“Why are you defending her? She clearly doesn’t give a fuck about you and you’re willing to fight your own flesh and blood. Damn, her pussy must be better than I thought,” he mumbles under his breath.
In an instant, the photos fall scattering against the wood floor. In the next second, my fist lands against his nose, the sound resounding in the foyer.
This time he has sense enough to cower against the wall. Gladys enters the hall, snapping me out of my fury.
“Show yourself out,” I say over my shoulder as I walk away.
Back in the confines of my studio, I finally let the information sink in.
Lilah’s been playing me the whole time?
But that doesn’t make any sense and the thought alone is enough to make my blood boil. What the hell does she stand to gain by playing me?
How the fuck did she get on my brother’s radar? And why the hell has Edward been following her? What kind of crazed stalker shit is he on?
There are too many unanswered questions for my brain to make any sense of this bullshit.
Lilah wouldn’t lie to me.
Right?
But why the hell is she huddled up with her ex so often?
The most contact they made in the pictures was a hug. But their body language was enough to cue me in to the fact that they have a secret that they feel is worth is protecting.
This doesn’t make any sense. I need more concrete proof.
I take my phone in my hands and send Lilah a text.
We need to talk.
More confused than ever, my eyes roam around my studio searching for answers it doesn’t have to give.
The door slams closed announcing Edward’s departure. Thank fuck. A moment later, my phone chimes with an email notification.
My grip tightens on the phone when I realize the email is from Edward.
The title of the message is “Ms. Lilah Tucker” and is marked urgent.
No, I need to speak to Lilah before this goes any further. Edward has caused enough mayhem. I’m going to wait it out and see what Lilah has to say for herself when she arrives.
That’s easier said than done because two seconds later, my thumb is pressing the screen to reveal the message.
There is no body text, only attachments. Five in total. I click on the first one titled “Tucker, Lilah” and what I see confuses me further. The document is a screenshot of an email Lilah sent Edward long before she and I had ever met.
The email attachment is her accepting a job to work with him over the summer and my stomach heaves.
There’s even a scanned employee contract attached at the bottom in exchange for a quarter-million dollars for her business project at the close of the summer.
I drop the phone in denial but quickly pick it back up, hungry for more information.
My anger mounts more and more with each attachment I open.
Lilah isn’t a financial advisor. She’s a kindergarten teacher and it’s all written out before my eyes as plain as day.
She’s known who my brother was this whole time. And she never said a fucking word. Red tints my vision as I read on, angry with her and most of all, angry with my damn self. She duped me. And I was dumb enough to fall for it.
Reading over the next document, I learn that she’s been teaching for the last six years and has created a product called Thriving Together. In order to get it off the ground, she went to Edward for funding who only agreed to help if she would do something in return.
My finger hovers over the final attachment titled “Knight III, Andrew” when the door to my studio opens and Lilah appears at the top of the staircase.
Forty-one
LILAH
Andrew’s neck is taut, and the brooding look on his face is all I need to let me know that something is wrong.
Very, very wrong.
The space between us is thick with tension before we even speak. Something tells me this is not going to end well. My skin prickles as I realize he knows.
“You wanted to talk?” I croak out, scared to finish my descent down the stairs.
The way he’s silently watching me is enough to make my knees weak. And not in a good way.
“Have a seat,” he says using his head to gesture to the bench on the other side of his workstation.
Gripping the banister for dear life, I manage to make it down the stairs and sit in front of him.
“What’s going on, Andrew?”
He scoffs at my question and shoves his phone in my direction.
“You tell me.”
Edward’s name is on the screen, and my heart drops out of my chest.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that Edward has exposed me after me I dragged my feet about telling Andrew about the next investment.
“It’s not what you think,” I say dumbly and as soon as it’s out of my mouth I regret it. That’s exactly what a guilty person would say.
Snickering humorlessly, Andrew snatches his phone back and shakes his head.
“I can’t believe this shit. You were just playing a role. The whole time.”
“No, I wasn’t. I can explain…”
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” he says, looking at me with disgust.
“I didn’t know he was your brother. He never mentioned it. At the very least, I thought you two were distant relatives. But in the Hamptons, I learned otherwise and I’ve been trying to figure this out ever since,” I confess in one long breath.
My chest is heaving by the time I finish, but I don’t care. I need to get this all out.
But he looks unfazed by my long-winded confession.
“Andrew, say something.”
“Have you been meeting with your ex behind my back?” His voice doesn’t give away much, but his tone is as cold as ice.
How does he know about that?
Frowning, I shake my head. “I wasn’t meeting him behind your back, I—”
“Don’t fucking lie to me, Lilah.”
Clipped and
