'm sure they don't either," Tom said kissing my cheek and calling out to a quick 'good luck' before leaving the room.

I played with my fingers nervously under the table before logging onto the call and staring at the black screen, waiting for other people to log on. I started picking at my cuticles, consciously moving my hands away from each other and playing with a pen instead.

The call had only my captain and myself as attendees. There were no detectives. No officers. No lieutenant. There was nobody but the two of us. Alone.

The call was entirely off record. There was no official member to take notes to transcribe the meeting. There was no automated recording. No evidence of it even happening in the first place.

The call started with the captain apologising. He told me that this call would not be easy for either of us. He looked nervous. I looked nervous.

The call outlined that he received an anonymous tip regarding my history. A mailed envelope addressed to him containing evidence that I never received a degree in psychology. Evidence that I never took my policing exam. Evidence that I never got forensic certification.

The call wasn't filled with anger from his side, nor was it filled with excessive apologies from mine. He told me that he hadn't told anyone this information. I asked him what the next steps were.

The call prepared me for the worst. A flood of scenarios rushing through my head. I would be sent to prison yes, but what concerned me more was that all the deserving criminals that I put in jail, would have their cases automatically thrown out and they would be freed by the state.

The call made me realise how good I was at my job. It made me realise how good I am at lying. It made me realise that I do care about helping people who are thrown in the deep end and forced into lives of crime.

The call finished with the captain saying he would forget this ever happened if I resigned effective immediately. He said he would burn the evidence and never question it as long as I left the force for good. I nodded.

The call ended with tears in my eyes and me closing my laptop, my hands shaking and my breathing unsteady.

"How'd it go? What happened?" Tom said coming into the room and seeing my take my earphones out, tears falling from my eyes and my hand over my mouth.

"Someone knows about me Tom... They told the captain I was a fake a-and he agreed to keep it secret if I resigned," I managed to say, bursting into tears as Tom pulled me into a hug, standing next to my chair.

"Aw, Darling I know you loved this job... Maybe you can go into private forensics? Not with the police force?" He suggested, which was kind of him.

"It's not that... It's the fact someone knows about me! The only person who knows is you and Daniel. And we all know Daniel is well and truly dead. If Daniel told another cop it would have been an official arrest; this anonymous tip wasn't to do with Daniel... Someone else has been digging into who I am a-and I'm fucking scared Tom," I whimpered, burying my face in his shirt and quite honestly hyperventilating.

"You're safe with me Darling. I promise I won't let anything or anyone hurt you. I've got security posted everywhere we go," He said softly stroking my hair.

"Please don't leave me Tom. Don't leave me alone whilst this fucking crazy guy after us... I don't want my fingers cut off, it'll be my head after," I sobbed.

"I- Y/N listen to me. I'm going back to The Family business soon after this personal leave and I can bring you with me as much as I can... But I promise if you can't be with me, you'll be safe with someone reliable, Haz or my brothers... Just until we figure out who this is, I promise," he said tilting my head so he could look me in the eye.

"Come on, let's change the subject. Get your mind off this and we can, we can talk about anything else," he smiled, knowing that the best way to get me to stop being anxious was to distract me.

"I um, I've been working on a psych profile for the fingers?" I said wiping my eyes.

"Seriously? You can talk about anything in the world to distract yourself and you pick criminal stuff?" He laughed, leaving the room and throwing himself on the living room couch.

"Well I don't have access to any of the work systems anymore so I uh, I was trying to find patterns. All the fingers are the fourth left finger; the ring finger. The last finger had the note, but it also had the ring. That can't be a coincidence Tom... Then, the uh, the note. I was looking over and over. It didn't say much, right? Just 'To the Dutch and his new Dutchess' remember? Well I keep fixating on the word new, I think this could be an ex girlfriend of yours... Do you uh, do you have anyone you left on bad terms?" I said, honestly sounding a bit deranged with how fast I was talking.

"Holy fucking shit... Show me the photo of the last finger... Th-The one with the ring," Tom said sitting up and leaning over to see my phone. He grabbed it from me and zoomed in on the ring.

Rather than looking at the phone, I watched Tom. His breath hitching, his jaw clenching and his eyes darkening at the fight of the finger.

"That fucking cunt!"

"Wait, who? Who is the cunt?" I asked, seeing Tom get off the couch and run his hand through his hair. And as if this was a fucking movie where the lighting strikes as the main character realises who the bad guy was all along and dramatic music starts, our intercom rang with someone waiting at the gates. Answering it on his phone, we looked at the app to see the video.

"Tom? Tom! Tom please let me in I don't know where else to go. I'm bleeding and I-I'm so scared and I need you," a girl a bit older than me yelled through the speaker.

I turned to Tom who opened the gates for her, sighing and staring at me.

"That fucking cunt... Sofia Maniscalo," he said furious.