“Okay.” I take his hands in mine. They’re infuriatingly soft. Who knew a tech billionaire would have a moisturizing routine? “Bertram, I’m here. I believe you.”
The sound of tires on the gravel makes us turn our heads. His driver is pulling up behind us.
Bertram stares at me, and the fear in his eyes makes him something fierce.
“Tell me,” I say, smoothing my hand across his temple. Elodie is right—a little flirting is a powerful truth serum. Waylen wouldn’t be able to deny it himself. But still, it makes the hairs on the back of my neck rise. “Tell me what Annie’s done. Do you know where she is?”
Waylen lives with the fear that I’ll leave him. But it would never be for someone else. It would be for solitude, disappearing into the abyss of my own mind, honoring the wounded little girl inside my heart who doesn’t think she deserves to be loved and is afraid to let anyone try.That’swhy Waylen won’t let me go.
Bertram, for all his charms, is a symptom of something else. I want to crack him open like a vault to see what’s inside. I want to be the one who learns the truth about him, and to be the reason he faces consequences for it.
Twelve
When I finally convince Bertram to return to his apartment, I’m unsettled by the smoothness of his lies.
I have worked with all types of “clients.” From murderers to embezzlers to small-time pyramid-scheme entrepreneurs. Usually, I can smell a lie from a mile away.
So when Elodie and I meet up at the school parking lot an hour before pickup, I decide not to mention my encounter with Bertram yet, nor do I mention that Bertram now knows Elodie and I contacted Skylar. Elodie will want to act on it. She’s not one to sit idly by. I’m worried she’ll scare Bertram off, and then he’ll stop telling me anything at all.
“Margaux, hi!” She jumps out of her SUV, arms extended to give me a big hug. Her message couldn’t be clearer: We’re being watched. The parents at Westport Elementary aren’t exactly peeking at us through the blinds,but a butterfly doesn’t fart in this town without someone making a note of it.
Elodie wraps an arm around me and we make our way to the bench just outside the playground.SHARING IS CARINGis painted onto an oil drum trash can.
“How’d it go with Skylar?” I ask.
Elodie’s eyes are bright in that way that tells me she’s got a juicy bit of gossip. “Turns out our billionaire was seeing this Skylar person in secret, but Annie found out. He ended things and hasn’t spoken with her since.”
“But then he ended things with Annie, too. Why?”
Elodie waves her hand dismissively. “Skylar says they were on-again, off-again. But Annie called Skylar directly and put a stop to things over the summer.”
I know Annie was confirmed to be alive just a few months ago, but she’s been MIA ever since.
“That’s all it took for her to back off?”
“Well.” Elodie leans in. “Apparently, Bertram tried to reignite things after the breakup with Annie, but he flaked out and ghosted her.”
“You got all of this out of her?” I say.
“Of course,” Elodie says. “A telemarketer called me, and I broke down crying and yelled at him like he was my toxic ex. Earned her sympathy and made a new bestie for life. She couldn’t wait to tell me all about Bertram.”
“Sinister,” I say. I consider this information against what Bertram told me. I think of how he charmed me with his little picnic but then chased me away. The fear in his eyes and the way he grabbed me when he spoke about it. “So, he’s not seeing anybody right now. What’s his game?”
“Technically, we’re investigating him for stealing thatapp,” Elodie says. “But his love life is far more interesting, and something tells me that’s where the real story is.”
“Yes…” I trail off.
“What are you thinking?” Elodie asks.
“That I’d like to meet this Skylar.”
“Good news, then!” Elodie beams. “I got us a gig planning an event for her in December, two weeks from now.”
My stomach fills with dread. “When in December?”
“The first.”
Her concerned look fades away, and I’m lost in my thoughts. December first, of all days. Waylen’s birthday. The big four-oh. I can already hear the argument now. “Can’t we make it for another day?”
