My eyes were surely about to pop out of my head.
“What the hell is she talking about, Kate?” Kai demanded in a low growl, yanking his hand from mine. My soul ripped in two. But I couldn’t give in, couldn’t let this bitch ruin this part of my life.
“I don’t know who the hell you are, you psychopath,” I snarled at her, ignoring Kai’s question.
Her smile morphed into bared teeth. “I’m sorry for the mistake, sugar,” she said.
Right when I grabbed Kai’s hand again and went to leave, I heard the fake click of a phone camera. My heart dropped to my ass at the sight of her smirking with her phone raised. I couldn’t think or process anything. Fleeing would only make me look guilty, but she had taken my picture. Demanding she delete it, beating the hell out of her, vomiting all over the floor, every single thing I wanted to do would only cause more of a scene.
So I did what I was good at.
Leaving our cart behind, I made a beeline for the exit. I was pretty sure Kai was cussing and calling my name—my fake name. There was only blood rushing through my ears as my mind chanted, She has my picture, she has my picture, she has my picture.
By the time I got into the car, I was shaking. Actually shaking. Kai didn’t get in, just stood outside the car smoking. I almost honked the horn so he would get in and we could get the hell out of there, but I could only rest my head on the dashboard, breathing deeply. The babies wiggled and swam while I sat there.
Such a despicable person. I was bringing babies into the world, and yet I was determined to lie to their daddy. He had to be out there processing everything. I didn’t know what I could say to fix this.
When he finally got in the car, the scent of smoke filled the whole thing, but I didn’t gripe about it. I couldn’t. I was still shaking. With the way he looked straight forward, hands resting on his knees, jaw twitching, my chest caved in. I already knew it was going to go so badly. It was his job to pay attention to detail, and I was sure he’d heard every word.
His throat bobbed. I couldn’t breathe. “You gonna talk?”
My resolve was still present. “Stick to this story no matter what you encounter,” Delia’s voice said in my mind. I watched him as I said, “You mean about that psycho in there who took my fucking picture?” I demanded, but my voice shook.
His head whipped in my direction, slate gray eyes burning through me, his nostrils flared. “I mean the truth.” He was quiet, calm. Too calm. “Are you going to tell me the truth?”
“The truth about what, Kai?” I glared until he pulled his phone out and stuck it in my face. Everything in me withered up.
“The truth about your real name being Chloe Dumont,” he stated with a cold mask in place.
That was all he’d needed to find the real me. The me I loathed.
Without any expression at all, he flipped through picture after picture of me in long formal gowns and skanky bathing suits. Then he stopped on one with me standing next to him, his arm slung over my shoulders, his highlighted hair falling in his face as he leaned in to graze his nose along my cheek. The memory of that picture being taken was so prevalent. I wore my fake Southern belle smile, but I’d been so detached by that point, so dead inside. Even with my efforts, I hadn’t been able to get rid of all the articles and photos.
I looked away from his phone, that distant feeling seeping into my bones.
“Who the fuck is that, Chloe?” he snarled, his composure slipping. I closed my eyes. “This article says this guy was your fiancé. Or still is. He’s been looking for Chloe Dumont since she disappeared three years ago.”
I opened my eyes. The disgusted look he wore hurt everything inside me, the detachment not really working. I still cared about him. Still loved him—I couldn’t deny that I did anymore. It wouldn’t go away just because he’d found out some of my secrets.
Furious eyes boring into me, he barked, “Who the fuck are you?”
“Take me home, please” was all I could say, looking straight forward.
He leaned over the center console, getting in my face. I couldn’t help but meet his enraged gaze. “Even now? Even now that I know the truth of things, you won’t talk to me?”
“You don’t know the truth of anything,” I stated, my heart shriveled up. Sure, he’d asked for it, had wanted me to share it, but I wasn’t ready for that. I might never be.
“Don’t I?” He tilted his head. “Pageant life a little too strict for you? Didn’t want to be tied down by marriage so you ran off to live the way you wanted?”
I turned my gaze forward once more, looking at nothing, ignoring the sharp pain that sliced through me with each of his words. I repeated, “Take me home, please.”
A plunk sounded on the center console where he dropped the keys. “You can take yourself home. Like fuck will I go anywhere with someone who’s lied to me for the last fucking year.” The look of pure disdain on his face shattered everything inside me, but I didn’t let it show. I couldn’t.
I just grabbed the keys and got out of the car. He got out, too, but didn’t look back at me as he strode away, lighting another cigarette.
I didn’t think as I got behind the wheel and started the car. Held it together while I drove home. But the moment I stepped through the door, I crumpled to the floor and sobbed.
My control was gone. I’d been so ready to be with Kai, to move everything, turn my back on my ridiculous rules, just to be with him, because I loved him. But that wasn’t enough. Not really. Not when I wasn’t willing to share the truth of my horrid life. My love for him wasn’t strong enough for me to give up my secrets.
He didn’t come back that night, and when I glanced outside the next morning after the worst night of sleep I’d ever had, his truck was gone. I wasn’t sure how I could live, how I could keep going, but I had to. I had to do exactly as I had done three years before.
15
Kai
My phone buzzed on the bar in front of me. The bar I’d spent most of the last five days at. It wasn’t Kate or Chloe or whoever the fuck she was. She hadn’t called or texted once in the five days since that horrid afternoon. Sure, I hadn’t called her either, but a part of me still hoped she might decide to talk to me, even though I was still pissed as hell.
That part of me hoped so damn much, I’d chosen an apartment that would fit the four of us, one I thought she would like the most. The hope made me an idiot. I was supposed to move into it in three days, and then I was back on duty the day after that. I still had to get furniture and shit, but I just couldn’t motivate myself to do much of anything aside from sitting at the bar, smoking and drinking.
The worst part of it was that she’d finally given in, finally decided to come live with me after her summer classes, with any luck before the twins were born. We could have been a family.
But it would have been fake. She never would have let any of us know the real her. I’d gone back to her place that night after smoking an entire carton of cigarettes and having a few drinks at a pub. I knew she would be asleep at two in the morning, so I got my truck and just started driving for Ohio. I’d been too stubborn to go inside and get my stuff, which forced me to buy a whole new wardrobe and toiletries. That was only slightly irritating.