Page 66 of Married to Lies

The server came back with two plates of French toast and bacon, but we left it untouched as I continued my story.

“Well, one day my parents had an anniversary dinner, and I wanted to go and show them how successful I was. While my brother was living like a pauper on residency wages, I had money to burn. My roommate told me to go; she was fine. She could do it on her own. But I knew she wasn’t doing well. She wasn’t sleeping. There were circles around her eyes...” I shook my head like that would remove the memory of her haunted look still fresh in my mind all these years later.

Jada squeezed my hand.

“I went to the anniversary party, and my parents accused me of using credit cards to pay for the expensive gift I got them. They wouldn’t accept it.” The memory made my stomach turn. “The next morning, I got a call from the business.” I squeezed my eyes shut, but tears leaked out anyway. “My roommate had been found dead in an office, inhaled a mixture of bleach and ammonia.”

“Oh, Rei,” Jada breathed. “I’m so sorry...”

That wasn’t the end of the torment, though. “When her family found out how she died, they blamed me. They wanted me to use my business insurance to pay for her funeral and their loss, but the problem was, I didn’t have insurance.” I shook my head at myself. “I didn’t even know you needed that. They could have sued me personally, but they knew I didn’t have the kind of money that would change their life. The business we were cleaning for though... They sued him for everything under the sun. My friend’s husband. My advisor. The guy who’d given me my ‘lucky break.’” The words were bitter on my tongue.

I took in a shuddering breath.

“It was all over the news,” I said. “The families quit working with me once they found out, which meant all those girls working for me lost their jobs. One of them even had to drop out of college because she couldn’t find another job soon enough.” Bitter tears fell, wondering what happened to her. She’d wanted so badly to be a journalist.

“My mentor? He lost his business in the lawsuit because her family refused to settle and he couldn’t afford the legal fees. And if the news coverage wasn’t bad enough, he told me he would let everyone know never to work with Andrea Kelly.”

“Andrea Kelly?” Jada asked. Then her eyes flew open with understanding. “Rei Li.”

I nodded. “I had my name changed after the ordeal because I couldn’t get a job. Everyone Googled my name and found my past.” I shook my head.

“You’re a survivor for sure...” Jada breathed, her hand still on my knee. Gratitude for her presence overwhelmed me. She wasn’t running away from my problems, and that made my story keep pouring from my lips, the first time I’d told it from start to finish.

“I was evicted from my apartment because I couldn’t pay rent. Had to move back home. My parents were so ashamed of me. I was a college dropout with no job and headlines marring their last name.”

“That’s not fair,” Jada said with a deep frown. “Your family’s supposed to be there for you no matter what.”

“To them, letting me live in my bedroom was being there for me.” I sighed. My parents always made sure my physical needs were met, and it felt wrong to be ungrateful even if I needed more from them.

She rubbed my back like she was reminding me I still had a friend, and I had to take a shuddering breath not to cry.

Jada shook her head in disbelief. “I remember hearing about that on the news, but I had no idea it was you. I’m so sorry you went through that.”

I took in a shuddering breath and wiped away tears that had fallen. The truth was still heavy, but I felt lighter having shared it with someone else, albeit completely spent.

“I’m sorry I kept it from you, but there’s no good way to say you have a death on your hands and put yourself in the witness protection program just to have a life.”

“Sometimes it’s hard to say things out loud because it makes it more real,” Jada said. I wondered if she was talking from experience, but maybe I’d never know. “And still, after all you went through, look at you now. You own a company, one that works for the biggest business in Dallas. How?”

I twisted my lips to the side, thinking back to that time. “I was working at a fast-food place and hating it. The bosses were terrible to the employees, and I kept thinking I could do better. Then one day an old friend from college came in to eat. I took my break to catch up with him. He told me he wasn’t getting any gigs as an actor and needed something to do, and I had this idea that he could be the face of a company. One that I ran the right way this time with everything I’d learned.”

Jada nodded like that was understandable. “So you did the heavy lifting, and he acted like the man in charge? Typical.”

I chuckled wryly. “Pretty much. It was so easy for Conrad to negotiate contracts and get clients. He just showed up as an overconfident white man and people wanted to work with him. They didn’t try to whittle down his prices like customers used to with me or question his work ethic. I used those early deposits to get business insurance, safety trainings, ultra-safe cleaning materials... and it’s been a success so far.” The words tasted bitter on my tongue because it felt like I was on the verge of losing it all, yet again.

“Wow... Does Quentin know?” she asked.

“He knows I own the business,” I said. “Not all that stuff. I’m worried if I tell him, he’ll think contracting with my company is too big a liability.”

She bit down on her lip, and I knew she was holding back her thoughts. “Tell me,” I said.

She looked down at her plate, picking up her fork to cut half-heartedly at her food. “Keeping my pregnancy from Bryce is one of my biggest regrets.” She set her fork down, blinking quickly. “I wanted to keep it from him until I had the contract signed guaranteeing my baby would be taken care of.”

My stomach knotted with how much I related to her.

“But Bryce is a good man,” Jada continued. “He saw Twyla as a blessing, not a liability.”

My throat got tight because that’s exactly how I saw myself right now. A liability. It was easy to love an innocent little baby, especially one as precious as my goddaughter. Much harder was committing to a woman with scars etched into her past and ties to a mysteriously vengeful man. “I can’t help thinking Quentin wouldn’t marry me if he knew it all.”