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Lana blinks at me. “I don’t pity you. It takes a very strong person to do something like that, a very brave person. I can see what Caleb sees in you.”
I stare at the last part. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
She blinks. “Well, he did seek you out.”
“What?” Her words make no sense to me. “My resume was sent to him.”
Lana’s lips part in understanding. “Oh shit, you don’t know.”
“Don’t know what?” I ask in a low voice.
She looks uncertain.
I press on deliberately, “Lana, you say that you want to be my friend and yet, you’re telling me something which sounds exceedingly disturbing.”
“It’s not like that,” Lana immediately says, gesturing with her hands. “It’s just—fuck. Look, I don’t think I’m supposed to be telling you any of this.”
“Please tell me.” I grit my teeth, something settling in the back of my mind.
I can tell that she’s already regretting this, but she’s cornered herself and there’s no way out. “He’s been looking for you for a few years now. When he came to the Capital, he found out that you were here. And then he took over this firm and I was told to hire you. That’s all I know. That’s why I was so wary of you. I thought you were somebody who planned to take his money or take advantage of him with the way he was lavishing you with an apartment. All those clothes, access to his private accounts.”
My heart is in my throat, and suddenly I feel boxed in, and I stammer out, “B-but why? I’ve n-never met him ‘til now!”
Lana meets my gaze, her voice solemn. “He said he owed you a debt he could never repay.” She looks worried. “Kendall, you cannot tell him I told you. I thought that whatever it was between the two of you had been worked out.”
‘It’s not what you think, Kendall.’ I recall Caleb’s words from a few days ago, when I had confronted him in his apartment. I remember the way he held me in his arms, bringing me out of my panic attack. “I don’t understand,” I mumble.
“Kendall?” Lana gives me a pleading look. “Please don’t tell him I told you.”
I take a shuddering breath and reply, “I won’t. Thank you, though.”
I stay for a few hours longer in the office that night, my laptop closed, a million thoughts racing my mind, and it’s pretty late when I finally return home.
Scenarios of confronting Caleb play by the hundreds in my mind during the night but when I walk into the office the next day, tired from the lack of sleep, one look at his closed door has me realizing that there is no way I can confront him without revealing Lana’s role in this.
And besides, what exactly am I supposed to say to him?
Caleb has a meeting across town today, so he’ll be in late. That gives me plenty of time to mentally prepare myself to face him.
The practical part of me warns me to keep my mouth shut. For whatever reason Caleb has dropped this job in my lap, I am financially stable, doing a job that I actually like and am quite good at.
I could put all of that at risk if I even think of getting in his face.
After all, isn’t that why I’ve steeled myself from his advances, mild as they may be?
Not that it matters, I think bitterly, playing with the small fidget cube that Lucas had left here and that I keep hiding every time he drops by. Caleb seems to have moved on with someone far more suited to him.
I sneer at the thought of the stunning blonde who had waltzed in here yesterday, like she owned the office.
And then, the words he snarled at Lucas, the way he reacted to Lucas’ taunt.
My head is spinning, and I feel agitated, not knowing what to do.
I haven’t had the opportunity to talk to Tracy since she was asleep when I got back and gone when I woke up.
There is still the matter of this debt that Lana says that Caleb thinks he owes me.
I’ve never met him.
