A Time for Hope (Lexi, #3)(60)

“I was scared and I felt horrible and I didn’t know what to do. But when I saw Matt with you, the way he was so protective of you in the hospital - it made me angry. I thought he was in love with you and I felt like a fool for travelling all this way to be with him. I was so angry at both of you and talking about it wasn’t going to change anything, so I kept my mouth shut. Part of me felt like it was karma for you sleeping around with Matt.” Anna’s words tore from her throat hysterically as she tried to justify her silence.

“I trusted you! I welcomed you into my home. I gave you a job, I f*cking gave you an opportunity to be with Matt and you stabbed me in the back. You betrayed me! How could you do it? Get out of here, I can’t stand the sight of you right now.” I turned away, not wanting to stare at her pathetic face a moment longer.

“Lexi, I’m sorry about what happened to you. It kills me to think that I had any part in that but I honestly didn’t know. I just wanted to be with Matt but it felt like I had to compete with you.” Anna moved, angling her body in my line of sight, trying to engage me.

“Anna, I think you need to go. Get your things, you need to leave now.” I kept my back turned as Matt tried to coax Anna away from my side.

“Leave? I’m just supposed to go? Go where? This job, our apartment, you... it’s all I have right now.” Anna wailed as she shoved off Matt’s attempts to guide her out of the office.

“You can’t work here anymore and I want you out of my apartment as well. I’m withdrawing my sponsorship. You can discuss what happens between the two of you but I’m done with you Anna. I don’t ever want to see you again.” I addressed her, not wanting there to be any confusion that this situation was now done. The final nail had been driven into the coffin and any hope we had of working through this, had walked out the door as surely as she would once this day was over.

“Lexi, please. I’ll cooperate with the police. I’ll go and give a statement. I know I should have told you but I was convinced you were having an affair with Matt. I wasn’t thinking straight.” Anna pleaded, her desperation evident as she continued to cry.

“There are a lot of things I want to say right now, none of them are nice so get your shit and get out of my face before I do something that I know I will not regret. We are done here. Goodbye.” I watched as my words delivered their final blow and her face contorted in pain. There was no gratification for me in her suffering, it only amplified my own. Once again I was hurt, this time by someone close to me.

Matt pulled a sobbing Anna out the door, her tear stained face was the last vision I saw before it closed. I was hurt and angry but more than that I felt betrayed. I had prided myself on keeping my inner circle tight, insulating myself from harm, protected. I had been so stupid. I lowered my head into my hands, unable to cry. I physically shook in the realization that my friend had not known me at all. I’d let her in and given her the opportunity to hurt me.

My eyes fell to the lone post-it note, absently placed on my desk. It seemed so unassuming, lying there innocently. It had been the unsuspecting catalyst for the conversation, a note I had disregarded so easily. Chris’ beautiful black script curled around the letters of his name, Manny Ortiz. It looked almost comical against the bright yellow paper. Could this be the alternative that pulled me from my funk? I hesitantly picked up the phone and dialed but it was not Manny I was calling; because his voice wasn’t the one thing I needed to hear. He would have to wait.

“Hey beautiful,” Alex’s cool voice filled me ear.

A silent tear fell down my cheek as I whispered the only words I could say without falling apart. Knowing that they would be enough.

“Alex, I need you.”





Chapter 14 - Closing Ranks



The excitement and happiness I had felt over my recent take-2 wedding was marred by what I felt was a huge betrayal. Anna was my friend and I had brought her into my new world because I felt that I could trust her. She had been around for a long time, before my new reality had evolved, so I’d assumed that she would have my back. Paired with the fact that she was in love with one of my best friends, Matt, and that I had provided an avenue for them to be together, I would have thought her loyalty was a sure thing. She worked for me and yet she still gave out personal information based on a ridiculous fallacy that her own jealous mind had created. That someone could turn on me so quickly scared the shit out of me. Had I ever known her at all? Who else was waiting in the wings to put a knife in my back? The information she had given Marcy had facilitated the planned attack. Anna hadn’t needed to provide Marcy with the exact location; it was irrelevant (my own stupidity had done that) but what she did provide was opportunity and for that I could never forgive her.

I felt like my world had shattered. I’d lost a friend and a staff member in the space of a day and I no longer knew who to trust. Would everyone only ever see me as an opportunistic whore? Would the next person I let into my life sell me out the next time there was a misunderstanding? When I was Lexi Reed the dollar incentive for disloyalty had been remarkably low, now that I was Lexi Stone, the sky was the limit. Who else would turn on me? Any progress I had made with Dr. Hart unraveled instantly. I trusted no one, I suspected everyone and I put the blame of it all squarely at my own feet.

Alex tried to talk me down from the ledge, arguing that there was no way I could have foreseen any of this. But did I even dare trust my own judgment anymore? What the f*ck was I even doing?