She picked up on the first ring.
“How did it go?” she asked, equal parts excitement and the silly hope of a best friend.
Tears pooled, threatening to spill; I blinked them back, sniffing once.
Her tone dropped. “Not good?”
“It was—” I swallowed, the night replaying in shards behind my teeth. I let the word come slow. “Unexpected.”
“How?”
Something trembled in me. “Read was Damien Holt.”
“No.” Candace’s gasp cut through the line. “The Falkirk guy?”
“Yes.”
There was a beat of stunned silence. Then steel. “What the actual—? Why didn’t he tell you after he found out it was you?”
“You’re not going to believe this.” I laughed, thin and hollow. A tear broke free, and I didn’t bother wiping it away. “He knew from the beginning.”
Candace went silent for a second, like she was chewing the details and spitting out something worse. “I’m going to kill him.”
“That’s what I said,” I managed, and an ugly little laugh hiccupped out.
“Wait—wait. You talked to him?” Confusion cracked through; I could picture her, eyebrows up, mouth a perfect ‘O’ over the speaker.
“Yes.” The admission felt heavier than it should. “I almost left. Then—” My thumb traced the cold edge of the phone. “Then he said things. He—he told the truth about some things. About his brother, his mother. He kept saying one step at a time. He asked me to let him prove it.”
Candace drew out a sound that was half-skepticism, half-anger. “Emma. He tricked you. He lied to you. For months. Do you understand how messed up that is?”
“I know.” The word was small. “I know how it looks.”
“So what did you say?”
“I told him I’d think about it.”
Candace huffed. “Emma Sinclair, do not be kind to manipulators.”
My jaw throbbed.
“You deserve so much more than someone who lies to you, Em.” Her tone left no room for argument.
“But—”
“No buts.” The words came fast, sharp. “This guy is a dick. End of story.”
I heard her, but the meaning slid right through me, words dull against the static in my head. She didn’t know the messages. The way he had steadied me when I couldn’t breathe. The nights he’d made me laugh when the silence felt unbearable.
Regardless of the lies—that part was still true. He had helped me. And that, somehow, made it hurt worse.
We told you he was a liar,the voices hissed—once silenced by Read, now reborn as Damien.
So desperate for someone to love you that you’d settle?
The voice mimicked Candace’s, sharp and cruel, wearing her concern like a mask.How pathetic.
Something inside me cinched tight, air souring as I tried to pull in a breath. Hot tracks slid down my cheeks.
