Free An Unexpected Gift by Lily Zante Page A

her bedside cabinet. She
rubbed her eyes as she answered the call, registering that it was still only
half past five in the morning.
    But as soon as she
reached for it, it stopped ringing. She put the phone back on her bedside
cabinet and rubbed her eyes.
    She
had started receiving them first back in November, soon after she had dumped
Carl. He would call her but say nothing.
    At
first, she tried to speak to him and reason with him. She knew it was him but
when he said nothing, she hung up. He would call back immediately and do the
same thing all over again. Never saying a word. But just hanging on the phone,
listening to her. It was eerie. And the more it happened, the more it unnerved
her.
    She
would have preferred him to shout at her than to have the complete silence.
    The
silence scared her because it was full of so much intent.  He used to text
her too. Nasty texts, swearing at her, accusing her of many things. Sometimes
it seemed as though there were two different people writing the texts.
Sometimes he would type out abusive things. Other times he would say he was
sorry and tell her how much he loved her. He would plead with her to get back
together with him.
    It
got to a point back in November that he would call her continuously. Soon she
started hanging up on him. And then after that she had his number blocked from
her phone.
    He started up on the land
line but she and Kerrie both stopped answering the phone.
    He
hounded her mercilessly on Facebook and sent her emails by the dozen. Short
emails telling her he hated her interspersed with long ones, pages of them,
declaring his love for her.
    She
knew then that she had become his obsession.
    She
was almost on the verge of telling her parents about the situation but then in
December everything had gone quiet.
    She
naively assumed that he had gotten over her. And then the attack happened. The
week’s hiatus from his constant harassment had given her a false sense of
comfort.
    As
she recalled these fragmented memories of a time she would much rather forget,
Caitlin slid further down beneath her duvet, immersing herself completely in
its warmth and blotting out the rest of the world outside.
    So
much had happened in the last few weeks that she had forgotten all about the
phonecalls – until now.
    As
she lay under the duvet, she heard the familiar ring tone of her phone once
more. She had been waiting for it. She knew he would try again and the minute
it rang, her mind and body went on high alert instinctively and her
stomach tightened.
    “Hello?”
she said warily. She knew, even as she said these words, that there would be
silence at the other end. She pushed the duvet away and hung up the call, then
lay in bed looking at the patterns on her ceiling.
    She
wondered what Daniel was up to. Daniel. She always thought of Daniel whenever
anything related to Carl came to mind. The almost comical ring tone of her
phone went off again, ripping away all thoughts of Daniel. This time she seized
her phone angrily.  
    How
dare he intrude on her life again?  She’d show him. But even as she opened her mouth to shout out abuse
at him, she couldn’t. No words came out. It was as if he had taken away her
ability to speak, simply by being at the other end of the line. She hated this
the most; the almost paralyzing effect he had on her. She had always prided
herself on being feisty and outspoken but meeting Carl had stripped away that
feistiness.
    She
switched her phone off and made up her mind to visit DCI Osborn later on.
     
    Caitlin
turned up at the police station after finishing work later that day. She had
phoned ahead and DCI Osborn was expecting her.
    All
day at work, the two early morning phone calls had bothered her. Each time she
tried to move forward with her life, Carl seemed to find a way to stop her.
    “Hello
Caitlin, you said you had some more information for me? What is it?” DCI Osborn
had a direct approach and she liked that. 
    “I’ve
been getting silent