Stolen Identity: Mute Heiress

Chapter 313: Go Live

The room was quiet when Genevieve opened her eyes. For a moment she didn’t know where she was. She blinked a few times and slowly sat up.

Then she remembered she was in Stefan’s apartment. She remembered the hospital and everything.

Her chest felt heavy again for a moment, but she took a slow breath and looked around the room. The room was neat and well organized just like the living room had been.

What she didn’t remember was coming into the bedroom. She remembered feeling too tired to leave the couch. Did Stefan bring her here? Or did she sleepwalk? She mused.

Where was Stefan? She wondered as she got off the bed. She reached for her handbag on the dressing table and took out her phone to check what time it was.

She paused when she saw she had two texts and several missed calls from Stefan. She tapped on the first text which had been sent three hours ago.

> Stefan: Didn’t want to disturb you. I had to leave early for work. Call me when you wake up.

She winced when she saw it was midday already. He must have been waiting for her call all morning.

She clicked on the second text.

> Stefan: I take it you’re yet to call or take my call because you’re still sleeping. Should I have lunch delivered to you instead? If you don’t call me before 1 p.m., I’m going to be very worried. You don’t want me to lose my job, do you?

She smiled softly as she sat on the vanity stool, and dialed his number.

He picked up on the second ring. "Finally!" The relief in his voice was obvious.

"Sorry," she said softly, her voice still rough from sleep. "I just saw your message. Sorry, I didn’t mean to sleep off that way last night."

"Don’t be sorry," he said. "You were exhausted. You needed it. I’d have slept all day myself if I didn’t have to get to the office."

"Thanks for understanding," she murmured, her hand brushing her hair back. "How’s your day going?"

"Busy but not bad. "Your sandwich in the fridge. You can heat it up when you’re ready. There’s orange and pineapple juice too. And there’s coffee."

She smiled faintly. "Thank you."

"Don’t thank me. If you need to go out, there is a car key on the coffee table," he added.

"Oh, no," she said quickly. "I don’t plan to go anywhere without you. I don’t know where to go, honestly. I just want to wait until I hear from the Hanks before I do anything."

"You could just drive around and sightsee. That’s not a crime," Stefan said, his tone gentle.

"I’ll rather be indoors," she insisted.

"Alright. You can rest then. Or watch the TV if you get bored. I’ll grab dinner on my way home, alright?"

"Alright," she said quietly. "Drive safe."

"I will. Talk to you later, Viv."

Genevieve set the phone down when the call ended and sat there for a moment, just listening to the silence in the apartment. It felt strange, peaceful, but also lonely. She missed him.

Not wanting to be idle, she walked out of the room and began to walk around the apartment.

The kitchen was spotless, not a single plate out of place. The smell of fresh coffee still lingered faintly in the air. She smiled when she saw the neat sandwich wrapped in foil in the fridge. Stefan’s handwriting on a small sticky note said "Heat me up, sleepyhead."

She laughed softly under her breath.

After checking the fridge, she wandered toward the other room.

When she reached Stefan’s bedroom, she paused at the door. She didn’t mean to pry, but curiosity got the better of her. She stepped inside.

The room looked exactly like she imagined his room would be. The decor was masculine and the place was neat. The scent of his cologne still hung in the air. His bed was neatly made, his books stacked in clean rows on a shelf. In one corner stood a set of gym equipment— a treadmill, dumbbells, a bench, and a yoga mat rolled neatly beside them.

She smiled. "Of course," she whispered.

His body was toned so she knew he worked out a lot.

Satisfied, she returned to the guest room. After a warm shower, she changed into a soft T-shirt and shorts.

Although she didn’t have much of an appetite, she heat up the sandwich and sat to eat. The first bite felt better than she expected. She hadn’t realized how hungry she was.

But as she chewed, her mind drifted back to the hospital, to Ryan, to the look on his face before everything went dark. She pushed the thought away and focused on her food.

When she was done, she sat still for a long time, tapping her finger lightly on the table as she thought about the situation and tried to figure out how to make things right.

Just as the quietness around her started to weigh on her mind again, an idea came to her, so sudden that she sat up straight.

Immediately she hurried to the bedroom to look at her reflection in the mirror once again to be sure she looked okay.

As she did that, she paused when it occurred to her that her father had been so determined to expose and punish her that when he made his confessional video, he’d not bothered to use a picture of her disguised as Dawn. Instead he’d taken the most recent of her leaving the house that morning before her trip with Stefan.

"You’re such a selfish bastard, Dad!" She muttered with tears in her eyes and angrily swiped them away.

Pushing everything else out of her mind, she went to open the window to let light into the bedroom. Then she picked up her phone and unlocked it. Her heart began to race a little as she sat on the bed.

Maybe she couldn’t control everything that had happened. But she could tell the truth that her father refused to tell. She would come clean and face whatever consequences that came as long as it helped Dawn get her closure.

She opened Instagram. Her finger hovered for a second, then she pressed "Go Live."

Her face appeared on the screen, and the late morning light bathed her.

It was as though lots of people had been waiting for her to come online because lots of little hearts began to float up the screen as people joined the live.

Genevieve took a deep breath and looked straight into the camera.

"Hi everyone," she said softly. "It’s been a while."