Page 147 of Faking the Pass
And then I stopped short as I spotted Randy waiting for me.
He was standing alone… smiling.
Well, if he wanted to gloat, he could just tell it to someone else. I turned to walk back outside and wait for Presley there, but Randy called out to me.
“Rosie, wait.”
The sound of his shiny shoes slapping the shiny floors echoed through the courthouse lobby.
“Please wait,” he said, sounding a bit breathless. “There’s something important I want to talk to you about.”
I stopped and turned to face him. He was still smiling, putting on that movie star charm that audiences had been falling in love with for the past twenty-five years.
“What is it?”
“You looked beautiful the other night at the ball. I’m not sure I said that enough.”
I simply raised my brows at him. This was the important thing he’d wanted to say?
“I was a little overwhelmed to see you that night,” he said. “I was also swimming in regret over what I did to you, embarrassing you like that. I should have told you about Gina right from the start of our relationship.”
I gasped. “If I’d known about Gina, you and I would never havehada relationship.”
“That’s why I didn’t tell you,” he said. “I fell head over heels for you, and I didn’t want anything to stop us from being together. You were utterly perfect—are perfect—and I simply had to have you. Gina never meant that much to me.”
“Meant?” I asked.
He rolled his eyes. “She left me. She knew I was too in love with you for it ever to work out between us.”
I blinked several times as the computer chip in my brain malfunctioned. What was he saying?
Up was down, black was white… and he’d actually lovedme, not her?
“You told me yourself that our wedding was just a big show to promote the movie,” I said. “You were planning to marry her all along—I heard it from your own mouth that day.”
He gave me a sheepish grin. “I was just saying that to settle her down, to keep her from going into labor on our wedding day. You know what a good actor I am.”
“I heard you say that, too—on our wedding day—toher,”I said. “I don’t believe this for a second. I’m not even sure what you want from me. Go gaslight someone else. I’m done.”
I tried to walk away, but he grabbed my wrist and held me in place.
“Wait, don’t go. Please. That isn’t actually what I wanted to talk to you about. Just give me two minutes. You’re going to want to hear this.”
“No actually, I’ve heard enough of your lies to last me a lifetime,” I said.
I tugged at my wrist but froze at his next words.
“I can make all this go away,” he blurted. “The hearing, the fines. You can walk out of here today, debt free… and so can Presley.”
That last part got my attention.
“How?” I asked, my tone reeking of suspicion.
“I’ll drop the suit,” he said. “I’ll walk in there and tell the judge we’ve worked it out and there’s no need to proceed with a trial.”
“If…” I prompted.
Randy never did anything out of the goodness of his heart. Either he was going to ask me to lie to the judge in a few minutes or he had something else up his sleeve.
