“Do you want to sit?” Delaney’s voice is just above a whisper.
I don’t answer, but I sit and clasp my hands together on the table. It’s the only way I can control the shaking.
“How long?” I ask.
Delaney’s gaze turns downward. “I had an appointment this morning with a women’s health?—”
“Yeah, right. Yourappointment.”
She looks up at me. Her eyelids droop, and the corners of her mouth form a frown. For a split second, I feel remorse, but then I remember what she’s done.
“Harrison?” Her voice is quiet. She reaches out to touch me, and I pull away.
“I’ve got to hand it to you both. Cassandra, wow, she doesn’t give up, does she?” Delaney opens her mouth to speak, but I keep going. “And you. What an actress you are! Was any of it real to you? Or was I just a mark the whole time?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Please explain what’s going on here.” She’s pleading, distress written all over her face.
Because she’s a talented actress, that’s all.
“What did you take from my office the other day? Bank account numbers? Credit card information? Tell me what the scam is this time, what was in the envelope you gave her?”
She jerks back and gasps.
“What? Are you accusing me of stealing from you?” There’s hurt in her voice, but also a touch of anger, and it surprises me.
“If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, and looks like a duck…”
“Harrison...” Her voice is barely above a whisper.
“Why were you coming from Leah’s office the other day when I couldn’t find you? Is that part of it?”
“Stop it!” She slaps her hands down on the table in anger. “Stop and tell me what is going on here because you’re crossinga line and you’re making me uncomfortable with how seething mad you are. Tell me whatit‘looks like’?”
It’s a good thing we’re in the outside seating area of this cafe. I assume we’d be drawing a lot of attention by this point, otherwise. Enough heads are turning our way as it is.
“It looks like my girlfriend, whom I thought I was building something with, is in cahoots with my ex-girlfriend?—”
She sucks in a breath and grimaces.
“Are you saying you dated Cassandra, too?”
I close my eyes for a second and rub my hands over them before I meet her gaze again.
“Yeah, Delaney. I dated her for several years, altogether. Though I suspect you already know that. She pretended to care about me, and I gave her everything she wanted. But it wasn’t enough to?—”
“You had sex with her?Kissedher?” I’m confused by the quivering in her voice.
We both know the answer to those questions, yet I can’t bring myself to respond. Instead, I need to get this conversation back on track.
“I gave her everything, but it wasn’t enough to stop her from stealing thousands from us before Leah caught on to her. She’s a gold-digger, and I was too foolish to see it. I’m not making the same mistake again.”
Her expression shifts as understanding spreads across her face.
“You think I’m like her?” she whispers.
I see the distress on her face, and for just a few seconds, I doubt myself.
“Say it,” she grinds out. “If you think I’m like her, then say it.”
