He was quiet for a moment, taking deep breaths while contemplating my obvious concern. “Okay, maybe she does know something, but I highly doubt it’s enough to do any harm. As long as you deny any allegations that are made and play dumb, you’ll be safe. Just get through this and then let Tiffany deal with it when she gets back.”
“That would be fine if Serenity didn’t know anything. And since I don’t know the whole story, I can’t say how much she knows, but I get the feeling it’s enough to make this whole thing blow up in my face. I can pretend to be my sister while shopping or having lunch in town, but I draw the line at tabloid drama. If this gets out—and based on the things Serenity has said, I believe she’s working on some grand reveal—then I’m gone. I won’t stick around and defend her name against rumors of infidelity.”
“What else has she said?”
Jacoby had done an excellent job last night at taking my mind off the anxiety-inducing dinner party. But now, Ty was making me conjure it all back up. “Right in front of Jeannine, she accused me of being at her house before. Of course, I played dumb, and Jeannine backed me up by explaining that they’d just moved in, and last night was the first time anyone had been over. But Serenity wouldn’t drop it, claiming that she’s friends with one of the neighbors and heard about Tiffany’s car being spotted in the driveway several times.”
“Well, that’s a blatant lie. Tiffany said the affair ended a while ago.” Ty was fully aware of who my sister was and what she was capable of, so I didn’t understand why he continued to believe the things she told him over the things I had heard. There was no way he was that naïve when it came to her.
“I guess that’s one way to look at it. Another way would be that it wasn’t as long ago as she wants you to believe and, quite possibly, is still going on. But that’s none of my business. As long as it doesn’t affect me, I don’t care.”
He leaned forward and scrubbed his face with his palms. I could tell that the stress was getting to him, probably just as much as it was getting to me, only for different reasons. He honestly wasn’t a bad guy—annoying at times, but he had a good heart. He just trusted the wrong person. And I would bet every penny of my worth that there was a trail of others behind him who had made that same mistake.
“I’ll figure something out.” When he dropped his hands, he looked like he had aged twenty years, as if he’d rubbed off a mask of youth. “You’re off today, so just lay low. Let me get this situated, and then I’ll contact you about this.”
I had no idea how he planned to fix the situation, but as long as it didn’t make my life or this job worse, then I didn’t care. I wasn’t bluffing—I would walk away before I defended my sister’s infidelity. Maybe all of this would finally open everyone’s eyes to see the real Tiffany Lewis.
* * *
Ty must’ve had a hard time coming up with a way out of this mess, because it’d been two days and I still hadn’t heard anything from him. Luckily, I’d had both days off, but that all ended tomorrow. I figured I’d give him until the morning before I tried to get ahold of him.
Jacoby and I had made plans for tonight, so Ty and my sister were the furthest things from my mind. It only took one night of sleeping in his arms to make the thought of sleeping by myself unappealing. I’d spent the last two nights in his bed—cuddling without taking it further—but since I had to work in the morning, he’d agreed to stay tonight at my place. Reluctantly, I might add. He felt uncomfortable sleeping in my sister’s house, which I understood completely. It just made more sense to me if I was already there in the morning in case the glam squad came early. At least with Jacoby there, if they showed up ahead of schedule, he could sneak out the back, and no one would be the wiser. If I were at his home, I’d have to explain where I’d been and why I hadn’t answered the door. The one time I’d gotten caught by Ty had been enough to never put myself in that position again.
As I sat on the couch, waiting for Jacoby to come to the back door, I was startled by a sound coming from the front of the house. I couldn’t tell what it was, so I paused the game and sat completely still. A heavy thump echoed down the hall, causing my heart rate to spike. And by the time a figure came around the corner into the living room, I was on high alert.
This was the second intruder in two days.
After what had happened with Ty, I made sure to look at him before reacting, just in case it was Ty again. But it wasn’t. This man was much taller, with muscles on top of muscles and noticeably broad shoulders. If The Rock and Aquaman had a baby, this man would be it.
The second I realized it wasn’t Ty, I immediately began my attack to defend myself. Since I had the game controller in my hand, I chucked it at him as hard as I could. Unsurprisingly, it bounced off his chest like an ineffective bouncy ball. His pecs likely caused more
