Page 99 of Submission

"You’re looking for some complicated reason why your roommate and I mix like oil and water. There isn’t one."

Hunter’s lips form a small, closed-mouth smile, and my stomach churns with unease. That smile is his tell.

“Oh my god. You’re lying,” I try pulling away from him, but he won’t release me that easily.

“Megan, don’t get yourself worked up. You just got out of the hospital.”

“You’re lying!”

He sighs heavily.

“Everyone who cares about you is outside in your living room, and this is the conversation you want to have right now?”

“You started it! You wanted me to tell her right then and there that I was moving out. Why?”

“What do you know about Naomi?”

“I know that she’s the only real friend I’ve ever had.”

“Who disappears for weeks at a time.”

“Stop trying to make it sound so ominous. She doesn’t disappear. She goes home to visit her family a lot.”

“Her family in New Orleans?”

“New Orleans?” That’s not where Naomi told me where she’s from, but people can have family anywhere. “I never asked for her travel itinerary. I just know she visits themsomewhere.”

“Naomi’s actual last name is Fabre. Did you know that? Her family has an old Creole heritage dating back to well before the civil war.”

“Okay, so?”

“The Fabre’s are a notorious crime family in the bayou.”

“Crime family? Be serious.”

“She’s not using her real name, and she never told you any of this, which tells me that she’s either running or working some sort of hustle for them. If I discovered who she is, then you can best believe her family already knows that she’s here, so I don’t trust her, and neither should you.”

“Wait, you’re telling me that Naomi is like some sort of a mob princess?”

“That’s what I’m saying, and if you think I’m bad, wait until you meet her family. They’re ruthless.”

I’m speechless.

And if it's actually true, I'm hurt.

“If she’s working some sort of hustle, what would it be? Why would I have anything to do with it? I'm penniless. I'm nobody."

“Don't say that. You are somebody."

"You know what I mean."

"I’m not saying that you're a target of it or that she doesn’t actually care about you. She probably does. But it’s no accident that a Fabre is in Los Angeles. That family is up to something. Maybe they’re trying to make a move in LA? I don’t know. I just know that you need to create some distance from her and moving in with me is a start. Making Lena the godmother of our baby would be another.”

My heart aches.

On one hand, I’m hurt that Naomi could keep her past hidden from me like this but on the other hand, I have to at least try and understand it. It’s her life. Her business. And if her family is dangerous, I can understand why she’d want to stay tight-lipped about it.

“Have you already said something to her about this?”

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