I nodded.
“I’ll bring you sparkling water,” he said and left me.
The thoughts continued. I understood everything now. Even now, I was probably still under suspicion.
But what about last night?Was that part of his plan to get me to confess? Keep your enemies close, so they say.
Ruminating didn’t help. It was too painful to remember how happy I’d been such a short time ago, when I was convinced we had a future.
Colin came back faster than I would have predicted, handing me a glass of sparkling water. I forced a few sips. Physically, I was doing much better.
I stood up, rejecting his outstretched hand, and pushed past him to brush my teeth.
“Kate,” he started.
“Colin, I can’t believe you’ve let me think you care for me. What you were really doing was trying to get me to trip up andconfess to trying to ruin your father’s company. For what? The fun of it?” I started brushing with such vigor that I thought I might actually see blood.
He looked down at his feet. “Money was my guess for your primary motivator.”
I flashed my eyes at him as he ventured to look at me again.
“Kate, you don’t understand. That was before I got to know you.”
I finished rinsing and turned off the water. “Oh, yes, you certainly know me now, don’t you? You knowallof me!”
A loud crack of thunder seemed to articulate my point.
And then my phone rang. It was sitting on the bathroom counter next to Colin’s hand, where we both saw that it was Grant. He handed it to me, but I noticed his face was no longer looking as apologetic as it had just a moment ago.
I considered not answering. It wasn’t the right moment. We were in the middle of an argument. Of Colin’s big reveal. Of my heartbreak. Of the end of whateverthiswas between us.
And yet Iknew… Iknewhe was jealous of Grant. Rich, powerful, handsome Colin was jealous of his employee because of whatever he imagined might have gone on once between Grant and me. The hurt part of me was petty and vengeful, and I answered with a smile.
“Hi, Grant!” My voice was lively and high-pitched.
Colin’s jaw muscles tightened visibly before he looked away.
“How did I not tell you this before?” Grant said over the phone. “I snuck into Kirkman’s—I mean, Colin’s—office and guess what was inside a cabinet that those keys you were hiding in your desk magically opened?”
I walked past Colin’s scowl and into the room. “You went through my things?” I admonished Grant.
“He didwhat?” I heard Colin behind me.
Grant continued, “Yeah, but you’ll forgive me when I tell you what I found. There are pages and pages of documents and fax confirmations. Who still faxes anything? Anyway, I wasn’t sure what I was looking at, but I took some pictures of those fax numbers, and I was just running them online. Would you believe Kirkman was faxing our accounts information to our competitors? This is huge. I had to call you right away. I guess that’s why he was fired, huh?”
My mind was reeling. There were way too many damn revelations that day.
“Whoa. Oh my gosh…that’s… wow.” I closed my eyes to absorb this better, but I was wiped out emotionally and mentally. “Listen, I’m getting ready for the wedding now. We’ll discuss later. Okay, thanks, bye!”
The dark clouds loomed closer in my view through the window. The wind was picking up. Down by the beach, workers scurried around like red ants whose anthill someone had stepped on.
“Is there something wrong?” Colin asked.
“Kirkman is your guy,” I said in a flat tone. “Grant opened a cabinet in your office that I assume you haven’t been able to get into since you inherited the office. He found tons of documents and fax confirmations.”
“Wait a second,” he said, making his way between me and the window. “Grant went through my office? How? I’ve been looking for the key to that cabinet for weeks. How did he get in?”
Now it was my turn to tell him everything I’d left out before. I told him how Grant and I had tried to find Maggie at her apartment building, how we’d found the keys in the parking garage, how we’d come up with many scenarios to explain Maggie’s disappearance.
