Page 44 of In Another Lifetime

It was a con, clear and simple, and it ended now.

I burst into the kitchen, and the two of them startled, spinning toward me with wide eyes.

“What the hell is this?” I demanded.

“Breakfast…” Brennan said slowly, but Vale’s wide eyes told me she knew I’d heard.

“Let me explain,” she said, not taking her gaze off me as she reached over to turn off the burners on the stove.

“I don’t think there’s anything to explain. How could you do that to a kid? What kind of bullshit have you been feeding him? Me?”

“She hasn’t told me anything,” Brennan cut in, moving closer to Vale. Clearly protective. That reminded me of Biter, but when I glanced over, I found he’d gone sometime in the morning, perhaps repositioning himself outside. Oh course, that was probably part of the ruse, too, if a less explainable one.

“Brennan, go to your room. Say goodbye to Vale because this is the last you’ll see her.”

“No, it won’t be,” he exclaimed. “She didn’t tell me anything. I can see it. I knew.”

“This is the bullshit about your abilities?” I snapped.

Hurt blossomed on his face, telling me I shouldn’t have said it. I knew it the moment the words burst from my lips. But they were out before I could stop them. Silently, Brennan glared at me, his eyes angry yet glassy while his jaw worked. I watched him swallow down his emotions at the verbal punch I’d just delivered, and move closer to Vale.

“Brennan, just go. Let me talk to Dayton, okay? He didn’t mean it,” she added quietly. “You know he didn’t.”

My brother shook his head. His shoulder’s slumped as the lighthearted morning turned into a tsunami of drama. He pulled Vale into a hug, and I barely gritted back my railing, yelling for him to get away from here. She had only used him.

He looked over at me as he straightened. “Listen to her. She’s telling you the truth. Vale, tell him something only the two of you would know.”

Then after telling Vale he’d see her later, he went to his room, leaving the woman I’d been growing to love alone with me in the kitchen. A host emotions played over her face as she stared at me. Regret, sadness, guilt…

“Well?” I demanded. “What fucked-up explanation are you going to go with?”

Her head shook, and her lips moved, but no explanation came. No confession of her duplicity.

“Say something!” I yelled, barely restraining the urge to reach out and shake the words from her. I’d never shown violence like that, but then I’d never had someone infiltrate my life with lie after lie after lie.

“I never wanted to leave. I couldn’t leave,” she choked out. Tears sparkled in her eyes, and my hands fisted against the unwarranted compulsion to reach for her. Everything inside me tore asunder, ripping me to opposite directions.

I stepped back. “What are you talking about?”

She huffed a breath, seeming to steel herself. Her head shook slowly while her lips rolled together. “I’ve been trying to figure out how to tell you, but…” Her half-laugh held no humor. “There’s no good way to tell someone you switched souls so you could stay—”

“You’re crazy,” I spat. Of all the things I’d expected, that shit wasn’t it.

“I’m not.” She shook her head again, a single tear rolling along her cheek. “I’ve loved you since grade school. Loved you more than should be possible. Call me co-dependent but I couldn’t function without you. We were two halves—”

My hand swiped through the air. “Stop it! Stop lying to me!”

“I’m not lying,” she insisted.

“Who’s behind this? What do you want?”

“No one,” she whispered. “I just wanted…to get back to…you…and…Bren…” Her breaths shuddered, her words almost unintelligible. She seemed so convincing, but I still didn’t believe her.

“Tell me the truth and then leave! Are you in league with Dutch? Is this part of his game? Is he even guilty of what you and your brother accused him of?” I didn’t even address what I’d seen last night at the clubhouse then later in my living room. Had I been drugged?

“Don’t you want to know who killed me? Melonie? I can tell you everything.”

“Leave. Just leave.”

---