"Caleb. I was going to call you tom?—"
"We're done." I pace across the kitchen and back. "I'm not doing this anymore. You're gonna have to hire someone else if you want to destroy her, and I'm going to stop them too." My jaw feels so tight, I can barely speak without gritting my teeth.
"Calm down. What happened?"
"You damn well know what happened." I'm so mad, I can't think. I really liked this woman a lot, and it wasn't just because she was damn gorgeous, either. She and I have this spark that I've never experienced with anyone before, and now it's gone—extinguished like a candle snuffed out, smoldering and dead.
"Oh, I guess she found out about your surveillance and now she's upset…" He chuckles like this is no big deal, so sadistic, he doesn’t care that he's emotionally toying with people. The minute he noticed that she liked me, he was probably determined to see this outcome.
"You're heartless, you know that? That kid deserves a better father than you can ever be to him. What are you teaching him?" I'm not foolish enough to ever believe that my words will make a difference here, but I don’t have to go along with him anymore.
"Careful," he says in a warning tone, but I've dealt with scarier men than him. I haven't done anything illegal and he can't threaten me. The only thing he could've done to me to hurt me is already done.
"No. I'm done. Lose my number. And if you use a single word I wrote against her in that courtroom, I'll testify under oath that you hired me to conduct surveillance on your ex-wife under false pretenses. Every detail, Derek. How you found the house listing. How you paid my deposit. How you coached me on what to look for. All of it."
I start pacing again, raking a hand across my head as I start wondering if there's any way to fix this. I may be able to observe Olivia, but she'll never trust me again. If I do see someone else around her trying to mess with her, she won't ever believe me. God, this is so messed up now, and just when we were really clicking.
And poor Ethan. That kid's gonna get taken away from his mother because his father is a total jerk, and what then? He just turns out as manipulative and sadistic as his dad?
"You're making a mistake," Derek says quietly.
"I've already made the mistake. Now I'm trying to fix it." I hang up and drop the phone on the counter and stand there with my pulse hammering. Olivia deserves so much better than all of this and I'm the one who escorted it right to her front door.
Derek can't sway a judge with the information I gave him because it's not even damning, but if Olivia's boss comes forward to testify that someone called in warnings about her and the judge couples that with soccer moms seeing her break down in public, then add to that her medications list… He could paint a very damning picture. None of those things isolated is bad, but Derek is a fucking snake. He's not going to explain things rationally. He's going to twist facts and conflate evidence.
He'll paint Olivia like a loose cannon, back it up with the prescriptions she takes. And God only knows what he'll say to Ethan to feed that kid’s head full of bullshit so when the judge questions him, it makes Olivia look worse.
I sink to my kitchen island where my computer sits untouched for days. After my last report, I felt so conflicted telling Derek anything that I haven't even opened it other than to search for buildings in Troy that may be good for a security firm. I wasn't joking when I told Olivia's boss I may start the firm here instead of in North Carolina.
At the time, I was feeling foolishly hopeful that somehow, things would work out between Olivia and me. Now I know that's not going to happen. My hopes of jumping right into a relationship as if fate had ordained it have now been dashed.
But as I stare at the closed laptop feeling helpless, unsure whether I can stop Derek or not, I'm sure as hell going to try. If he's this much of a viper in his own relationship, imagine what he could be doing to other helpless victims. Tigers don't changetheir stripes. Derek has probably done something similar to this before, and I'm going to find out if he has.
And if he has, I'm going to use this against him. Because even if Olivia wants nothing to do with me anymore, I care enough about her to want to protect her now, if for no other reason than to clean up my mistake and learn from it.
17
OLIVIA
Ipull into the school pickup line and ease to a stop behind a row of minivans and SUVs. The usual afternoon chaos unfolds around me with kids spilling out of the building in waves, but today, everything feels heavier. After what happened with Caleb, my depression has gotten worse, but I have to stay strong. Ethan needs to see his mom holding it together, not falling apart over a man who turned out to be just another lie.
The line creeps forward slowly. I glance in the rearview mirror and adjust my hair, smoothing it down. A few days have passed since I slammed the door on Caleb, but the ache in my chest hasn't eased, though it's not as bad as what Derek put me through. Still, every quiet moment brings it back. The look on his face of shame and guilt was only more proof to my battered heart that he knew what he was doing and he never cared one bit.
Ethan bursts through the doors with his backpack bouncing on his shoulders. He scans the cars until he spots mine and jogs over, his face lighting up when he makes eye contact. I unlock the door and he climbs in, tossing his bag to the floor.
"Hi, Mom," he says, buckling his seatbelt.
"Hey, buddy. How was school?" I pull out of the line and head toward home, trying to keep cheer in my tone. He doesn't need to see me breaking down crying again. He already saw that once a few days ago.
"Good. We had a substitute in math and she let us play games at the end." He kicks his feet against the seat in front of him, then stops when I give him the look. "Sorry."
I reach back and squeeze his knee for a second. "Sounds fun. You finish that worksheet I signed?"
"Yeah." He digs through his backpack and pulls it out, waving the paper at me. "All done."
I ask him about recess and his friends, nodding along as he chatters. The words flow out of me automatically, the sunny front I always put up. Inside, though, my stomach twists. I've replayed that moment in Derek's office too many times and it makes my skin crawl even now. How could he slither into my life just to gather information to feed back to the man trying to destroy me, all the while knowing what it'd do to me? It wasn't like it was a secret between us.
As we turn onto our street, Ethan goes quiet for a minute. Then he asks the question I've been dreading for days.
