“I know you have no reason to believe me, but I changed. Everything changed. I told my mother as much when I had lunch with her.”
I chuckle darkly. “You think I didn’t hear you talking with her? That charm bracelet I gave you transmitted your entire conversation to me. I heard everything.”
Her brow pinches. “Then you must have heard me refuse to kill you.”
“I heard no such thing. In fact, I distinctly heard you say you wanted to plan an accident.”
Her face twists in confusion, which makes no sense. I heard her talking about poisoning me at a restaurant, in front of my entire family.
And yet, she seems so sincere. She must be a better actor than I thought.
Which means nothing was real…
I shouldn’t be so hurt, yet I can hardly breathe. I’m utterly devastated.
“With what I have on you, I could easily go to the police.”
“That would be a mistake,” she says. “The Web has influence everywhere.”
“See, I told you,” Lance says from the doorway. “You don’t want to fuck with her people.”
“What’s going to happen to me?” she asks.
“I’m going to find a place to keep you until you give birth,” Mateo says.
“And then?”
I shrug. “I don’t know.”
“Will you kill me?” she asks, sounding unafraid.
“It was never my intention, but I honestly have no idea what I’ll do to you. I could keep you locked away for years, or I could snap. The only thing saving you now is our baby.”
A single tear breaks from her eyes, but she doesn’t argue with me.
“Leave us,” I call over my shoulder to Lance.
He closes the door and I wait until his footsteps disappear before saying, “I loved you.”
Her face jerks up, her eyes locking with mine. “What?”
“I knew what you were, and I loved you still. But hearing you plot my demise triggered something in me. Rage, sorrow, pain. I feel too much for you, and I can’t have that in my life.”
“If it makes you feel any better, I loved you, too.”
I snort derisively. “So much so that you were bent on making me a corpse.”
“You should listen to the recording again. Maybe you’ll hear something different.”
“What joke are you playing?”
“None. You really should listen.”
Ivy is good. She almost has me convinced, which is dangerous.
“I’m leaving now. You’ll not see me again for…months. Don’t try to escape. Don’t try to get ahold of anyone you once knew. Lance will watch over you until you give birth.”
She doesn’t say a word as I exit the room.
