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“He, uh, said he had a work emergency. He left. But he said he was really proud of you.” He hadn’t, but it was true, and I wanted to lessen the blow when she realized he had gone. I cleared my throat, avoiding Juliet’s questioning look. “Wanna give me a tour of your work, Thora?”
Thora drew her eyebrows together and bit her lower lip. The last thing I wanted to do was ruin her night. I didn’t know for sure if she was in on Cian’s skeezy plan, but I doubted it. It would have to be a conversation for a different day.
Thora walked us around and went into great detail about each of her pieces and what they meant to her. Her work was exceptional. She put my little doodles to shame. Juliet and I conspired to buy one, and when I realized I still had the credit card Ryzen had given me, we bought the most expensive one. It was an array of pinks, purples and grays with swirls and hills that somehow managed to look extremely erotic. It was perfect for our new office.
We stayed for another hour and grabbed an Uber home. I shook my head when Juliet tried to ask about what happened and told her I would explain in the morning. It had been such a draining last few days. In the back of my mind, all I could think about was Cian and what he had done. I couldn’t trust him. Or Ryzen. Could I trust Thora?
The second my head hit the pillow on Juliet’s bed, I was knocked out. I dreamed I was being held prisoner in a small room in a castle. I was screaming and pleading to be let out, but no one came to save me. When I tried to fit through the small window and end my suffering, hands grabbed me and yanked me back inside. It was a beast with a menacing laugh. One half looked like Ryzen, the other Cian.
The next morning, we went into the office early. Even though it was Sunday, when you owned a small business, you never really had a day off. Juliet sat on the edge of her desk, hands in her lap. I couldn’t keep quiet for longer, so I told her everything that had happened.
“There’s no way Thora is acting on his behalf though, Nova. She was very surprised that you knew Cian last night. And when you guys ran off, she wouldn’t stop asking questions.” Juliet handed me a doughnut. “I didn’t tell her anything, but she looked genuinely confused.”
“What about the private investigator stuff? That’s weird, right? Wait, you interviewed her. Was it on her resume?”
Juliet snapped her fingers together and walked over to the filing cabinet. She pulled out a green folder and skimmed through the pages. “Yes, she has it on here. PI for BW Services, Inc.” She chuckled and put the folder back in the cabinet. “You know, I remember seeing that and meaning to ask her if she had any juicy stories, but we’ve just been so busy. And then you were gone a lot…” She trailed off, rubbed her hands together. “So she never lied to us.”
“Who lied to you?” Thora popped her head in our office, a plate of bagels in her hands. “I had a feeling you guys would be here early, so I brought breakfast. I know there’s no work today, but we’re almost done packing everything and I thought I might finish today.” She opened a bag and pulled out cream cheese and a plastic knife. “So, who is it? The liar?” She looked between me and Juliet.
There was a ball in my throat the size of a baseball.Well, here goes nothing. “Um, Thora, about last night…”
“Oh, you guys.” She put the knife down and came around the desk, squeezing me in a tight hug. “You did not have to buy one of my pieces. I would have given it to you.” She walked over to Juliet and hugged her just as fiercely. “I told my brothers not to meddle and buy one, and they actually listened to me for once,” she laughed and shook her head.
Oh, my God, she was making this conversation so much harder. Why did she have to be so sweet about everything? “Thora, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about. I know your brother.”
She snorted as she spread cream cheese over her bagel. “Yeah, pretty obvious.” She sat on the edge of my desk and swung her legs. “I don’t think I want to knowhowyou know him, though.”
“Um…” I didn’t know how to respond to that, because whatever she was thinking was going to be true. I cleared my throat and sat up straight.Just spit it out, La Roux.“Do you know who I’m engaged to?”
“Some beefcake with a lot of money, is what Owen said. Why?”
“Ryzen Goodacre. Does that name mean anything to you?”
The second his name left my lips, Thora’s face turned a dark shade of red. She stopped mid-chew and stared at me. After what felt like an eternity of silence, she resumed chewing and laughed. “No, you’re not.”
I rubbed my forehead and glanced at Juliet, who waved her hand, encouraging me to continue. “I am, though. Engaged, I mean. To him. And, um, I don’t know how to ask you this, so I’m just go—”
“Stop right there.” Thora cut me off before I could finish. Her eyes had turned cold, her nostrils flaring. This was a side to her I had never seen. She slid off the desk, tossing the bagel in the trash. “That man is a terrible, awful person. You cannot marry him, Nova. He will ruin your life.”
“Thora, come on. He’s not that bad.” I threw my hands up in the air. Maybe I shouldn’t be defending him. He was practically holding the fate of my business over my head. But this wasn’t about that. Right now, I just wanted to know if she was in on some scheme with Cian. “Look, I just want to know—”
She held her hand up again, and I stopped mid-sentence. “That man you’re engaged to? He tried to ruin my family. He took everything away from Cian, everything.” Her voice rose, and a knot was forming in the pit of my stomach. “Did you know that? What kind of man you’re marrying? How long have you known him anyway?”
“Nine months. That’s not the point, though.”
“Nine months! You are making a huge mistake. Please listen to me when I tell you he is bad news.” There was a desperation in her voice that made the knot in my stomach grow bigger.
“What about your brother, huh? He slept with Ryzen’s fiancée, ruined his wedding. Or did you forget about that?” There. Point made.
Her eyes were popping out of her head and I looked at Juliet for help. “Are you kidding me right now? Well, missy, you’ve got your facts mixed up. Try switching that one around. Ryzen is the one who slept with Cian’s fiancée and ruined his wedding. Almost broke him completely. I can’t believe you would think that my brother would do something like that.”
My whole body stiffened at her accusation. She was lying. She had to be. That wasn’t what Ryzen had told me. He wouldn’t lie about something like that.
“You’re lying.” I fanned myself with a manila folder and sat back down. “There’s no way Ryzen would lie about that.”
“Oh, really?” Her laughter had an edge to it. This was not going like I had thought. If you’d asked me last night, I would have said the worst-case scenario was that Cian had planted her here, but she wasn’t a spy, she was one of us. But now? Now things were going downhill, and quickly.
“Do you even know his real name, Nova?”
