I should say no. Should tell him I need time to process. To think. To figure out what this means.
But the anger is already building.
I’m absolutely done being patient with Marco Fiore.
He hired someone to investigate me.
Everything we had was a lie.
When you realize the man you thought you knew never actually existed.
I think about Ben. Sweet, anxious Ben who calls me for her nightmares. Who counts breaths with me. Who trusts me completely.
Ben.
She didn’t ask for any of this. Didn’t deserve a father who hires private investigators or befriends people so he can fuck their sister.
“Yeah,” I hear myself say. “Let’s go talk to Marco.”
Jag is still waiting outside and we climb into the SUV. The door closes. Jag’s eyes meet mine in the rearview mirror.
“Everything okay?” he asks.
“Just great,” I say. “Living the dream.”
He doesn’t push. Just drives. Doesn’t comment that Ethan is joining us.
Ethan is Marco’s ‘best friend’ after all.
The townhouse appears too fast.
Jag parks.
We get out. Ahead, the front door looms.
I stop on the sidewalk. Ethan’s already halfway up the steps before he realizes I’m not following.
“Jess?”
My hands are shaking. The anger from the bar has crystallized into something colder.
I don’t want to talk to him through a door again. Don’t want to hear whatever explanation he thinkswill make hiring a private investigator to stalk my life acceptable.
“I need to pack,” I hear myself say. “I can’t do this anymore.”
Ethan comes back down the steps. Studies my face. Then he nods.
Ben’s face flashes through my mind again.
I’m abandoning her.
The guilt hits harder than anything Larkin said in that bar.
But I can’t do this.
Can’t pretend everything’s fine when nothing is fine.
Can’t keep being the steady one while my entire world reveals itself as a carefully constructed lie.
