Woman with square earrings

Claire and Timothy have been married for several years, and they have a lovely child. Timothy is a book lover, and even the choice of vacation destination is because of the world's latest book fair. Sometimes Claire feels too accommodating to her husband, but her husband's obsession with his hobbies was one of the reasons that attracted her in the first place.

　　On this day, Claire was sorting out family photo albums at home. She spread out all the photo albums that the two have known each other since then and placed them on the living room floor. Looking at it, I suddenly realized something was wrong: there was a photo of her and her children having breakfast on the balcony of a Cyprus hotel, which was taken by Timothy. Claire found standing behind her a blond woman with a ponytail and a pair of gold square earrings. This woman looked familiar, as if she had seen it somewhere.

　　Claire turned back another page, and it was Timothy reading "Ulysses" on a recliner by the pool. In the pool behind him, there was also the blond woman. Claire found another of her and her husband's earliest photo albums, turned a few pages, and there was a photo of her and Timothy in front of Cambridge University. Next to them was a woman with a ponytail with her back to the camera, and her ears were still those gold earrings, square!

　　"It's a coincidence," Claire said to herself, "there must be more than one blond woman wearing earrings like this."

　　But curiosity made Claire continue to look for clues in past photos: she turned her eyes to the bookshelf, where there was a family photo of a family of three, which was taken by a passerby. They were in the courtyard of a country hotel outside Edinburgh at the time, and Timothy was going to the Edinburgh Book Festival. In the courtyard where they were standing, in front of a window, it was clear that the blond woman had reappeared. Can't go wrong, it was the woman, wearing square earrings.

　　To say this is a coincidence would be astonishing.

　　Claire couldn't help but call Timothy and tell him the bizarre thing.

　　Timothy rubbed his hands and said, "Oh my God!" He followed his wife and took out the other albums to look through. Counting, in each album, at least 9 to 10 photos have the woman in them.

　　"It can't be a coincidence." Timothy's thin lips turned pale, "Is she following us? This is too scary!"

　　Claire shook her head. "But she never hurt us, and she never attracted our attention. She didn't stare at us in all the photos, and she didn't seem to realize our existence."

　　Timothy "snorted" contemptuously: "As soon as she saw the camera, she pretended to be innocent, didn't she? That's why we didn't find her until now."

　　"Honey, are you sure you don't know her?" Claire suddenly thought of a possibility: Is that woman an affair with her husband, or a paranoid ex-girlfriend? This seems to make sense.

　　But Timothy denied it: "Of course I'm sure, I don't know her."

　　Claire was a little skeptical, and Timothy denied it too quickly, with a taste of concealment.

　　Seeing Claire staring at him, Timothy swore a poisonous oath: "I swear on the lives of our children: I have never slept with this woman, or even spoken to her!" Now, Claire believed, a A man will not swear by his own children casually.

　　At this time, Timothy looked up at the clock and said to his wife, "I have to take the kids to grandma's house and come back in half an hour." He paused, then comforted, "Claire, don't worry, it'll be fine."

　　Claire was about to cry: "I want to call the police, I'm so scared."

　　Timothy frowned: "Okay, let's talk about it when I get back from delivering the child." Then, he left with the child.

　　After her husband left, Claire looked through all the pictures again. On the boat, in the park, on the canal trail, she saw the blond woman with the square earrings again and again. Who is she? Why is she following us? For now, the only clues are photo albums. Claire knew that stalking must be illegal, but the prerequisite was to strike up a conversation with the person being followed.

　　And the woman in the square earrings was so unobtrusive that they might never have noticed if it wasn't for Claire's accidental discovery. Even if the police were called, what would the police say? This woman, who hasn't been spotted in all these years, feels more like a ghost than a criminal.

　　Claire flipped through the photos one after another, and suddenly, in one photo, she found the blond woman sitting next to her at the bar in the bar. Since Timothy has a habit of annotating each photo, Claire saw that the photo was taken in Cheltenham, where she and her husband went to a literary festival seven years ago.

The blond woman held a book in her hand, and Claire narrowed her eyes to see the title: "Octopus Hideout". Claire was shocked. Timothy had bought this novel before, and he had recommended it to Claire, but she didn't like it.

　　Claire closed the photo album with a "snap", forcing herself to calm down. Seven years ago, the blonde was in a bar with a novel that Timothy had fallen for, and it was a connection. Claire was excited, and she thought she had found an important clue. Strangely, she rummaged through all the bookshelves in the house, but found no book "Octopus Hideout". Claire rushed into the study, turned on her computer, and checked to see if "Octopus Hideout" was available at Amazon's online bookstore. She wanted to know who the author was and what he wrote. Although it may be useless, she still wanted to check.

　　According to Amazon's bookstore, the author of this book is named K. V. Hammond. Sales of the book are extremely low, and it can be said that no one cares about it. Claire typed "K. V. Hammond" into the search engine again, and the first search result was the author's personal blog.

　　On the front page of the blog is a photo of Hammond: a blue sky, a tree, a straw hat, blond hair, and a pair of square gold earrings! Claire took a deep breath, and the identity of the woman wearing the square earrings was revealed. It was Hammond, the author of "Octopus Hideout".

　　Fear and excitement stirred up in Claire. With these clues, it seems confident to call the police now. Claire grabbed the phone and called the police, saying she wanted to report a stalker, and she had evidence. The woman who spoke to Claire said she would send the police as soon as possible.

　　After hanging up the phone, Claire continued to look for clues from the blog. Hammond wrote in her latest blog that she will be on vacation to Sicily early next year. Claire was stunned because she and Timothy are going to Sicily early next year too!

　　Claire rummaged through the drawers of Timothy's study and couldn't find any receipts for Timothy's travel reservations. This is so strange, Timothy usually keeps things in order. Suddenly, Claire remembered that Timothy still has a very broken filing cabinet in the garage, but Claire almost never goes to the garage, so I didn't think about it just now.

　　Claire hurried to the garage, hoping to show the police vacation profiles and Hammond's blog when they arrived.

　　In the garage, the cabinet was unlocked. Claire opened the first drawer, let out a scream, and stared dumbfounded at what was inside: there were dozens of books inside, titled "The Octopus Hideout," each with an octopus on the cover. There are various translations, various versions: hardcover, paperback, hardcover-sized paperback... This is all quietly collected by Timothy, who turned out to be Hammond's "brain-dead fan"! Claire nodded with trembling hands and exclaimed: "Oh my God, there are 52 copies in total."

　　"Hey, what are you doing..." Timothy came to the garage door at some point.

　　Claire jumped up in horror and looked at her husband. She couldn't help but ask, "What is your relationship with Hammond?"

　　Timothy explained incoherently: "I, I just love her novels, I can't help but want to meet her, but I've never spoken to her, never. She doesn't even know I exist."

　　At this moment, the doorbell rang and the police came. Claire felt her head "buzzing": now, she knew who the stalker was, but what should she tell the police?