Page 71 of Deadly Secrets

“I won’t. I’m great at keeping secrets,” she responded, so I told her what I had discovered about my father.

“Fucking hell, woman. And you say you’re gonna confront Ander’s dad? It sounds like he’s an intimidating man,” she exclaimed, shaking her head.

I was scared to face him, but if I wanted to give Peter an answer about the CEO position, I had to talk to him. Otherwise, a part of me would feel like I was betraying my father.

“When are you talking to him?”

“Peter will call me when the meeting has been scheduled in our New York headquarters, probably in the next couple of weeks, before Christmas.

“Speaking of Christmas, have you figured out your holiday plans?” I asked her.

I hadn’t given it much thought, but since this would be my first Christmas without my parents, I’d been delaying thinking about my options. However, one thing was clear. I didn’t want to spend the holidays alone at Moore Manor.

“I haven’t made any plans,” Maggie answered. “And you? Are you spending the holidays with Sarah?”

“I would have loved to, but her dad was invited to Shanghai by one of his investors, and I can’t go with them. It’s a shame. I was looking forward to seeing her. I’ll have to wait until spring break to travel there.”

I knew Maggie didn’t have any family, so maybe I could convince her to spend the holidays with me.

“Would you like to come with me to New York?”

Her face lit up, and Maggie gave me the biggest grin ever.

“I’d love to! Are you sure you don’t mind?”

I grabbed and squeezed her hand and said, “Of course, I don’t mind. I’d rather be with you than spend the holidays buried in champagne and alone in an empty manor.”

Returning the squeeze to my hand, she retrieved her phone from the table and began planning. Most of her ideas centered on hitting Christmas markets, shopping, and sipping eggnog in front of the fireplace while playing board games.

By the time we left Starbucks, my holiday agenda was already full of all the activities Maggie had planned.

* * *

I arrived at the apartment an hour later, hoping I’d be able to avoid Ander for a few more hours. Apparently, I wasn’t the luckiest bitch after all.

Ander sat on the couch, furiously typing away on his phone. He turned his head as I shut the front door, locking eyes with me. I started to walk toward my bedroom when Ander called my name.

“Yes?” My response sounded sharper than I had intended.

“Can we talk for a second?” he asked.

I stood in the hallway, shifting my weight from one foot to another and holding my purse as if it could protect me from this conversation.

“What do you want to talk about?” My tone caught him off guard, and his expression shifted to one of disappointment.

“About last night…” Before he could continue, I stopped him. The last thing I wanted was to hear how much he regretted kissing me out of pity.

“There is nothing to talk about. I was emotional, and you just tried to comfort me. I get it, so don’t worry, I won’t tell Zayn and Noah. I won’t make things more uncomfortable than they already are.”

Ander stood, but I took several steps back when he tried to close the distance between us. He noticed and stopped in his tracks.

“Is that what you want?”

I could hear the hurt in his voice, but I couldn’t stand being the reason for them to fall apart.

Bros before hoes, right?

Zayn and Noah didn’t talk to each other for weeks, and it really sucked to know that I was the reason they avoided each other.

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