Page 37 of Hacking His Code

“She did a great job of making herself less than interesting,” he says nonchalantly.

“Gee, thanks.”

He cocks a brow. “You sound bitter.”

“It’s just all this is very interesting to me,” I say, not wanting to confess how painfully less than interesting my own life is.

“Sometimes I wonder if she wasn’t just jealous of my mother and her ability to navigate social situations,” Hunter says carelessly.

“Of course, all the computer nerds long to be the prom queen.” I roll my eyes to emphasize my distaste for his opinion.

He clears his throat, and a heavy silence falls between us. It’s stupid that I got offended because what he said is so blatantly obvious. Lucy was a lonely workaholic that couldn’t confess her feelings to the man she loved.

And yet, she banged both her personal trainers and joined at least one sex club.

I force myself to look at Hunter. “It’s…fine. I was just being silly.”

“And I, rude.”

“You know, your aunt was kind of an enigma.” I hand the journal to him. “Her love forhim, whoeverhimwas, was so innocent, and yet her exploits with her trainers certainly weren’t.”

“Yeah, not everything always aligned perfectly with my aunt. Theories have been tossed around, claiming she may have had some kind of mental illness, a split personality, but I choose to believe that she separated love from lust.”

“Separated love from lust?”

“Yeah, the personal trainers and whoever else she laid with never meant anything to her, buthim, who is some guy from accounting, did.”

“You know who he was?”

“He was married with a kid on the way when she disappeared. He was never really a suspect, and he had no clue she had feelings for him.”

“How did they figure out it was him?”

“It was one of the few things she confided in my mother.”

I scrunch my brow. “You know, she never really mentions Ernestine much in her journals.”

“They were from two different worlds, and despite their similar DNA, the only thing that really connected them was my father.”

“It’s funny how they were so opposite despite being twins.”

“Ya know, the biggest difference I’ve discovered was that one was introverted, the other, extroverted.”

“Yeah, one a computer scientist, the other, a Hollywood legend.”

“Believe it or not, my mother knew her way around computers, and Lucy was known to act before she decided it wasn’t for her.”

His hand grazed mine, the sudden contact making me tense and pull away.

Then, I see the picture in his hand.

“Sorry, I was just trying to hand you this.”

“Oh.” I take it from him, my movements awkward and jerky.

The picture is of Ernestine and Lucy at about ten years old, acting in a play.

“They did theater and computer classes together and were said to be equally good at each.”