Teagan meets my gaze and looks back at the clock. We now have five minutes left. Who knows what will happen to us, or to my husband, if we don’t play along.
I can’t risk it. I won’t risk Lee.
“TRUTH!” I shout to the ceiling. “Truth! Truth! Truth!”
The crackle of the speaker starts again before that same demented, sinister laugh booms out. “Good girl, Capri.”
Teagan reaches over and grabs my hand, squeezing it tightly as we wait for the speaker to continue. Lexi crosses her arms and scoffs, but thankfully stays quiet this time.
“If you answer this honestly, Capri. You and your friends will be free to go,” the voice explains. “If you lie, you stay—and you don’t want to know what happens then.”
My heart races in my chest as I wait to hear what could be the question to gain my husband’s freedom.
I can do this, I can do this.
“What dark truth have you been hiding from your friends?”
Lexi and Teagan look at me, both confusion and curiosity alight in their eyes. I feel my face getting hot. My hands are sweating again as I race through what this stranger might know about me. There’s no waythey know about my past? Right? Nobody knows the truth about what I did all those years ago. Do they?
No. There’s absolutely no way this person knows about my daughter.
But then what truth are they talking about?
I glance at Teagan and then at Lexi and swallow hard.
Because I do know one truth, but it’s not my truth.
Lexi’s eyes are wide as she looks at me, almost as if she knows I’m about to blow her entire world up for the sake of keeping mine whole.
“Lexi,” I say, my voice breaking entirely as my eyes shift to Teagan’s. “I’m so sorry.”
I look up at the clock again. Three minutes left. The guilt I feel nearly swallows me whole as I open my mouth again. “My dark truth is—” I swallow hard again as tears slip down my face. “My dark truth is that I know that Lexi is having an affair with Josh.”
The speaker says, “Thank you for your honesty, Capri.” Then we hear a click of a lock.
I risk a glance over at Lexi and Teagan, knowing I’ve just ruined everything. But I can’t help the slight rush of relief I feel when I realize that my own, true dark secret is still safe. My child is safe.
I’ve broken my best friends to keep myself whole.
What kind of person does that make me?
The door before us opens, and we are met with a round of applause and bright lights.
Lochlan and Lee stand at the doorway with sheepish smiles as they offer us glasses of champagne.
I rush forward, my body full of fury, and slap Lee hard across the face. The sound reverberates through the entire room, causing all our onlookers to go silent.
“What the hell was that, Lee?!” I scream at him before I bury myself into his chest and break down. “I thought they were going to kill you. Iwas so scared!” I pull away as the fire in my veins flares. “And this whole time you were out here, what? Just playing with your new friends instead of trying to help us?”
Lee rubs at his cheek after handing Lochlan his glass. “Baby, no. I didn’t know what was happening until the door opened. I got locked out as soon as I walked through the door to the hallway. Lochlan found me wandering the halls like a lost lamb. He invited me for drinks and said we would go around and meet you here. We walked in a second ago.”
His voice sounds so sincere that I believe him. I fall back into his arms and cry into his chest. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” I cling to him as hard as I can and let myself breathe in the fact that he’s okay. He’s actually okay, and this was all just a twisted joke like Lexi guessed as soon as we got locked in.
The soft muttering of voices around us finally pulls my focus. I realize that we’re not as alone as I assumed we were when we came out of the dark room behind us. We have an audience of about a dozen people who are dressed to impress, just like the rest of us. These must be Pierce’s other guests.
“You ladies did amazing!” a woman wearing a tight-fitted dress tells me.
“The dragonfly necklace was genius!” Another guest chimes in from somewhere in the back.
