And he’s with Serena.
A phone is propped against the lamp on his nightstand, red light on, recording everything.
I stand in the doorway for a moment.
Serena sees me first — her eyes finding me over Theo's shoulder, widening slightly. Then something calculated moved through them because Serena had never once in her life had a reaction that wasn't also a decision. She doesn't say anything.
Theo doesn't stop.
I go back to the kitchen and wait.
He must be desperate. He hates Serena. I know it’s not her that he wants. Maybe it’s the footage. Maybe she has something on him.
I'm sitting at the counter when the bedroom door opens. Serena comes out first, dressed, her bag over her shoulder, her expression doing the thing it does when she's gotten what she wants. She looks at me. I look at her. And she leaves without saying anything.
Theo comes out a minute later. He’s dressed like nothing happened. He looks at me once and goes to the refrigerator. He takes out two waters and puts one beside me.
“Do I need to say anything?”
“Nope.” He chugs his water.
“I need to know why.”
“Because Cody called her.”
I nod, putting that together. “Are you sure she’s on your side?”
“She’s fucking obsessed with me, so yeah.”
“The second she finds out about––”
“She knows. I had to tell her some bullshit so that she wouldn’t do anything stupid.”
I shrug, opening the water. “I wouldn’t put that much faith in her.”
“By the time this is all finished, anything she says won’t be useful.” He finishes his water. “Why are you here?”
“Where’s the laptop?”
He smashes the water bottle. “Why?”
I lean forward. “Insurance.”
He glares at me. “For what?”
I stare down at the marble countertop and think of how to word this. “Cody’s been following her.”
Theo waits for the punchline.
I run a hand through my hair. “I think he is, at least.” I tap the counter. “I admit that I fucked up.”
He stills. “What did you do?”
“I fucked her this afternoon.”
His face remains unmoving, waiting.
“And when I left, I locked eyes with him as we drove past each other.”
