Beyond the Pack’s Law: My stepsister or nobody else

Hayley’s POV

I looked at the caller ID one more time; it really was an unregistered number. So why was Aiden’s voice in the voicemail?

My hands were slowly quaking from the surprise. I tried to steady my breathing and actually listened to what the voicemail had to say.

I played it from the beginning and put the phone in my ear.

“Hey, it’s me. I have no idea why I’m calling right now. Actually, I do know, but I just… How are you, Hayley? I really hope the answer to that is that you’re great. I shouldn’t be calling you. Bye”

Then the voicemail was over, and I was staring at my phone like I had seen, or rather heard, a ghost.

Eventually, Mona and Mina noticed I wasn’t indulging in their munching train and turned to me. One look at my face, and they dropped their cookies and moved closer to me.

“Babe, what’s wrong?”

“Uh….” Didn’t even know how to put the words together?

A part of me thought I was probably delusional or so stressed out that I was hearing things, but no matter how painfully I dug my nails into my skin to snap me out of whatever cruel dream this was, nothing happened.

What was I supposed to tell them?

Aiden sort of reached out to me but he sounded like he didn’t really want to talk to me. Actually, he sounded like he was drunk. I would have loved to give some sort of explanation, but my lips felt like concrete.

When they didn’t get an answer from me, Mina took the initiative to grab my phone, which still had the voicemail on display. Her finger hit the play option, and then she put it on the loudspeaker.

Hearing his voice again, the voice I had longed for all this time, made my heart strain. What was he doing? Was he alright? Why was he drunk?

A thousand questions flooded my mind, but I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to get an answer to any.

“I shouldn’t be calling you.” What was that supposed to mean? That he didn’t want to talk to me? Or that he wasn’t allowed to talk to me?

“Shit.” That was the first thing that came out of Mona’s lips, and they just looked at each other for a while.

“Hayley, are you okay?”Nôvel/Dr(a)ma.Org - Content owner.

I could feel the tears building up in my eyes, and then the tears came cascading down like waterfalls.

I closed my eyes and tried to think about something else-anything but Aiden. Sunshine and rainbows-just anything that made me happy.

“Screw this; he doesn’t have the right to just mess with you like this.”

I cradled my knees to my chest and kept my eyes closed. I was trying my best not to cry or freak out.

They went silent for a while; I just assumed they were talking with their eyes, and then all of a sudden I heard a number being dialed.

Wait, what?!

I shot up, but Mona held me down while Mina moved away with the phone in her hand.

“What the heck are you doing?”

I asked, scared. Well, on the bright side, my lips were now functional. On the not-so-bright side, the adrenaline was pulsing through my veins and making me feel like a junkie on steroids.

“Calling him out on his bullshit, that’s what I’m doing.”

I’d seen her angry sometimes, and at that moment, she was fuming.

I cooled down and let her handle it; maybe they did know what was best for me after all.

“Hello,” she said while maintaining eye contact with me.

Then there was nothing; I couldn’t tell if someone was talking on the other side or not, but her face remained unchanged.

She put the phone on the bedside table and looked at us, a bit perplexed.

“Well, that was awkward.”

“What happened?” I asked

“That’s not Aiden’s number; actually, that’s not anyone’s number. It’s unassigned.”

“What?”

“I’m serious; it’s unassigned. Basically, it doesn’t even exist anymore.”

“Well, that was weird.”

Unassigned? Doesn’t exist? That was the final straw that sent me into a state of utter confusion.

“It’s probably just a mistake; I don’t even know what to say.”

I reached out for the phone, and Mona stopped me.

“What do you think you’re doing?” She asked

“I just want to check the number again, and maybe the voice mail.”

“You can’t.” She said it softly and handed the phone over to me.

I took it and searched for the voicemail; it was gone, as was the call record of the unassigned number she just called.

“What happened? I can’t find it.” I asked, and the guilty expression on her face said it all.

She deleted the voicemail and the number.

“Why?” I was on the brink of having steam pour out of my ears.

“Because you don’t need it, he said he shouldn’t be calling you, and he probably has a reason for that. Leaving that number lying there is just going to tempt you into trying to call.”

“But you said the number wasn’t working.”

“Yes, but we don’t want you thinking about it.”

Mina nodded in agreement and held my hand. I couldn’t stay angry at them because I knew they truly had my best intentions at heart, but it was hard to think that when my emotions were on the rise.

“You know what?” Mina crouched down in front of me and looked into my eyes.

“What?” I asked with teary eyes.

“Aiden is great wherever he is, and I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t want you to be a mess because of him. And this right here is a mess. You tried so hard to get out of that rot you were in; don’t go back. Please.”

I nodded in agreement, and they trapped me in a hug.

“I love you guys.”

“We love you too.” They said it in unison.

But deep down, I knew I had just lied-not about loving but about not letting myself back into the rot I crawled out of.