Read Online What He Believes by Hannah Ford - Free Book Online Page B

yanked out from
under me again, leaving me feeling insecure about our relationship.
    I just wanted things
to calm down, for everything to be normal.
    But how could that
ever happen with the kind of lives we led?
    My phone buzzed,
and I looked down, hoping for a text from Noah.  
    But it wasn’t a
text.
    It was en email
alert.
    One
new email.
    From Dr. Jason
Cartwright.
    Wow.   He was nothing if not fast.
    It was addressed
to my faculty advisor, Dr. Yessnow, and I was cc’d.

 
    Dear Dr.
Yessnow,

 
    I had the
opportunity to meet with Charlotte Holloway this morning, and have deemed her
fit to return to school effective immediately.   However, I am also recommending ten
counseling sessions with me, in my office, to be completed as part of the
conditions of her reenrollment.
    She can
schedule them at her convenience, and I will reach out to Charlotte separately
to start that process.
    Please let me
know if you have any questions.
    Sincerely,
    Dr. Jason
Cartwright

 
    I blinked my eyes
in disbelief.
    What the hell?  
    Ten
counseling sessions?  
    Ten hours of
sitting there with Dr. Cartwright, talking about what?   I couldn’t tell him about anything that
was going on in my life! That was humiliating and totally invasive.
    I closed my eyes
and leaned my head back against the seat.
    “Is everything
okay, Miss?” Jared asked from the front of the car.   His eyes met mine in the rearview
mirror, his face kind and creased with concern.
    “Yes,” I
said.   “Yes, Jared, everything’s
fine.   It’s just been one of those
days.”
    Jared nodded, as
if he understood this.   “Would you
like to listen to some music?” he asked.
    “That would be
wonderful.”
    He hit a button
and the soft notes of a classical concerto wafted through the car, its tone
rich and melodious.  
    I knew nothing
about classical music, but I knew this was soothing.   “I like this,” I said.   “What is it?”
    “Mendelssohn,”
Jared said.   “Violin Concerto in E
minor.”
    “It’s beautiful,”
I said.   “Do you listen to a lot of
classical music, Jared?”
    “Oh, yes,” Jared
said.   “I find it not only relaxing,
but interesting as well.   Every time
you listen to a brilliant classical piece, you pick up something different,
some new rhythm, new note, new instrument.”
    “It’s like
discovering it all over again.   So
it never gets old.”
    “Exactly,” Jared
said.   “Some people think classical
music is boring, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.”
    I nodded.   “Who’s your favorite composer?”
    “Oh, that would be
impossible,” he said.   “There is no…”
Suddenly, he trailed off, though, and I saw him sit up straighter in his seat.
    “Jared?” I
asked.   “Is everything okay?”
    “Everything’s
fine, miss,” he said.   But his eyes
were on the rearview mirror, his face hardening.  
    “Then why are you
sitting up straight and acting like something horrible is happening?”
    Jared locked the
doors, the clicking sound echoing through the car.   Panic flooded me as I flashed back to
being in Professor Worthington’s car, the sound the locks had made as he’d
trapped me inside with him.
    “I want you to
stay calm,” Jared said.   “And not
panic.”
    It was
impossible.   I was already panicked.
“What’s going on?”
    “We’re being
followed.”
    “Followed?”
    “Yes.”
    “By who?”
    “I don’t know,”
Jared said, and then he turned down a side street.   A black sedan followed us, and my heart
caught in my throat.   I gazed out
the back window, but I couldn’t see the driver.
    “Hold on, miss,”
Jared said.
    And then he hit
the gas as the car lurched forward down the back streets of New York, the black
sedan hot on our trail.  
    Jared did his best
to lose the tail, turning this way and that, but eventually, we got caught up
at a red light.
    As soon as we
rolled to a stop, the man in the car behind us stepped onto the street and
began walking