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The front door opened, signaling Cat’s arrival. “Cool. I need to go now, but I’ll call you after.”

She nodded. “Good luck. Love you.”

“Love you too.”

Cat walked in as he ended the call, her face screwed up. “Who the hell are you talking to?”

She’d clearly heard him telling his sister that he loved her, and had jumped to conclusions. All contemplation of a gentle lead-in went out the window. “My fucking sister. That’s who.”

Cat paused, flicking her hair. “Well. There’s no need to swear.” She moved into the kitchen. “What are we having for dinner?”

Sam got to his feet, his fists clenched and pulse ramping up. “There’s every need to fucking swear, and we’re having nothing for dinner.”

She narrowed her eyes. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, I know what you did. What you’ve been trying to cover up ever since Maya arrived back in town—by poisoning me against her, deleting her messages, trying to get me not to speak to her. All in an effort to cover the lie you’ve been spinning for years.”

Sam spotted it, the slight widening of her eyes as she realized he was onto her, before her mask fell back into place.

His jaw tightened as he remembered the sight of Maya’s tears. “When we were eighteen. You pretended to Maya that I didn’t want to meet with her and I wasn’t interested. Then you lied to me with all that crap about how she was finished with me because I wasn’t good enough. The truth is, you’re the one who thinks I’m not good enough, not Maya. And you knew I was insecure about it.”

Cat stared at him, but then she glanced away quickly before answering. Another tell. Not that he needed one to know the truth.

“I can’t believe this,” Cat said slowly. “How could you? How could you believe her over me? Your own girlfriend?”

Sam rolled his eyes, considering walking out. But this was his house. She should be the one to leave. Plus, who knows what she’d do if he left her there alone? Probably cut up all his clothes and find some dog shit to smear over everything.

She must have taken in his uninterested response, because her voice faltered where normally she would’ve gained momentum. “I can’t believe how you treat me. It’s emotional abuse, that’s what it is. Everyone thinks so—”

“Ugh.” He threw his hands in the air. “This is like a broken record. Yeah, I know. Everyone thinks I’m a twat. Whatever. I want you to leave. I’m sick of all your shit, and I can’t believe I’ve wasted years on you. I actually am a massive twat where that’s concerned.”

She was silent for a moment, seeming thrown. Then she tossed her hair. “Bollocks to that, because I’m leaving you. Right now. So don’t try to stop me.”

Sam shifted ahead of her to the kitchen doorway before she could get there, then along the hallway and opened the front door. “No problem. Off you fuck. I’ll pack your stuff and leave it on the doorstep tomorrow.”

Grabbing her coat, she stormed past him.

“Hold on,” he said as she whipped her head round. “Give me your keys.”

She pointed furiously into the hallway, where they were lying on the table, then continued to stomp away through the snow to her car.

Sam slammed the door behind her, leaning against it. “Good riddance.”

Chapter

Nineteen

Ben was talking, but Maya was finding it hard to concentrate. She couldn’t resist glancing behind him across the terrace, where Sam was speaking to his students. He kept meeting her eyes, and each time it sent these little pulses of electricity into her core.

They’d spoken the previous evening, but Cat had gotten home later than anticipated and then Sam had debriefed with Liv first. He’d sounded exhausted by the time he’d called Maya, a mixture of physical and emotional hangover. The conversation had merely consisted of a factual account of his dealing with Cat, and then Maya had told him to get some sleep, promising that they’d talk more the next day.

The revelation that their estrangement for the past eight years had been based on a lie had seemed unbelievable at first, but each passing minute made it more and more obvious. Of course Cat had lied, the evil bitch traitor from hell. Why on earth hadn’t Maya worked that out? She’d been so sure of Sam’s nature, and she’d trusted him. But at the time she’d also had faith in Cat and had thought all along that Sam being interested in her was too good to be true. So, when everything fell apart, it had been easy to think that it was too good to be true. Especially after their tiff on the phone and the trauma of seeing Cat and Sam together.

The knowledge that her desire to avoid conflict had prevented her from discovering the truth about a former friend’s betrayal and subsequently lost her the love of her life was too painful to digest all at once.

Taking a deep breath, she tried to concentrate on what Big Boss Ben was saying.

“What do you think?” he said.