AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Simon!”
The sound of me screaming into the night had me out of the chair and across the room, desperate to grab the recording device from Nana Kelly’s nimble fingers. We’d made it halfway through the night without her hearing everything, and it needed to stay that way. She’d helped enough, and I refused to have her hear or fix anything.
“Give it here, Nana Kelly. Please,” I begged, grasping the end of the recorder and sitting beside her on the loveseat.
“No. What is this all about? What happened? Is this why you’ve been a walking zombie tonight?” she asked, standing up with graceful agility and slipping out of my grasp. It wasn’t like I would snatch the thing out of a seventy-something-year-old woman’s hands, but she needed to turn it off.
“I trusted you, loved you, and you betrayed me….”
I could hear it in his voice—the rawness. Pain laced with regret. Hopelessness. Anger. It was all laid bare, and my mouth was wide open, sucking in large lungfuls of oxygen like I’d run out if I didn’t breathe deeply enough.
Loved you. Loved you. Loved you.
“Don’t listen. I can’t. Don’t.” I rubbed my knuckles against my chest, shaking my head and wishing she’d press stop. Why wouldn’t she press stop?
“Cet homme stupide,”Nana said, holding the speaker to her ear. Her lips were pressed into a thin line, and a single tear slid down her face as she heard his pain, my pain, and our ending. “That stupid idiot. You must know how much he loves—”
“No, please,” I said, shaking my head so hard the loose bun I stuffed my hair into popped free and swished around my face. I didn’t have the energy to push the hair away. It hung limply in front of my eyes like a veil, hiding me from Nana’s piercing gray stare as I tried to make her understand. “Don’t say that word. I’d finally admitted to myself how much I… I… care about Simon. I’ve never cared about anyone before, and I can’t afford to break down until we finish this.”
Nana looked at Brian, who was engrossed on his laptop, then back to me, her expression somewhere between pity and disgust. Or maybe between anger and frustration. It was clear where Simon got his ability to mask emotions. Nana was a tough nut to crack when she put her mind to it. But just like Simon, her eyes gave her away, swirling with more shades of blue than gray, and flashing with intensity.
“Who else knows what’s going on, Addison?” She tossed the recorder onto the couch and put her hands on her hips.
“Just this room. I’ll call my friends once the story runs. Or maybe in the morning.” I slumped forward onto the couch and picked up the hair tie that had landed beside the recorder, pushing my hair from my face, and pulling it into a high ponytail. I needed Annaleigh, Olivia, and Jenna. Needed to unburden my heart and let them in, but that couldn’t happen until this shit was handled.
I drew my legs to my chest and tapped my heels together, laying my head on my knees to conserve my remaining energy.
“Brian,” Nana called, snapping her fingers and causing him to turn and face her, waiting for instruction. When the lawyer first arrived, I thought fear and money motivated him to be at Nana’s beck and call, but watching the two of them interact, it was clear they shared a special friendship I learned started with Nana’s husband and Brian’s grandfather. The loyalty she inspired was beautiful to witness. “We need to get the ball rolling tonight. Please do whatever you need to on that computer so I can talk to Sally and Livingston. I don’t care what time it is. Livingston deserves to know first anyway, and we both need to make sure he’d been in the dark this whole time.”
Wait. What?
I glanced at my watch to see it was almost two in the morning, then between Brian and Nana, who were absorbed in their new tasks. Nana had pulled out a mirror and lipstick from a pocket in her tracksuit and touched up her face while Brian adjusted the lighting and angle on his laptop and set it up for an impromptu video call. He stood up and held his hand to Nana, who sat down and pushed her glasses further up her nose before pressing call.
It went to voicemail, but she wasn’t deterred. Instead, she clicked dial again and flicked her eyes in my direction. “Brian will see me home after this, but we’re not leaving until you have someone here with you. So I suggest you call your friends or my jackass grandson. Whoever would make you feel better, and hand me the finished copy of the article, please. You’ve sent Brian a copy, right?”
She stretched her hand behind her, and I got up, shuffling to the printer to hand her a copy. She took it with a nod and then leaned closer to the video, checking to make sure there wasn’t any lipstick on her teeth, when a lady with curlers in her hair wearing a green silk robe answered the call, adjusting her glasses to glare into the screen.
“Who died, Elizabeth?” the lady asked, holding the phone close enough to her face we could count each eyelash. “I’m not wearing my face, and you’re video calling me at some early hour in the morning? What in heaven’s name is going on?”
“Hopefully, just the end of two men’s careers. Could you wake up Livingston? We have a problem.”
“I’m awake, Liz,” a gruff voice called, waving his hand in front of the screen. “What the hell’s going on?”
“I have Brian Calloway here with me, Livingston, and we need to talk to you about one of your professors.”
“Calloway’s with you? Hand me the phone, please, sweetheart,” Livingston said as his large frame filled the screen, wiry white hair sticking up in all directions.
I kept my ears on the conversation as I took my phone out, pulling up the group message thread and reading through all the missed messages, hating how far behind I’d gotten in their lives. Olivia’s baby shower was coming up, and Annaleigh still needed help training for the Turkey Trot and had asked several times for ideas on redecorating the bar. Jenna’s clinic and rescue were expanding faster than she expected and needed volunteers and help planning fundraisers. I felt guilty but then remembered we’d all struggled and made it through because we did it together.
Me: I know it’s late. Is anyone awake?
Olivia: I’m dipping Oreos in peanut butter in bed and watching Murder She Wrote. What’s cooking good-looking?
Annaleigh: I own a bar now, remember?
Jenna: Mark’s working weird hours and got home about a half-hour ago. I can’t sleep without being curled around him like a kitten.
Me: I need y’all.
