Scandal:The Complete Series(31)
A feeling of nausea overwhelms me and I bring a glass of water to my lips. I close my eyes for a second, laying my head against the back of the couch.
When my eyes open, I’m determined to tear his tablet to pieces until I know every little thing that he keeps in there. There’s so much sadness and despair in me right now and I need to turn them into something different, something angry and creative.
My fingers keep clicking on files, folders and icons, searching for clues about the real Jaxson Cole. Didn’t he tell me I’d soon find out? I bet that’s not what he had in mind.
Under the documents section I come upon a bunch of files titled in a numeric fashion, although in no particular order. From file 1 you get to file 12 and then to file 37. I click on one after the other and most of them turn out to be filled with nonsensical strings of letters and symbols except for the occasional file that has real words that mean nothing to me.
Things like: Don’t forget to use the actual verbiage when you contact home, or, Always let them know your true intentions while hiding your true corresponding feelings.
In a flash of inspiration, I do a search for my name. One file comes up, titled 2385. I get an urge to get off the couch and start running and never stop until I’m out of town, or maybe the state.
The first thing I read in the file reads something like this:
Ella Wade.
Height – 5’ 4’’
Weight – 115 (approx.)
Hair – Brown
Eyes – Brown
There are no words to describe what I’m feeling right now. Maybe I’m in a state of shock or maybe I just want to cry. I bite my lip and keep reading all the things that Jaxson Cole would have never wanted me to read.
Everything about me has been logged into this document. My hobbies, my school and writing awards, my travels, my studies, even my favorite color and dessert. But why? What makes me that important that someone would go into the trouble of collecting all this information? Especially since the document is dated months before Jaxson and I actually met.
I almost give up, feeling a headache settle in, when there’s a ring at my door. I stay put, not sure if I want to speak with anyone right now. When the bell rings three more times, I decide to see who it is.
Through the peephole, I see Brad. Surprises just keep coming today. I open the door wide and invite him in.
“How did you find me?” I say when he’s standing in my living room in black jeans and white t-shirt and perfectly spiked black hair. His muscles bulge under the tight shirt and his teeth are so perfectly straight and white they look fake.
“Jax asked me to check on you,” he says, shrugging.
“Don’t tell me you were his one phone call,” I say with obvious bitterness coloring my voice.
“Not quite. I got to see him though. I went to the station with Donald Jameson. It’s a mess.”
I nod, not really wanting to know any details about Jaxson’s situation right now. Instead, I grab the iPad and shove it under Brad’s nose.
“What do you know about this?” I say as my finger scrolls through the photos of me from all stages of my life.
“Should I know something?” he says, shifting his weight from leg to leg.
“You tell me. This is your buddy’s iPad. Why would he have all those photos of me? How is that possible?”
“How did you get it?”
I give Brad a crooked grin. “I thought I was doing him a favor when I got it out of his place before the cops got their hands on it. On second thought, maybe he’d prefer it if they were the ones going through it.”
Brad clears his throat. For a moment, I think he’s going to come up with some lame-ass excuse but then he takes my hand in his, making my whole body wince.
“Jax has wanted you for a long time, Ella,” he says, “and that’s all I can say. He’ll have to tell you the rest himself. Just know that he’s on your side. No matter what ugly things the police think he might be involved in, you’re the one person he’d never hurt.”
“Brad, you better fucking tell me what’s going on.”
He leans in, bringing his gorgeous face down to my level to whisper in my ear. “You have the answers. Think, Ella, think. It’s all in there,” he says, tapping my head with his knuckles.
He heads for the door and I instinctively know that no matter how much I want to get answers from him, he’ll never comply. Only Jax can do that and he’s conveniently locked up.
I’m left staring at the iPad in my hands, wishing for some epiphany to hit me so I can find the answers inside my head like Brad suggested. It’s a nice theory that the solution could be that simple, but the truth is none of this makes any fucking sense at all. If I could scream, I would.