Page 115 of Secrets, Lies and Love

“Cage, you’re not making any sense! Can you explain to me what’s wrong?”

“First, tell me: are youwithme oragainstme?”

“I don’t know exactly what you’re proposing, but what do you think?” I ask, silently asking my son’s forgiveness for the lies I’m about to tell. “Dionysus discovered my plans and kicked me out of his life. I need an alternative. I invested heavily in this move. I can’t leave empty-handed.”

“I thought you were Keith’s friend. That’s what I discovered when I investigated you. You don’t want to be with Joseph anymore?”

“I don’t need him. As you said, I have a legitimate heir, a true Kostanidis, on the way.”

“Tell me your story, and I’ll tell you mine.”

“There’s not much to be said. Keith asked me to check that his son would be okay if something happened to him. He never told me that he attacked her. He painted himself as a man in love. I believed him. He thought Sue was untrustworthy. What he unfortunately didn’t know was that neither was I.”

“Didn’t you love him?”

“I loved him, yes, but no more than myself. When I arrived in New York and approached the Kostanidis family, I saw an opportunity. Why should I take care of a child that wasn’t mine if I could try to insert myself into their house and win over the rich man just for me? I staged a hit-and-run, he fell like a ton of bricks, but my bitch of an almost-sister ruined everything when I was practically on my way to the altar.” I feel like vomiting for saying that, but my desire to survive is greater than my conscience.

“Intelligent. I would never have thought it of you, Cecily. You have the face of a saint. Who would say you weren’t?”

“Now it’s your turn. Tell me your story.”

“It’s long. Do you feel thirsty or hungry? I don’t have much here because I didn’t expect to bring you here today. It was a stroke of luck finding you. I was collecting my things to leave thebank, until I saw you, through the cameras, arriving. I assumed you were on Dionysus’s floor.”

“Leave?”

“Oh, yes.” He rolls his eyes. “A whore accused me of sexually harassing her. I was sent home because they put me under investigation. Anyway, I wasn’t going back to the bank. I already planned to move forward with my plan to kidnap you. You going there today just made things easier for me. Want another pillow?” he asks, as if he didn’t just tell me that he planned to kidnap me.

It doesn't take me long to conclude that there is a lot of evil in Cage, but there is madness too. He acts like he didn’t drug and kidnap me. Like he is really concerned for me.

These nuances scare me even more than if he were completely evil.

“No, thank you.”

“I know it’s uncomfortable, but don’t worry. We won’t stay here long.”

“I’m fine. Tell me your story, Cage.” I force a loving tone, almost as if I were talking to a child, and at the same time, in slow movements, I release the watch from my wrist, because I remember that it is linked to my phone. Dionysus told me I should never take it off as it could be tracked. I thank God for having obeyed him.

I know he hates me right now, but he wants our child. When he realizes I didn’t make it to the penthouse, he’ll try to find me.

“I went to the same college as Keith,” Cage starts, and I look at him. I can’t hide my surprise. He notices. “I told you it was a long story. We became close because I was even poorer than him and not very popular. I saw him get rich without trying hard. Lucky him. He was generous, that’s undeniable, and he helped me buy my first car and pay off my student debt. I was two yearsahead of him. I graduated much earlier. If it wasn’t for the help he gave me, I would still be paying my loans.”

“Where does Sue fit into this story?”

“Calm down, girl. So hasty! Come on, even though we were out of college, we kept in touch. He was in his final year, and despite having a lot of money in the bank, he continued to lead the same mediocre life as always. As the saying goes, whoever was born to be a gecko never turns into an alligator. Well, if he didn’t want to have anything to do with the money, I did. I tried to convince him to invest in a business. He didn’t want to. The idiot believed he could change the world.”

“Yes, he was a fool. He thought everybody was good.”

He shrugs. “It was a good thing he was so naïve. Anyway, I inserted Sue into the play. What I, as a friend, couldn’t achieve, perhaps a pussy could. She was a recent graduate, too. A whore to the last strand of hair, who would do anything for money. Very ambitious. We eventually fucked, but I knew that to get her commitment to my plan, I would have to make her fall in love with me. Believe that I loved her too.”

“Did Keith know about your involvement?”

“My sweet Cici, do you think we were amateurs? We planned for Sue to meet him at the place he frequented most: the university cafeteria. Seriously, the romance between the two was so quick that I almost felt sorry for Keith. He fell in love with her in the blink of an eye. They got married, and shortly after, the idiot began to sound like a broken record, talking about his foolish idea of giving away all his assets. He was getting rid of money very quickly with these donations, which would hinder our plans for a profitable divorce.”

“Divorce?”

“Yes, at first we didn’t plan to kill him. Sue wasn’t so bad when it all started.”

He has just stated, without showing any remorse, that they killed Keith. If I had any doubts that he’s crazy, they’re gone now.

---