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I have to know what Charity’s planning. It’s the only way to stay a step ahead of her.
I’d love to find out I’m wrong. For my clone of her phone to paint a different picture, that of a vaguely alcoholic party girl who has her life slightly together and only pays enough attention to her sweet friend’s life to pick out a wedding present for her.
That is very much not the case.
Unfortunately for her—and me—she goes on a research mission to uncover all the bad things I’ve had to do to protect Hallie. It’s fucking irksome, honestly.
Jackson’s overdose—oops.
But he betrayed Hallie, and it didn’t matter that it was for me—he still betrayed her, and I wanted him gone. Now he is, and everybody’s happy.
Then she discovers I purchased Hallie’s mother’s house long before Hallie thinks I did. That was a little too close to a lie, but Ididn’tlie, technically. When I asked Hallie if she wanted me to buy her mother’s house, it just seemed simpler than explaining I had already purchased it in case I needed it for blackmail, but since she’s such a loyal friend and sweetheart, I hadn’t needed to use it.
It was an omission that didn’t really matter, but now when she shows it to Hallie—because that’s obviously what she’s planning with all this—it’s going to look bad.
She keeps digging, chasing a couple of roads I never took—a couple because I didn’t know about them, a couple because I’m notthatmuch of an asshole.
But then she gets on the right track. That’s much more unfortunate because Arson was involved with all of that, and if Nick gets wind of this nosy lawyer poking into Arson’s business, he’ll kill her, plain and simple.
That would upset Hallie terribly. Me, not so much, but I don’t want Hallie to mourn unnecessarily, so I decide to be the good guy for a minute and intervene before Charity gets out of hand and ruins everything.
Unfortunately, Charity tells Hallie she has to see her about an urgent matter before I can accomplish that. Hallie is working when she gets the call, so she’s wearing around the house clothes and messy hair. She’s trying towork,Charity, but fucking Charity is tenacious and must be seen.
So, she invites her up. To my penthouse. How fucking fortunate.
Because Hallie told me she has a tendency to check on her “old ghosts” on social media, I figured the day would come that she would learn at least some of the things I’ve had done for her, but I didn’t think it would be so soon. I even thought there was a good chance that enough time would have passed that she didn’t realize all of these things happened so close to when she told me about them.
Butfucking Charityhad to interfere.
I wish I could let Nick kill her, I really do. I have a feeling she’ll be a persistent thorn in my side for the rest of the time I have to endure her, but I can’t do that to Hallie. Not without trying to avoid it, at least.
I cancel my afternoon appointments so I can watch without interruption.
Dread settles in my gut as I watch Charity come in. She’s still wearing a brown skirt suit from work, but when she opens her briefcase and begins drawing things out, I have a strong suspicion they’re not legal documents from work.
No, they’re not.
I watch her categorize my sins for Hallie. She starts with Jackson, which can’t be proven. Of course, Hallie had no idea he was dead, so I watch as she covers her mouth—shocked, horrified even, but she doesn’t know what this has to do with me. When Charity tries to link me to it, she comes off crazy, and I see Hallie’s skepticism. I enjoy it. That’s my girl, sticking up for me, saying there’s no reason to assume I’m behind that—Jackson liked to party, it’s not unbelievable that he took it too far one night and paid the ultimate price.
It’s true, but I am behind it, and I’m not a damn bit sorry.
Jackson was an idiot. The world doesn’t need more of those.
Then she slaps down incriminating printouts—including some I feel sure should be confidential, but I’m reluctantly impressed with her for risking her license to practice law in her efforts to save Hallie from me. It won’t work, but I appreciate her energy.
She tries to tell Hallie that Ross Ellison—her doltish first boyfriend—was arrested for possession and found with drugs he swore he’d never seen before. It’s an incredibly flimsy argument—what criminal doesn’t claim innocence when they’re caught doing something they shouldn’t?—but for one thing. Ididgo slightly overboard with the amount of narcotics I bought for him. I hadn’t realized the extent of the poverty Hallie came from and I was a little overzealous.
It didn’t matter, of course no one believe that the drug fairy gifted him with more than what he bought with the intent to distribute, and there was corroboration with a girl he fucked for a couple of weeks and then ditched to go back to his on-again-off-again girlfriend that he had been talking about how he had an idea to make some money.
Spurned women come in very handy sometimes.
Hallie still isn’t convinced I’m behind any of this, and I love her for that.
I pull up Nordstrom’s website on my computer so I can absently order something for her while I watch the rest of this.
The next part is the problem.
I was angry when she told me about what Mark had done to her when she was younger. Not on moral grounds because he’d done a bad thing, buthow fucking dare hedo it to Hallie?
