Page 59 of King of Deception

Grunting, I clenched my hands into fists. “God, I could!”

“This is ridiculous,” James pointed at me with his open hand while looking at Alex. “We’re not getting any real information here.”

“Wine,” I slowly nodded. “Gimme some of that wine, and I promise you,” I tightly closed my eyes, “I’ll try to be more articulate.”

*

An hour and two glasses of wine later, Alex and James had gotten the full picture. As soon as Alex sat on the armrest next to me, hugging me with one arm, my tears began to fall again.

“I don’t know what to say,” Alex said in a low voice as his hand moved up and down my back.

“How about ‘that’s some shit luck you got there’?” James shook his head.

“Technically, you were dating a billionaire!” Alex tittered in an attempt to make me feel better.

I forced a chuckle, but it wasn’t fooling anyone.

“Aren’t you the least bit curious?” Alex asked.

“Are you kidding? My head’s gonna explode,” I blinked, lifting up my palms. “What does he do? Where does he live? That car he drove, what the hell was that even called?”

“Hell if I know,” Alex shrugged.

Deeply exhaling, I looked at James. “You should be impartial. Am I an idiot?”

He briefly chortled, hanging his head and running his hand over the hair on the back. “Y’know, Ella—”

“Just be straight with me.”

“Eh,” he let out a puff of air. “You’re not an idiot.” Looking up, his eyes carried a great deal of kindness. “We all fall in love with the wrong guy sometimes.”

Who said anything about love? Looking down at my third glass of wine, I suddenly felt my stomach turn. “I think I need to take a shower.”

“That’s a great idea.” Alex stood up, sipping the last of his wine. “And I’m gonna prep the guest room.”

“Have you eaten?” James stood up, taking Alex’s empty glass and walking toward the kitchen. “I can whip up some spaghetti.”

“Jesus, guys. I’m so sorry. I completely ruined date night for you.”

Alex scoffed, “Please.”

*

If anyone asked me how the week that followed was, I would swear that I hadn’t a clue. Every day was a battle for me to keep my head on straight as I performed at work, reviewing every document twice as I doubted my ability to finish tasks I had completed a million times before. Luckily, nobody at the office noticed since gallons of coffee helped me forge a lively demeanor.

Eight days had passed with me struggling to achieve a semblance of normalcy. On Saturday morning, I decided to call a cleaning service for my apartment. After all, Nathan had informed me that he had taken care of everything and that the police would no longer need it for further evidence. He was such a professional, and I was comfortable with him since he didn’t try to bring up Abel in any way whenever we spoke. There was only the matter of payment, and every time I brought it up, he would change the subject.

When I arrived at the building, I was greeted by Dana, the cleaning lady, downstairs. Going up together, I was glad that I had some company when I opened the door for the first time since that night.

As soon as we stepped inside, she walked in with her tools, and I was held back by the fact that my phone suddenly started ringing. “You might wanna be careful. There’s broken glass in the bedroom,” I hollered as I fished out the phone. I saw Abel’s name, and my hand clenched the device harder.

Watching the phone ring, I froze in place, letting it be.

“Is everything alright, Miss?” the woman asked, and I slowly nodded.

“Yeah. Hey, I’m gonna run downstairs and grab some coffee. How do you take yours?”

“Sugar and cream,” she smiled. “Thank you.”

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