Chapter Eight
How am I going to tell him? I asked myself. I can’t just tell Bailey that his girlfriend was whoring herself out for a bit of money; that she was cheating on him the whole time. How could Madison do this? Was she that selfish or was this some kind of rebellious phase? Why didn’t she tell me? I could have talked her out of it…found out why she wanted to do something so stupid.
In reality, that was probably exactly why Madison didn’t tell me about it. She didn’t want to be told no or to be stopped. She wanted to be able to do what she wanted, when she wanted. I sighed. I never though Madison could be that selfish.
“Are you okay?” Rebecca asked as she handed me a plate full of food. “Amber?”
“Hm?” I said, turning my glazed eyes over to my sister. “What’s up?” She nudged the plate closer and my stomach grumbled. “Oh, thanks.” I didn’t even realize I was hungry until the food was right in front of me.
“No problem,” she responded slowly. “Are you okay? You’ve been out of it for days now. Did something happened? Are you in a fight with Ethan? Bailey?”
“You told me I couldn’t hang out with Bailey,” I pointed out. “And I haven’t. I see him in group and that’s it.” Except for the times I tried to hang out with him behind your back.
“Yeah well maybe I over reacted a little,” she admitted. “Maybe it’s time I rescind your restrictions. You seem…lost, Amber.”
“I’m not lost,” I told her, trying to keep my voice even. “Confused, though. I found out stuff about Madison…stuff that she never told me, and I don’t understand it. She seems like a completely different person. It’s like I never knew her at all.”
“What did you find out?” I shook my head. I didn’t want to involve Rebecca in this at all.
“It’s not about what I found out,” I said. “But the fact that I found it out on my own. She didn’t want me to know; she kept this from me.”
“Maybe she forgot to tell you.” Her voice sounded hopeful.
“Rebecca, this isn’t something you forget to tell someone else, trust me.” I wrung my hands together. “I haven’t been able to sleep because of it.”
“Obviously. You have circles so dark under your eyes that you look like you got into a fight.” Rebecca pulled of off the stool. “You need to get out, go have some fun. Go find Ethan, or Bailey, anyone. Stop thinking about it for a while. Maybe things will seem brighter when you get back.” Rebecca practically pushed me out of the kitchen, slamming the door behind me.
Shuffling away to a back table, I kicked some crumbs with my sneakers as I wondered what to do. I couldn’t hang out with Ethan and I didn’t want to face Bailey yet. How was I supposed to tell Bailey what I found out? Was I even supposed to tell him, or keep my mouth shut and play dumb? Neither solution seemed to be the right one so, until I figured it out, I was staying as far away from Bailey as I possibly could. Well this is a fine mess you’ve gotten yourself into, Amber, now isn’t it?
So there I was, staring into a strawberry and banana milk shake, totally oblivious to everyone around me. My mind was consumed with the information I acquired; the same information I never wanted to know about.
After finding out about Madison's second life, I dug through the box of belongings that Madison's mother sent me, and opened the duffel bag. Inside was a red dress, three different types of costume jewelry, black stiletto shoes, and a whole side bag filled with makeup. Underneath all of that was an auburn colored wig, a red wig, and even a black wig. It looked like Madison had more than one alias. Did she always go by Mandy Reyes? Or did she have other fake IDs with other names?
Did anyone know the real Madison? How many bags like this does she have? I wondered. And what about her mother? Didn’t she realize what was going on? Didn’t this concern the damn woman?
Disgusted, I took the bag and threw it immediately into the garbage, everything still inside of it. I wanted nothing to do with
Madison's life. It was one thing to read about it, but it was a whole different scenario, seeing what she wore and imagining what had happened in it.
Finding out what Madison was doing, the big thing that she was hiding from me, opened up a whole new dimension of problems. If she was meeting up with strange men at any time, dressed and acting like someone else, the mystery of what happened to her just expanded. Any of those guys could have had anything to do with her disappearance. Any of them could have killed her by now and no one would even know.
I pulled Madison's journal out from my