—
Zee convinces meto get dinner with her, and when we return later that evening, I’m surprised to find Liam sitting in the hall. When I call out his name, he doesn’t turn to look at me. His body is in shadow and I can’t see his eyes, but I can tell he looks disheveled in his wrinkled shirt and slacks, head tipped back against the wall, empty bottle next to him as if he’d passed out and spent the night there.
“Liam?” I say again. Zee and I exchange a look. Something’s not right. The air is too still. As we approach, the stench of alcohol reaches my nostrils. My heart beats faster. He’s wasted.
“What are you doing here?” I say, louder, holding my ground.
He lifts his head and grins. His eyes are bloodshot. “Naomi.”
Zee raises her eyebrows, likely sensing the tension between us.“I’ll let you two do whatever this is.” She motions between us. “I’m here if you need me.”
As she retreats into our suite, she throws a look of concern over her shoulder.I’m not going anywhere,it says.I’ll be right inside.
“It’s fine,” I tell her. But is it? Is it fine? When he’s betrayed me like this? And surely,surelyhe will try to come up with an excuse to make me doubt myself like he always does. I remember the nights spent in his bed, the deep conversations, tearing open my soul—lies,all of it.
I reach out and steady myself against the wall, take a deep breath. Once Zee’s footsteps fade into our room, I turn to face Liam, every hair on the back of my neck rising. “What do you want?”
I wait for him to respond, but as I take him in, I feel sorry for him. He looks awful. His hair is greasy. His head hung, posture deflated. It’s like someone has used him as a punching bag and dumped him here. I feel a rush of irrational hope. Maybe there’s a rational explanation.
“I miss you,” Liam slurs.I miss you.His words cut straight into my heart. I feel a pull before I stop myself.No.
Liam stands and shoves his hands into his pockets, looking at me like he’d expected this confession to fix everything. His jaw is working. He’s walking drunkenly, wavering toward me. Instinctively, I take a step back.
“Naomi,” he says, reaching for me, and unable to stand it, I put up a hand.
“I can’t do this right now.”
The picture said enough—he’d handed DuPont Amy’s laptop—he’d betrayed me. There’s nothing else to it.
But this is the first time I’ve seen him since, and a part of me thinks,He wouldn’t do that to me.A part of me is desperate for it to have been some kind of mistake. Because despite everything, I still care about him.
“It wasn’t what it looked like,” Liam says, louder, desperate. His eyes flash with an emotion: Regret?
“So what was it?”
Liam shakes his head, a lock of hair falling over his eyes. “You don’t understand. My tennis. Matthew is the reason I’m here—”
I stare at him, confused. “You’re here because you trained withthe best coaches in the country and because you’re a fourth-generation legacy, Liam.” We’d had many conversations about this. These elite coaches had gone tohim,not the other way around. He’d said it was the only thing that made his father proud.
He pushes a hand through his hair. “Those coaches only taught me because of DuPont. My father knew him through Greystone and now serves on the board of his company. DuPont got into some trouble years ago when he bet on a risky medtech company. When the truth broke that they were lying to investors, my father helped him inflate the stock enough for DuPont to get out. To return the favor, DuPont pulled strings to convince my coach to train me. Why else would that caliber coach train a wimpy kid from Rye? And without tennis, Iwouldn’thave gotten in here. Not even as a legacy.” He lets out a sad laugh.
It feels like I’ve been struck. I stand there, stunned, for several seconds as I waver for a moment between feeling sorry for Liam and confused, before anger floods my system. He was that close to DuPont? Since he was a kid? Awimpy kid from Rye.More like a trust-fund nepo kid. His whole life was orchestrated by a monster. Two, if you consider his dad. I can hardly breathe. It feels like I’m drowning.
Liam moves closer, and I stiffen. “So you did this for DuPont because he got you into this school, he helped you save face with your dad growing up?” My vision blurs as tears sting my eyes, and I fight to hold it together. I think again of Amy’s laptop. What I thought was us getting back together was bullshit. Liam’s only interest in me was my connection to Amy and her investigation. He’d lied to me. He’dusedme. Each realization is like a needle digging into my heart.
“Look, just let it go, okay? We’re leaving all this anyway.”
I remember the tickets to Croatia sitting on my desk. The words he’d finally said, the ones I’d been waiting years to hear:I’m falling in love with you.
But…
Howcouldhe? Howdarehe say that to me? And to think how badly I’d wanted to say it back. Knowing what I do now, I’m sure as hell glad I didn’t.
“You.” I glare at Liam, hoping to convey all the rage and hurt spiraling through me. “Are aliar.A selfish piece of shit.”
Liam takes a step forward, face twisting. He’s breathing hard, a vein pulsing at his temple. “Listen.” He grabs my arm, hard, and I fight him. But he’s stronger than me. “I didn’t mean to get involved. I didn’t want to.” He pauses. “But that day we met at the Sterling library…when I told you about the investigation, it was already too late. DuPont knew your roommate was working with someone at theTimes.He asked me to talk to you.”
“Asked you?” I yank my arm free, but Liam jerks me back.
