Page 85 of Love and Loathing

Liv’s sympathy deepened further, eyes almost shining with tears. “Who it was. The person who leaked the emails.”

“Who?” Aubrey asked, though everything told him he was walking into a trap. To his doom.

Liv smiled sadly. “It was Evie.”

Aubrey jerked back. “No. Not you, too. I’ve already had this conversation with George. It wasn’t her.”

He tensed as Liv stepped towards him, but she walked past him, back into the living room, and got her phone from her bag. She tapped at the screen for a moment, then handed it to him.

“I’m so sorry, Aubrey.”

They were emails. Screenshots. But not his emails, not BlacktonGold. It was Evie’s name. A half-dozen or so emails sent between her and an FTP account.

—Yes, I understand the plan. He’s arriving on Saturday. It’s almost definite that he’ll bring his laptop. It’s a working weekend…

—I’ll have to get friendly with him, be in the room when he’s using it…

—He’ll think I’m after Domnall. He won’t suspect what I’m really doing…

—Don’t worry. I can be persuasive when I want to…

Everything was silent for a very long time. Aubrey held the phone, looked at the words, a distant ringing in his ears. Maybe this was what death felt like, a strange, detached part of him thought. The point where consciousness leaves the body. Escapes the ruined carcass. Gives up. No hope.

Except dying wouldn’t hurt so much. Or there’d be an end to the pain, anyway. This… This was…

He sucked in a breath, phone falling to the sofa, black rectangle on the leather.

“Was she?” Liv asked. “Very persuasive? I suppose she must have been.”

She came over, tried to put a hand on his shoulder. He lurched away from her touch.

“Go away. Get out of here.” His voice was low, dangerous, but she ignored him.

“You don’t want to be alone right now, Aubrey. I can imagine how you’re feeling.”

She couldn’t. Didn’t have a heart to be broken. Broken again, and worse… Somehow even worse than the last time…

“Where is she right now?” Liv asked.

“Out.”

“Left this morning, did she? Early? Before the story broke?”

Aubrey turned away, hand over his mouth, holding back he hardly knew what, wouldn’t have been surprised if it was blood. God it hurt, it hurt, it hurt, it hurt…

Was he so stupid? How had he not seen? It had seemed so real… Surely it was real… She hadn’t really…

I can be persuasive when I want to…

“Let me make you that coffee,” Liv said. “Sit down. You’ve gone white, Aubrey. Jesus, you’re shaking…”

She had a hand on his arm. He shook it off, moved away across the room.

“Get out, Liv. Just go.”

“I’m not leaving you in this state.”

She went into the kitchen. Aubrey’s eye fell on the phone, still on the sofa where he’d dropped it from his numb hand. He wanted to smash it, pound it to dust, as though that could erase it, make it untrue.

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