AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Layne scoffed at how she had been so blind to it all. “What about me? How much have you told them?” She was starting to downward spiral at all the things that could have been shared about her professional or even personal life.
He stepped up to her, his hands holding onto her face as he pressed his forehead to hers. “No, you stop right there. The only things I shared about you were irrelevant and only related to other cases. They’ve got nothing on you, I kept everything about you to myself.”
Her eyes gazed up into his. “Liam? My dad?”
“Some stuff, but nothing solid they can stand on.” He spoke like it was all no big deal.
“God, I trusted you! My dad trusted you!” Her temper rearing its vicious head. She pulled her face back from his hands, and he let her as his hands fell back down to his sides.
“Layney, I didn’t have any other choice.” His words were supposed to be reassuring, but they did little to settle Layne down.
Not to mention, his using her nickname suddenly did little to calm her. “Don’t ‘Layney’ me, that’s bullshit. There is always another choice!”
He ran his fingers through his sandy-colored hair in desperation to find a way to make things right with her. She walked over to her front door and flung it open. “Leave.” When he didn’t immediately walk out the door she raised her voice. “Get out!”
A look of defeat washed over his face as he joined her at the front door. “I’m so sorry.” He leaned in to give her one of the most tender kisses she had ever felt from him. It was full of bittersweet affection, and every fiber of her being was screaming at her to cave into the delicious addiction that he was.
It bordered on painful to pull her mouth back from his. “If I ever see you again, I will fucking shoot you myself. Get out and stay out.” She averted her eyes from him as she waited for him to get the hell out of her home.
He backed away from her and took his sullen leave. Layne didn’t hesitate to slam the door shut behind him. She pressed her back against the closed door and looked up at the ceiling trying to process the whirlwind of emotions flooding her body.
Layne pushed away from the door and screamed out in frustration, her hands swiping her purse and today’s mail off of the table in the foyer. Her purse’s contents spilled out across the floor scattering in various directions. Her hot tears relentlessly rolled down her cheeks at his betrayal, at seeing him leave, at him never knowing what else was going on behind the curtain.
She slid down to the floor onto her knees, sobs being choked out while she picked up the mess she created one item at a time. Her hands trembled as she pulled the last item up off the floor. Layne stared at the lab and biopsy results that one of her associates was able to hack from the hospital system before crumpling them up in her hand.
Life was going to get a hell of a lot messier.
EPILOGUE
Six months later
It seemed cruel that this was taking place on such a beautiful day, full of sunshine that beat down on the perfectly manicured lawn that seemed to expand off into the distance forever.
Headstones of various sizes and colors were planted every few feet around them. The vibrant colors of the flowers cluttering the ground in front of them were far too cheerful to be considered appropriate. The birds in the sky were even singing their cheerful songs without regard. All of it just seemed wrong. Today should have been as dark as her thoughts were.
Layne stood there, falling victim to the storm of her thoughts instead of listening to the priest standing over the gleaming red oak casket. A sea of people with tissues in their hands stood around the open plot. She wondered how many of them truly cared, and how many simply came to solicit some juicy gossip.
Being here was all about putting on a brave face and all that political bullshit. She felt nothing but fury and chaos deep within her soul. She wanted to cave to the darkness spreading throughout her. She was regretting every choice that led up to this point, right down to the shoes she had chosen this morning.
When she looked up once more, all the attendees were slowly dispersing to return to their vehicles. Murmurs of condolences spoken to her as they passed by.
If she never heard another “I’m sorry” in her lifetime, it still would be one too many. Each expression of sympathy added fuel to the fiery anger being pent up inside of her.
Her legs felt stiff from standing still for such a lengthy amount of time, the bottoms of her feet pleading for relief from the heels she had chosen, and all the muscles along the back of her spine up to the back of her head in knots from the tension in her body. Her eyes were dry and tired. Layne’s jaw ached from being clenched so that she didn’t unleash the venom she wanted to spew.
Time passed slowly while she stood there, and yet before she knew it, everyone had left to return to their regularly scheduled lives. Layne felt a hand rest on her lower back as a voice spoke to her the way you would speak to a predator who could strike to kill at any sudden sight or sound.
“There was nothing you could have done. You have to know that.” He assured her.
She didn’t buy that. “There was everything that I could have done.”
“Let him go. He’d want that.”
She squeezed her eyes shut again, finding darkness behind her closed lids.
Silently, she made a vow at that moment that things were going to change.
