AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He stares at me for a moment, like I’m from another planet. “What lies?”
“All the lies she told me.” He’s still staring, and I realize I’m going to have to explain. “It was obviously some kind of plan, cooked up between Livia and her father, which required her to get a job here. Hell… now I come to think about it, she thought she was gonna be working for Dad. She expected it to be him who was interviewing her.”
“So? What does that prove?”
“Ken Bevan didn’t know Dad was dead, and neither did his daughter. They probably thought they’d come up with the perfect plan, but they failed to do their homework.”
“Yeah… or there was no plan in the first place.”
“Don’t be so naïve, Drew.”
“I’m not. I might have only met your girlfriend a couple of times, but she didn’t strike me as someone who was capable of something like this.”
“She’s not my girlfriend… not anymore.” My voice cracks a little as a searing pain crushes my chest and I flinch against it.
“It hurt to say that, didn’t it?” Drew says, letting out a sigh.
“Yeah, it did.”
“So, you’ve broken up with her?”
“I’ve fired her. The breaking up part was implied.” Mostly because I couldn’t bring myself to say it. I still can’t… not if it’s going to hurt like that.
He nods his head. “Are you telling me you didn’t even sit down and talk it through with her?”
“There was nothing to talk about.”
“Right… so you just fired her, without even checking your facts first? Did you at least give her severance?” I shake my head, staring at the pen again. “Wow,” he says. “That was mean. I don’t blame her for crying now.” I raise my eyes just slightly and they settle on Livia’s phone and car keys. Drew clearly follows the line of my gaze, leaning forward and reaching out for them. “Are these hers?” he asks.
“They were part of her package. She gave them back before she left.”
He stares at me for a long moment and then puts the phone and keys back. “What happened to you?” he says.
“What do you mean?”
“I apologized not long ago, for comparing you to Dad, but I’m starting to think I was right. You’re behaving exactly like him. He was all about revenge, and an eye for an eye. But that’s not who you are, Hunter. At least, I didn’t think it was.”
“It’s not, but this isn’t as simple as all that.”
“Why the fuck not? You love her. You told me so yourself.”
“I know. That’s why it hurts so much that she’s lied to me.”
“She didn’t look like she was lying just now. She looked like she’d just had her heart ripped out.”
The pain in my chest intensifies, but I ignore it this time. “I’m sure she put on an outstanding performance for your benefit.”
“It wasn’t a performance.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I found her on the floor of the parking garage. Well… that’s not strictly true. I heard her first. It would have been impossible not to; she was sobbing so loud. I just followed the sound, and I found her, kneeling, curled up on herself… like she was broken. None of it was for anyone’s benefit, Hunter. It was real.”
It’s my turn to stare. This can’t be right. He must have made a mistake. Please… God…
I grab my phone and look up Miles Hampton’s number, connecting a call to him.
“Hunter?” he says, answering promptly.
