Page 23 of Love At Peace

She narrowed her eyes. “That’s none of your business.”

“You live up there?” Marty asked, pointing at the landing with the two apartments.

“Well, my boyfriend lived in that one,” she said, matter of fact.

I stared at the door to the place where David had recently rented.

Her boyfriend.

Nevaeh and David.

It’s true.

I felt my gut drop. It was sucker-punch of an impact.

I let out a breath of shock, but I shouldn’t have been surprised. Heather already told me that Nevaeh and David were together. I’d almost completely discounted it because she’d believed it based on nothing more than a rumor, but now I was hearing it directly from the source.

“And my boyfriend has never done anything wrong,” Nevaeh insisted.

Heather coughed, or maybe it was the sound of her choking on air.

“Why would Eric be seeing him here?” Marty asked, trying to keep the focus on why we’d shown up here at all.

“How the hell should I know?” Nevaeh snapped. “He must have been snooping around here or something. Breaking in, maybe. Jerry let the apartment stay unlocked while things were moved.”

“You’ve been dating that asshole?” I demanded.

Nevaeh glanced at me with such annoyance that I felt like I’d explode. Like I was a moron to want to know that. As if I was incorrect in my perception of David and I was in the wrong to disapprove of him and her dating him.

“It’s none of your business,” she reminded me curtly, sticking with her secretiveness. “But yes. I am.” She smiled smugly, proud of the fact that she was hooking up with the man who had given Heather the incentive to move away and run back home here.

No more rumors.

No more guessing and wondering.

She’d confirmed it herself. It was a fact.

No wonder Heather wants to be as far away as possible from me.

She was right to assume I was too close to the cause of her danger and threats—whatever they actually were.

“And I think it’s bullshit that you’re all here, acting like you’ve got any right to be trespassing and poking around here.” She set her hands on her hips and lifted her chin higher, giving no indication of calming from this overreaction to us in the basement near her supposed home.

Chapter 9

Heather

He’s never done anything wrong?

I stared at the rebellious teenager, knowing how far from the truth that comment was.

David was no angel. He wasn’t a good-hearted man. He wasn’t even half of a decent person. No one could claim to be “good” when they did the kinds of things he did to me. Anyone capable of inflicting that brand of mental warfare on another was inherently very bad.

The fact that Nevaeh spoke in David’s defense proved that she was with him. I hadn’t just heard it as a rumor. It wasn’t just secondhand information that I’d obtained as gossip. The proof of Nevaeh and David being a couple was demonstrated, right here before my eyes. There was no way to argue that this young woman was with my ex based on the extent that she would defend his supposed honor.

It wasn’t a delusion.

She really believed that David could do no wrong, and I knew exactly how she would come to such a conclusion.