A Time for Hope (Lexi, #3)(59)

The door slammed as Matt walked into the room. His face was a combination of confused and serious, I wasn’t sure how much he’d overheard.

“What’s going on in here? Lexi, I could hear you yelling from down the hall!”

“Anna, you want to explain or should I?” I wondered how she was going to reveal to the man she supposedly loved her suspicions of our infidelity.

“Why should I bother?” Anna sniffed, trying to keep her tears at bay.

“Anna?” Matt obviously bewildered, slowly approached Anna.

“I know you are sleeping with her, don’t try and deny it!” Anna shrieked accusingly, pointing at me, the apparent other woman.

“Sleeping with her? With Lexi?” Matt glanced between us. He was struggling, as I was, to reconcile what he was hearing.

“Yes with Lexi. What I want to know is, for how long? Was it before or after I moved here? You should have been smarter, the sneaking around was so damn obvious.” I could see she had fully convinced herself of what she was saying.

“Anna, I don’t know where this is coming from but I have never had sex with Lexi. Ever. Even before we started dating, we didn’t have that relationship,” Matt tried to reassure her. Of course now would not be the time to bring up how I had tried to seduce him in the very beginning. That night seemed like a lifetime ago.

“You expect me to believe that? I know you are hiding something from me!” Anna pushed against Matt’s chest, flailing against him as her pendulum of emotions swung wildly between anger and hurt.

“I have been hiding something from you but it’s not what you think. I was trying to protect you!” Matt tried to grab her arms to stop her from hitting him.

“Protect me from what? From the fact you are in love with her? You dropped everything and moved to be with her, how am I supposed to compete with that?” Anna again pointed at me, bringing me back into the conversation and putting me front and centre on an issue I knew nothing about.

“Is that why you answered those calls from Marcy and told her where Lexi was?” Matt looked defeated, his arms falling by his side.

It was as if time froze after he had said those words. It had been Anna who had disclosed my location? Surely there had to be a mistake? A misunderstanding?

“What? You are the one who told her where I was? You helped her?” I would have never suspected Anna.

“I don’t know what you are talking about, I didn’t do anything!” Anna tried to deny any wrong-doing but the look on her face was confirmation enough. It had been her.

“Lexi asked me to look into how Marcy knew where she and Alex where. I did some digging Anna. I checked the phone records. Calls were made to this office the day before Lexi’s attack. Three calls, all from the same number and that number belonged to Marcy’s cell,” Matt explained before turning to me. “Lexi, I’m sorry but I wanted to be sure before I came to you.”

“So she called here, maybe no one answered her call. Why are you trying to pin this on me?” Anna refused to accept responsibility and tried to argue that she had no part in it.

“Anna, I looked at the call log. Each one of those calls lasted at least fifteen minutes, one went for more than twenty-five. They weren’t hang ups. I didn’t take those calls so it only leave ones other person.” I could tell Matt was gutted but he remained steady. He pulled the call logs from his briefcase and placed them in front of me. Marcy’s number and the call length were highlighted for reference.

“It was you who told her where we were and how to find me?” I stared at the pages, seeing the irrefutable proof that the calls had been received and the information had been gathered from this very office.

“I told her you weren’t here. I told her you were in Australia. That’s all I said. I didn’t give her your address. She was persistent, saying she wanted to apologize for Rome and wanted to congratulate you on your marriage. I didn’t think it was a big deal.” Anna tried to explain as she struggled to keep her tears at bay.

“Why didn’t you tell me, why didn’t you let me know?” I argued. If I had’ve known Marcy wasn’t even in the country I would have never agreed to the meeting.

“It didn’t seem like a big deal at the time and then when I found out what had happened and that she had been involved I got scared. I thought you would blame me. Honestly, other than telling her you were in Australia, I didn’t tell her shit.” Anna covered her face with her hands, unable to stop the water-works.

“You should have said something Anna, you should have let either of us know what you did. You should have come clean from the start; no one would have blamed you.” Matt’s voice was still tender despite this new information he had just received. I guess you just can’t turn off feelings that quickly and despite what she did, he couldn’t bring himself to be cruel. He really was too decent a man.

“But you blame me now? I had nothing to do with it.” Anna hiccupped in between sobs.

“You provided information and while I believe your intentions weren’t malicious, you hid the fact that the conversations took place even after you found out what Marcy did with that information. Anna, you f*cking saw me in the hospital. You saw what she helped him do. How could you not tell me? How can you stand in the same room and look me in the f*cking eye, knowing what you know?” I was furious but more than that I was hurt. Those agonizing days recovering and having her smiling face look at me with pity. It was more than I could stand and I wanted to throw up.