Page 47 of Love, Hate, Love

“Sounds amazing. Thanks.” The best thing about this conversation was that he was going to leave this be. “Chuck? Can you do me a favor? Can we not mention this issue to anyone else?”

“Iwon’t. Can’t count on the rest of the blabbermouths around here, though.” He smiled as he walked out.

True to his prediction, Missy showed up five minutes later.

“Damn, it’s cold in here. You need to come to my place.”

“No, really, I’m fine. It doesn’t feel that bad under all these blankets.”

Plus, I couldn’t risk having company tonight. The cracks in my emotional foundation were already starting to show. I could feel a magnitude-ten quake about to hit, and I wouldn’t have any witnesses when it all came crashing down. As it was, I could feel each conversation starting to unravel me a little more, and for no reason. If I had to pretend to be okay for even another few minutes, I might really crack.

“Are you crying?” Missy asked. I’d seen less horror on a five-year-old’s face when watchingThe Shining.

I ran an arm across my face, not realizing I’d already started falling apart. Guess my prediction had been off. But when you were trying to hold the water behind a cracked Hoover Dam with a small bucket of cement, who noticed a couple drops here and there?

“I’m good.” I smiled and sniffled. “I’m getting allergies or something. Promise. I’m just really tired and ready to sleep.”

She nodded but was staring very intently. “Okay, but you’ll come by if you get too cold? I don’t lock the door. Just walk in any time.”

“I’m good.” I faked a yawn and nodded, pretending I was about to drop dead of exhaustion. And itwasa type of exhaustion I felt, just an emotional one. I was spent, utterly and completely, and wasn’t sure how I was going to even wake up in the morning and keep going.

But Iwould. The way forward just wasn’t really clear right now.

She nodded as she left, but not without looking back at me fifty more times before she made it to the door.

I held it mostly together all of five minutes after she left before I cracked wide open.

Chapter22

Kade

My phone buzzedin my pocket.

John:I’ve got something. Call me.

I shutboth of the office doors and called him immediately.

“Hey,” he answered.

“What do you have?” I went to sit and found I couldn’t stay that still. If there was something off, if she turned out to be innocent…

“I didn’t get any leads on what happened with the painting yet, but as I poked around, some other information came to light you might want to know. At least,Iwould.”

“Just spit it out already.” I was glad he wasn’t here because I might’ve shaken him.

“You know her stepfather has a lot of connections in the art world?”

“Yes. He’s an art dealer. It would stand to reason he’s well connected.”

“Well, he might be connected in a way that isn’t public knowledge. He’s definitely doing some shady transactions, or at least that’s what some of my connections implied. There are also two different sources who know him personally, and are on the darker side of the art world, who insinuated that he had some sort of weird obsession with Leah. I wasn’t even asking about that. They offered it up, and that happened twice without any prompting. Whatever was going on there had to be pretty pronounced.”

My skin suddenly felt too tight for my body, my lungs too big for my ribcage, and like my body had just discovered how to produce adrenaline.

“What exactly did they say?” I could barely get the words out because my jaw was clenched too tight.

“One source said he’d met Leah, with Edwin, her stepfather. My guy said Edwin stared at her in a way that made this guy want to punch him in the face. Apparently Leah was only sixteen at the time, and my guy has a daughter her age. He said there was just something dirty about it, considering it was her stepfather.”

“And the other?”

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