Page 152 of Matteo

Now I understand why Alex called him and what was so urgent.

“Take it,” he hisses, handing me his cell phone. “Look through the documents, before you choose to lie again.”

But I refuse to take it and just stare at it in disbelief, hoping that this is a nightmare I'll wake up from soon. “This is wrong. Someone’s using my access. They have to be—”

“Who?”

“I don’t know, but it's not me!”

Matteo's eyes are hard, like steel, and they pierce into me. “If it's not you, then who?” Something about the way he says it unsettles me. “Who?”

I don't understand where this is coming from. It's not me. I know that, but the synapses in my brain whir furiously and I try to figure out who could be framing me. “I don't know. We're trying to find that out.”

“The evidence, Elizabeth. Just look at the evidence.”

I push back. “Someone is trying to blame this on me.”

“What are you not telling me, Elizabeth?”

He's acting weird. There's something going on which I don't fully understand. I'm being framed and I just need to comb through the data as soon as we get back. I’ll work through this with Alex. He'll know it's not me. He just hasn't looked deep enough yet.

Matteo watches me closely, observing my every movement, my every breath like he's waiting for me to break and own up. Why does he not believe me? Why does he think it’s me?

“It's not me, Matteo. You know I'd never do anything like this.”

“I barely know you,” he hisses. “All that talk, of Chicago and the people you ‘used to know.’”

I startle. He's trying to connect the dots that don't make sense. “That has nothing to do with this.”

“I wouldn’t know. You hide so much, and then when your friends offer up information, you casually explain it away.”

“What I did before isn't linked to this.”

His jaw clenches. “What did you do before?”

I stay silent.

“There you go again, refusing to answer.” He shuts his eyes, like he doesn't want to look at me, or be here. “I trusted you,” he says, opening them again. “But now I’m presented with evidence that says I shouldn’t.”

My eyes fill, and my vision turns blurry. “I didn’t do this, Matteo. It hurts that you don’t believe me.”

“Then explain it.”

“I can’t—”

“You can't, and that's exactly why I don't believe you.”

I flinch like he’s punched me, then place a steadying hand beside me, on the couch, like I'm afraid I'll sink into it.

“I’m trying to tell you the truth.” My voice is shaky and I try to compose myself. “But you've already convinced yourself that I’m lying.”

A muscle jumps in his jaw. “My assumptions come from the facts I've been given.”

He's already made his mind up about me, but I'm more curious than ever to know what Alex said to him. Someone is trying to frame me. “You’re working with someone else’s version of the facts.”

He pauses, and blinks a few times, like he hadn't considered this. “Everything points to you.”

“Then everything is wrong!”