Confidential(29)

CHAPTER 22





FLORA


I let myself into Michael’s house, using the key under the flowerpot. It was a rare pleasure, making myself at home while I waited for him. It had always felt like foreshadowing, that this was what it would be like when we were married.

I’d loved Michael’s house from the first visit. It was a Craftsman, and in the living room, shining oak built-ins surrounded a fireplace while the couch and settee were layered with afghans from all around the world. It was the kind of house where you wanted to curl up on a cold night and never leave. You wanted to curl around the man who lived in such a house and never leave. And tonight, we’d taken a huge step forward. I hadn’t expected that barging into his office could end so well, but in addition to his usual professions of love, he’d added a promise: after Kate left, we were going public. Being a boss bitch had its perks.

I poured myself a whiskey neat and lay down on the couch, scrolling through Instagram. I saw pictures of Nat draped all over her new man. He wasn’t nearly as handsome as Michael. I couldn’t wait to show him off to the world.

I was daydreaming about what my first Instagram post would say, and then I started to actually dream. I hadn’t been sleeping that well since Kate had arrived.

I woke to the sound of the front door opening and to Michael’s grim face. Sitting up, I beckoned to him.

He shook his head, his face angry.

How long had I been sleeping? What could have happened between our interlude in his waiting room and now to make him look that way?

“What is it?” I asked, my heart pounding.

“You lied to me,” he said.

“About what?”

“About Kate. She’s known about me for months.” I froze. “Don’t bother denying it. She already told me.”

I glanced down at my phone, seeing her text. He knows. I’d slept through her warning.

“I went to your apartment before I came here,” he said. “I had this feeling, and I confronted Kate, and she admitted it. Happily, it seemed like.”

My head was spinning. Finally, I got the words out: “I’m sorry.”

He glared at me. “Is that all you have to say?”

“It’s what I feel. I’m really sorry.”

I stood up and went to traverse the continent between us, but he stepped back. “You betrayed me.”

“It wasn’t like that. She’s family. She lives on the other side of the country.”

“Oh? Was there an exception clause that I’m forgetting? When we said we’d tell no one, I assumed that meant no one. Not a single living being, here or abroad.”

I hated when he got mad and talked down to me. Even though he was right, I wasn’t a wayward child. I was his girlfriend, and I planned to stay that way. We were about to go public! He told me so!

“I didn’t think . . . ,” I started, and then under his withering stare, I couldn’t continue.

“You didn’t think I’d find out,” he finished. “You thought it’s better to seek forgiveness than permission.”

Yes and yes. But I couldn’t say that. He didn’t care about my remorse, so what was left?

“And now she clams up!”

I hated when he narrated for an imaginary audience. “Can we just have a drink and sit down and talk this out, like normal people?”

“Like ‘normal people’?” he parroted, his eyes narrowing cruelly. “What are those?”

“Civil people, I should say. People who love each other and want to make things work. People make mistakes, but it doesn’t have to be irreparable.”

“I risked everything for you.” His tone was glazed with wonder. “I believed in us.”

“You should.”

“You told her.” The wonder had turned to acidic incredulity. “She’s known this whole time, hasn’t she? She could have blown the whistle whenever she wanted these past two years. You were willing to jeopardize my career and lie right to my face.”

“She would never—”

“You couldn’t know that for sure!”

“She’s my cousin. I’ve known her since birth.”

I betrayed Michael by telling Kate, but I never would have guessed that Kate would betray me like this. When he asked her, why didn’t she just deny it? Why didn’t she protect me?

Because she was sabotaging my relationship. She basically goaded me into leaving the Cuban restaurant and confronting him at his office. And then when that hadn’t worked, she got lucky. He showed up at the apartment, and she ratted me out. Sure, he asked, but she could have lied. She was a recovering drug addict. She’d lied convincingly to our family for years.

I didn’t think someone could get a bout of jealousy as suddenly as food poisoning, but maybe that was how it worked sometimes.

I’d wanted Kate to be taken with Michael, and maybe that’s what had happened. He really had charmed her at dinner, and she’d always wanted to be like me, so maybe she wanted what I had. But could she be so crazy as to think that breaking us up could benefit her?

Maybe. People could be plenty crazy. I’d learned enough about Michael’s clients—minus the identifying information—to know that.