Page 45 of Filthy Liar

I open my mouth to protest, then stop myself. They have a right to give me shit for deceiving them. “Okay. Hit me.”

“You broke his heart.”

I do a double take. “What? No.”

“Seriously. He moped around for months after you disappeared.”

“It wasn’t like that.”

“It was for him. And it’s not for me to tell you more than that, but you reappearing—and turning out to be another power player on the scene, in a way—has really done a number on him.”

“He’s stronger than that.” We both are. That’s how I knew we could have an affair all those years ago.

“It’s not about strong or not.” Wilson looks at me steadily. “I have a family now.”

“Jason told me.” I give him an earnest, warm smile. “I’m thrilled for you. Honestly.”

“I would kill for my kids. For my wife. Destroy whole kingdoms. And if they were taken from me, I would be an empty shell of a man. There is no strength in the world that can make up for that loss.”

“I’m not that to him,” I whisper.

“Maybe not. But you could have been.”

“That wasn’t real.”

His mouth twists in a grimace. “Yes. We’re very aware of that.”

Fuck me. “I’ll go and talk to him. You’ve got it all wrong.”

Wilson shrugs. “Maybe.”

I spin on my heel and go in search of Jason, and coffee, and answers. He’s not in the kitchenette, where a pot of coffee is brewing. I go next to his office, but he’s not there, either.

I loop back to Wilson’s office. “He may have headed out.”

“The roof, maybe.” He taps into their surveillance system. It’s dark up there, with lots of shadows, but the boss man can be made out just fine. “Yep.”

He hands me a keycard. “Do you remember how to get up there?”

“Yeah.”

“He really was changed after you left.”

I shake my head. “That started before I went. Cole changed him.” It’s why I… I swallow back that thought.

“No. You did it, too. You were a ray of sunshine in his darkness.”

“That wasn’t really me.”

“I dunno about that.”

“I’m no Little Miss Sunshine.”

“Hope comes in a lot of different packages, Ellie.”

I want to correct them every time they use my nickname. But I like it, too, and I don’t want to dwell too long onthatidea, so I take the stairs two at a time and burst out into the warm night air just as Jason turns around.

“Do we have a photo?”

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