Page 80 of House of Lies

“Not even a diamond?”

He snorts. “Diamonds are lifeless.” His eyes roam my body, a depraved smirk pulling at the corner of his mouth. “I’ll take an opal any day.”

My head lolls to the side so I can watch him walk out. I really need to pee, but that means using my legs, and I don’t think I could even stand, let alone walk.

At least, that’s what I think until my roving eyes land on his desk.

Ethan’s laptop is there. I didn’t notice it when I first came into the room, seeing as I was running for my life, and then being fucked to death, but I’m sure as hell noticing it now.

My body shudders at the thought of what he’d do to me if he caught me trying to snoop again.

Then I hear Ethan’s voice, ever so faint, from down the hall. He’s in the library…and from the sounds of it, is staying there for the duration of his call.

I rush over to the desk, hesitating only a second before sliding into the leather chair positioned in front of the laptop. My finger hovers over the touchpad as I stare at Ethan’s desktop wallpaper. It’s a collection of gemstones, from a colorless diamond top left to a pitch black stone bottom right, and all the colors of the rainbow between.

I tap the touchpad and open his calendar.

There are quite a few appointments noted earlier in the year, but they become few and far between just after Christmas. There’s nothing on the 11th of April, and when I search for Rebecca or Monroe, I don’t get any hits.

Chewing on my lip in frustration, I open his emails. I quickly type in the word Rebecca into his search bar.

No hits.

I try Monroe next.

Nothing.

Shit!

I scroll through his emails, trying to think of a new keyword. Ethan’s inbox is full of emails. It seems he never moves things out into separate folders or anything. I’ll just have to backtrack to April and see if there’s anything there.

One week.

One month.

Two months.

Three months. Four.

I scroll even faster, not bothering to read any of the emails I fly past. There might be other crucial information for me to find, but I have precious seconds until Ethan’s back in the room. According to Rebecca, she had an appointment on the 11th of April. That’s where I need to look next.

Ethan laughs faintly.

Is he still in the library?

When I see an email dated the twenty-ninth of April, I slow down my scrolling. My eyes race over the screen as I search for something incriminating. Most of these emails are part of a long chain of correspondence, and none of them seem to have come from my mother.

She could have been using a pseudonym, of course, but I don’t even find a reference to a meeting he might have had April eleventh.

Unless he deleted all the incriminating evidence.

I hear a noise, and it sounds much closer than the library. Panicking, I slam the laptop closed and jump up from the chair.

“Still need..?” Ethan asks from the doorway, but his voice quickly trails away. “Cassidy?”

“In here!” I call from the bathroom. I tiptoe over to the toilet, wincing as I lift the lid before slowly lowering myself down.

Fuck, that was close.

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