Chapter 186

My phone continued to ring, and I looked down at the caller ID, unsure of who was calling.

"Who is it?" Lucas asked curiously, peeking over to look at my phone screen.

I shrugged. "I don't know..."

It was as if my intuition was trying to tell me something bad was about to happen.

Everything inside of me was urging me not to pick up the phone. However, there was a part of me that was curious about who was calling.

Ignoring the sudden nervous flutter in my chest, I picked up the call.

"Hello?" I answered cautiously, looking to Lucas for some kind of support.

He kept his eyes on me, letting me know that I had his full attention. He would be there for me no matter what happened.

A voice, stern and official, echoed through the phone, "Hello. Is this Shana?"

My grip tightened around the device as an unexpected chill coursed through me.

Lucas noticed my shift and whispered, "What did they say?"

"They said my name," I told Lucas. He pursed his lips, clearly not happy with that.

"I'm sorry," I spoke into the phone again, gripping it tighter. "But who is this and how do you know my name?"

"Shana, I apologize. I didn't mean to frighten you," the man said. "My name is Officer Ricardo Torrez, I work at the local police department."

My heart began to beat rapidly in my chest. A police officer? Why would a police officer be calling me? Why would he know my name?

My anxiety spiked and I must've had wild eyes because even Grandma Jo voiced her concern.

"Shana, dear, is everything alright?" her voice was gentle as she reached a hand out to comfort me.

"It's the police," I said, fully aware that Officer Torrez could hear me over the line.

"Did you say the police?" Grandma Jo repeated as if she needed me to clarify that it was true. I nodded.

I pulled my phone away from my ear and hit the speaker so that they could hear what Officer Torrez had to say.

"The local police?" Lucas questioned, his brows pulling together. "What for?"

"I don't know," I admitted, just as confused as him. "He hasn't told me what he wants yet."

My thoughts ran wild.

Has my father done something else to get me in trouble with the law? Did this have anything to do with the debt? What if it had come back somehow? What if Kendrick had done something to get me arrested?

A million different possibilities filtered through my head, making me sick with worry.

"Do you think it has anything to do with Kendrick?" I asked Lucas.

He shook his head. "No, my father doesn't like getting involved with law enforcement. He thinks it reflects a poor image on him and the company."

"So, you don't think it has anything to do with the debt?" I asked Lucas, voicing my concerns.

"Shana," Officer Torrez interrupted our conversation, cutting through the tension in the room. "Are you still there?"

My heart raced further, and I felt the weight of everyone's eyes on me— Lucas, Grandma Jo — our shared concern palpable.

The officer's words hung heavily in the air, revealing a grim reality.

"Yes," I cleared my throat of nerves. "I'm still here."

"Could you please explain what's going on? How did you locate my phone number?" I asked Officer Torrez, needing to understand.

"Yes, of course," Officer Torrez said. "Your phone number is on file as an emergency contact for your father."

"My father?" I asked, feeling my breathing stall. "What about my father? Did he get in trouble? Is he in jail?"

"Are you sitting down, ma'am?" Officer Torrez asked. "Are you somewhere safe and quiet?"

Am I sitting down? Am I safe and quiet?

I frowned, looking from Grandma Jo to Lucas. Their faces mirrored the same expression on mine.

What was going on? Why was he asking me that?

Lucas sat up straight, taking my hand in his and giving me a squeeze. It was as if he could sense something bad was about to happen too.

Grandma Jo stood from her spot at the table, holding a hand over her heart.

"Y-yes," I stuttered into the phone, trying to blink away my confusion. "I'm sitting down. I'm fine. I'm sorry, how does that have any relevance to what is going on?"

"We need to make sure that you're in a stable environment before we reveal some... unsettling news," Officer Torrez stated.

"Unsettling news?" I repeated after him. "Can you just tell me what the hell is going on?"

"We're going to need you to come into the police station at your earliest convenience," Officer Torrez continued, his voice grave. "We need you to identify a body."

I froze, the words difficult to process.

I needed to do... what?

"I'm sorry," Lucas interrupted, taking over the phone call. "Identify a body? Whose body does Shana need to come identify? She doesn't have any relatives besides her father."

"That's exactly who we might need her to identify," the police officer said. "A middle-aged man's body was discovered last night, unresponsive at Shana's family home. He was sent to the hospital, but unfortunately, he was declared dead once he arrived. There was nothing they could do to save him."

The news hit me like a sudden, violent storm, leaving devastation in its wake.

A man was found dead at my house. Nobody else lived there besides my father...

Lucas's grip on my hand tightened, his eyes reflecting a mix of concern and empathy. Grandma Jo, her expression mirroring our shock, offered a steady presence amidst the turmoil.

"That's not possible," I said to Officer Torrez. "Nobody else lives at my family home except for my father. How would anyone have even found a body there?"

"We received an anonymous phone call, giving us a hint to go to your family address. Upon arrival, the front door was locked shut. We tried knocking, but there was no answer within the house. We had to break down the door and that's where we discovered the man's body," Officer Torrez explained in a calm manner.

It was hard for me to process the words I was hearing. The police had been called to come to my father's house and check on him?

The truth was right there in front of me, but I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe that the man's body they had found was my father.

He couldn't be dead.

He couldn't be gone.

I just talked to him on the phone the other day and he said he was going to get better. He said he was going to try to be better.

For me. For us. To fix things.

My father wasn't dead... it couldn't be him.

Officer Torrez kept talking over the line, but his voice turned into a faint buzzing. I realized that I had started to dissociate as reality began to sink in.

Oh my God.

The police actually believe that the man they found was my father. They needed my confirmation that it was really him.

And if I identified the man correctly, that would mean that my father... is gone from my life forever.