Free The Emoticon Generation by Guy Hasson Page A

anything else, she’s had enough surprises for a lifetime.
    It was time to put an end to it. And she knew how. All she had to do was press the right buttons.
    She pursed her lips in determination, sat at the computer, and turned the screen on. She took a look at Steve’s apartment through the PubliCam. There was nothing. But today was Saturday. What are the odds that at ten o’clock he’d be home? She waited a minute, then a man’s figure walked quickly from one side of the window to the other. She stopped the PubliCam, rewinded it, paused the picture, then zoomed in. The angle was all wrong, but that was his hair and build. It was Steve, all right.
    She dialed Steve’s number through another phone number. That way the block he’d set up to exclude her (her number, actually,) would not work.
    The phone dialed once, twice, then his face appeared on the screen.
    “Hi,” she gave him a big, cynical smile. “Remember me?”
    His face wore shock. Just as he was getting his bearings, she said, “I’m the chicken who lays the first egg,” and his face collapsed again. “I loved the fact,” she went on, “that you blocked my phone calls. I loved it even more that you thought it would work.”
    “Glynis, I—”
    “No, no, no,” she interrupted him again. “You’ve had your chance. Now I’m going to have mine. I want to share something with you,” she said in an extra-nice tone. “I broke into my moth – Olivia’s – other house, I assume you know she has two of them. And look what I found.” She played Thomas and Pat’s message.
    “Shit,” Steve whispered once the tape was over. He understood its importance and perhaps a bit more.
    “Do I have your attention, Mr. Caspi?”
    He nodded.
    “Good. Because here’s what I know. My father has Olivia’s father’s name, and no one will tell me anything about him. You say that Olivia is not my mother,” – his face showed confusion –”No, you didn’t say it to me, but you said it nonetheless. But Olivia, who has an entire family she never told me about, including you for that matter, and also including a daughter who looks a lot like me and our mother – so how can we not have the same mother? And for some reason you seem to think it has something to do with my pixeled tv.”
    “Glynis,” he said. “I understand what you’re going through. But I can’t help you.”
    “Are you scared of my mother, Mr. Caspi? Because up till now I told you what I know. Here’s what you should know. I’m smart. I’m resourceful. I’m sneaky. And I’m after you.” She leaned closer to the camera. “I’ll find some way to blackmail you. I’ll find some secrets about the woman carrying your baby. I’ll find a way to break up your relationship if I have to. I can do much more damage than mom can. You don’t want me as your enemy. Wouldn’t it be nicer to be my friend, like we proposed originally?”
    Glynis took a breath, eased back into her chair, and said in a tired voice, “Look. That was the threat. Here’s the real deal: Steve, you know and I know that she’s been lying to me my whole life. I don’t understand it, and I don’t like it, and it’s wrong . I know you think the same as I do, and from our first conversation, it sounded to me like you left her partly because of it. She’s been lying to me ever since I was born. She’s kept me a secret from almost everyone she knows ... and I don’t know why or what else she did, but I need to know. Can you understand that ? I mean, you said you used to have a soft spot for me. And you’re going to have a baby and I can tell you’re a compassionate man. How would you be able to raise it knowing that you’re part of whatever it is she did to me when she raised me, that you had a chance to change it, and didn’t?”
    Steve looked down. “You’re not going to believe me if I tell you, Glynis.”
    Her heart skipped a beat. “Tell me anyway.”
    “There are some things a person shouldn’t know