Page 98 of Cruel Lies

"I know you are." Navi puts a hand on my shoulder, briefly, and takes it away. "I'm just saying it out loud so you know I heard you."

We stand there a while longer. Out in the courtyard, a little girl climbs onto a swing and starts to pump her legs. Another kid runs over to push her. She goes higher and higher. She laughs.

Nobody tells her to make herself smaller.

Good.

We don't talk again until we're back in the car.

Navi pulls into traffic and merges toward the bridge, and for a couple of blocks, it's just the sound of the road under the tires.

Then he glances at me.

"You've got that look on your face," he says. "Thinking about her again?"

"My mother?"

"No. The Bradshaw woman.”

"Meadows," I correct before I can stop myself. "She's going back to Meadows."

Navi barks out a laugh. "Oh, my God. It's worse than I thought."

"Watch the road, asshole."

He shakes his head, delighted. "You are so far gone it's actually a little sad. It's like watching a raccoon get its paw stuck in a jar because it won't let go of what's inside."

I could deny it. I've denied worse to worse men.

But I don't.

"She's remarkable," I say instead.

Navi's grin falters, just for a second, because he expected me to fight him. When I don't, he looks almost worried.

"So it's likethat," he says.

I just clench my teeth and nod once.

He blows out a weary breath. "I told you. Back in the office, remember? I told you not to build a cage that looks like a favor."

"I remember what you told me."

"Do you?"

I look out the window at the city passing us by. I do remember. I remember every word of it.Don't be surprised when she can't tell the difference between you and Todd.That little prophecy has lived in me ever since, a splinter I can't quite dig out.

"The divorce is being handled. She'll keep everything. The house, the kids, the money Todd tried to take. All of it."

"Except the company."

"Which she'll never know is gone, because it'll keep running exactly as it did, with her at the helm, with her name on the door. Nothing changes for her. Nothing at all."

Navi doesn't say anything for a long moment.

"You keep saying that," he says. "Nothing changes.You've said it so many times I think you're trying to convince yourself."

I don't answer.