Page 64 of Married to Lies

The guard eyed me. “You been drinking?”

I reached into my pocket and pulled out a couple of bills. “No.” I slid them across the counter.

After pocketing the money, he clicked on his computer with all the boredom of someone settled in for a long night shift and then said, “Password.”

I rattled off the string of numbers memorized from the group chat, and the guard replied, “Follow the blue line to the elevator. Second floor.”

Each step closer to the elevator, closer to Simon’s room, felt like one taken through thick, wet cement. My chest got tighter, fingers clenched and unclenched at my sides with the build of adrenaline.

I pressed the elevator button and read the guide, seeing it was just a regular room, not the intermediate care unit like he’d been in before. That had to be a good sign.

Feeling more confident, I walked to his room number. I half expected him to be asleep already, but at the door, I heard... the sound of conversation coming from inside.

“Remember that vacation we took to Spain?” one person said, and I recognized the voice instantly. I froze in the doorway, listening to hear what came next.

Simon’s raspy voice responded, “I’m surprised you remember it. You were on your phone the entire time.”

“Taking pictures for social media!” she defended with a laugh. “How would I remember the trip happened if I don’t have the proof?”

It was the first time I’d heard a pleasant conversation between Aleyna and Simon without an angle or argument. Was this an act? And who was the act for? Everyone else? Or Simon?

“I wish I’d taken more pictures,” Simon responded sadly. “Remembered more.”

“Well that’s okay because I have enough for both of us.” Her voice was teasing before she paused. “Let me see… Here’s the album.”

There was a tenderness to Simon’s tone as he said, “That’s a good one of you and your brothers.”

Conflicting feelings rose up in my chest, and I had to get away. On swaying legs, I turned and walked away from Simon’s door.

He was already with his family.

29 Rei

I was so exhausted from wedding planning, that I asked Jada if we could meet the next morning instead. Perhaps at Golden Café so we could get the best French toast in the world. She happily agreed and said she’d bring Bryce’s card to get us in.

When Jada and I first met, she was a work friend. Someone to chat with between tasks while drinking our favorite beverages in the Caf. We’d joke about Dominic’s flirtatious ways, bitch about work, and laugh over stories of her sassy Glamma.

I’d been so guarded since the incident that Jada became my first real friend in years. Sure, I could small-talk with the best of them, but I never let anyone in. Jada was different.

I didn’t want to lose her friendship, but that’s the direction we were heading if we couldn’t be honest with each other. It was time for me to stop keeping secrets from her and come clean with everything I’d been hiding. Everything I’d been running from.

My heart beat quickly with nerves as I pulled up to the café and gave my keys to the valet. While waiting, I kept my big sunglasses on to hide my face. The paparazzi, unable to figure out who I was, grew bored quickly and only snapped a few photos.

They quickly grew to a frenzy, though, as the famous singer Hayden French walked in with his supermodel wife, Felicity Reynolds, and a toddler holding both their hands.

It took every ounce of my willpower to keep from fangirling at the man whose poster used to hang on my wall and beg him for an autograph. He might have had crow’s feet and gray coming in at his temples, but a girl never forgets her first celebrity crush. Pretty sure all the magazines he was featured in started my pop culture obsession.

The little family smiled at the paparazzi and their flashing cameras like they were practicing to be that photo that comes with store-bought picture frames.

“Hayden, when’s your next album coming?” one guy called out while holding up a video camera.

Hayden flashed an easy smile, teeth blindingly white, and scooped up his toddler. “When this guy can hold a tune, we’ll do one together!”

More shouted questions came while the couple and child walked into the restaurant. I stared after them in disbelief that I was part of this world now in some small way. Teenage me would have fainted if she knew.

“Rei!” Jada called. I pried my eyes away from the view of Hayden through the window and followed the sound of her voice. She approached me from the valet line, looking incredible in a matching burnt orange set with wide-leg pants and a slouchy cable-knit sweater.

In that moment, we weren’t just two women caught up in a crazy world of secrets and lies—we were best friends. She was a mom out of the house for the first time since giving birth. “MILF alert!” I called out before running to hug her.