Page 128 of Secrets, Lies and Love

“Peyton is dead,” Cecily says, entering my office at the station’s headquarters.

“What?”

“They just called me from the hospital. They want me to confirm that it’s her, since she has no other living relatives and Jodelle is in prison.”

I put on my glasses and open the notebook on the table. I can’t find news on the internet with her name. “There’s nothing here. Not even in the station’s police column.”

Every day, reports are gathered for headlines. We select what we are going to present.

“It must not have come out yet. They’re probably waiting for her identity to be confirmed.”

“Tell me the details.”

“It looks like she was killed by a pimp, in a cheap motel.”

I type in the information and finally find a small note on a sensational website.

“Sex worker found stabbed to death in apparent fight with agent.”

That’s all I need to know.

I close the computer and get up, walking to my fiancée. “Does that shake you?”

“As much as the death of any human being would shake me. Not because Peyton was related to me. I just want to know what happened. She seemed well off financially that time we met at the party. How could she end up like this, in a cheap hotel, killed by a pimp?”

I shrug. “I made her famous after she went to the newspapers to talk trash about you. I arranged for each gossip site to display her photo, identifying her as a call-girl. From that moment on, none of her former clients would hire her. They are unfaithful and require discretion. They cannot afford to have their names involved in scandals. Peyton becamepersona non grata. Since the only thing she knew how to do was sell her body, she had to adjust.”

“Was it my fault, then? Did I have something to do with her ending up like this?”

“No.” I kiss her forehead. “The responsibility is all mine. I’m the one who doesn’t forgive. I’m the one who always seeks revenge.”

“You forgave me for hiding the truth from you.”

“That was an isolated case, Cecily, and only because you are the woman of my life, my love, and the mother of my children. I don’t see myself doing that for anyone else.”

“It scares me when you talk like that.”

“I never hid who I was. You knew what you were getting into.”

“Yes, I think I knew, but I never had the slightest choice but to love you.”

“Would you do it differently if you could?”

“No. I would try to tell you the truth sooner than I did, but otherwise, I don’t regret anything. Everything happened as it should.”

I nod because I agree. I wouldn’t change anything in our story either, except the part where I sent her away and, in doing so, exposed her to the madness of that son of a bitch, Cage.

“You don’t need to go identify her. I will arrange for a lawyer to discreetly confirm Peyton’s identity through DNA. I’ll pay for everything, but I don’t want you near her, not even now she’s dead.”

* "My love."

Cecily

CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO

GREECE

They saythat the wedding day is the most important day in a woman’s life, second only to the birth of her first child.

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