Page 55 of The Bitter Words

I have my hand on the doorknob, but I can’t find the courage to open it.

How can I look her in the eye? How could I do this to her?

My intestines knot. Someone knocks, causing me to jump.

“Callum, do you need anything?” she asks.

I open the door in a cold sweat. “Yeah. I need to get home.”

“You’re pale.” She places her palm on my forehead. “You don’t have a fever, so that’s good.”

“I’m fine. Let’s find Guns and get out of here.”

“It’s eight in the morning. He might not be here anymore.”

“He’s our ride.” I glance at the clock. “He wouldn’t leave us. Not without telling us.”

“You’re right. He’s probably in a room fucking someone.” She strolls toward the door.

My insides wrench down with the thought of sex. I trudge behind her as bile churns in my guts.

She stops mid-stride. “What is that?”

“What?”

“That.” She points to something.

I follow her trail and a shiny object is lying on the floor beneath the table near the couch. “I don’t know. Does it matter?”

She doesn’t answer. She just marches to it and picks it up.

From her fingers dangles a necklace made of white gold with a pendant of an Irish trinity knot and a black onyx placed in the center of it.

A sliver of a memory of it hitting my chin as Liviannabounced up and down on my dick flashes on the screen of my mind.

Before I know what I’m doing, I repeat it. “You were wearing that last night.”

“No, I wasn’t.” She cups it in her hand. “How did this get in here?”

The muscles over my ribs tighten. “I don’t know. I swear you had it on.”

“Callum, this is the necklace you gave that bitch, Zara.” Livianna stomps over to me. “Was she in here before I found you?”

“No! I was with Leon. Nobody else was with us.”

“Then explain how this got here. I saw it on her last night when I was talking to her.”

“Why were you speaking to her? You hate her.”

“She got in my face and was taunting me about you.”

I hook onto that information and do something I never thought I’d do. I formulate my lie.

“That explains everything, Lily.”

“How?”

“We passed out last night. She must have come in here and planted it.”