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“It’s Gwen. Why? Do you know her?”
“Yes!” He turns the phone around so I can see the profile picture. “That’s Gwen Ashford. Lucien Ashford’s sister.”
“What? Are you fucking serious?”
“Dead fucking serious, dude.”
Ice floods my veins. “Do you think Lucien knows?”
Liam laughs, but it’s nervous. “Well, if he knew, you’d probably be floating in the river right now.”
I think about the café. About Lucien walking toward me. The way he said my name. “He was there.”
“Who?”
“At the café. Lucien came up to me.”
Liam’s mouth falls open. “Wait. Lucien came up to you? At the café?” He emphasizes his name, like he’s trying to make me understand something.
Liam goes quiet and stares at me, waiting for me to catch up.
“What?” My voice is urgent. “What are you thinking?”
“Well…what if it’s not Gwen? What if Lucien has been pretending to be Gwen and this is some sort of sick prank? You know he’s always had it out for you.”
Nausea hits me immediately. “No. No, that can’t be right.”
“Cam—”
“I talked to her. On the phone. I heard her voice.”
Liam leans forward again. “What did she sound like?”
“Nice. Sweet.” I’m trying to remember. Trying to hold on to the sound of her voice, like it’s proof of something real.
“Okay. Did she sound Southern?”
“What?”
“Did she have a Southern accent? Like from Charleston?”
I replay the bright, sunshine quality of her voice in my head. “No, not really.”
“Lucien’s sister definitely has a Charleston accent,” Liam says. “It’s unmistakable. Really cute, actually. You’re sure she didn’t have an accent?”
“I’m positive.”
We both sit there for a minute, thinking.
“Wait. What about AI? Fake voices and all that. Is that possible?”
Liam nods. “Yeah. That’s totally possible. People get scammed all the time with AI voices and don’t even know it.”
“Would Lucien go to that length?” My voice sounds desperate. “Would he really do that just to trick me?”
Liam’s expression is careful. “What kind of conversations did you have? How deep did it go?”
The words die in my throat. I can’t answer that. I can’t tell him about the phone sex, the dick pic, the confessions. I can’t tell him that I opened myself up completely to someone I thought understood me.
