Page 92 of Tell Me Lies

“And if I don’t?” she asked.

“One phone call and I’ll make sure every one of them gets euthanized.” He would never do it, but he had a feeling Emily wasn’t willing to risk it.

Chapter Four

He was a complete psychopath, that was the only explanation. How could he kiss Zero in one moment, then threaten to have him killed in the next? For a moment in time she actually believed he’d changed his ways. Now he’d put her in an impossible position, exactly where he wanted her. It still made no sense. By the looks of him, he could have any woman he wanted. He was obviously beyond rich, which would make him the most eligible bachelor in town. It seemed most women, including her own mother, were only after a man’s wallet.

Emily wasn’t one of those women. She wanted love, the fairytale, even if it only ever existed in her head.

Now she had forty-eight hours to make her decision. It was surreal. She’d been moving around in a trance, not sure what to do or who to turn to. Her mother was still in some makeshift prison and Jude had sold the shelter to Dalton. And somehow righting all the wrongs came down to her giving up her freedom and virginity.

Emily knew what she had to do. If anything, she could remind herself she did it for the animals, for her mother. But Dalton’s earlier rant also had her thinking about everything she’d tried to keep out of her mind all these years. Her mother didn’t care and didn’t have her back—he was right about that. Emily had no one in the world, and that was a lonely existence. It was hard keeping strong every day of her life. The animals were her only refuge, her only happiness in a life otherwise forfeit.

She sat down heavily on her sofa and exhaled. Tomorrow she’d call Dalton and agree to his unorthodox marriage proposal. It would solve all her problems. For a while she thought it could be more than that—maybe. But Dalton proved he was no different than he was in high school. Any man ready to euthanize dogs for his own personal gain was a big-time loser in her books.

Her cell phone rang. She reluctantly reached over to grab it off the table. The call display showed it was her mother, but her mother was in custody, which meant it was Dalton again. The two days weren’t up and he was already pressuring her. She couldn’t take much more of his threats or horrible news. Emily tossed the phone to the other end of the sofa and pressed her hands to her ears. Dalton was going to give her a freaking panic attack. Why her? Why was he going out of his way to make her life miserable?

She decided to go to bed early and face her problems tomorrow.

It was the endless ringing of her cell phone the next morning that finally woke her from sleep. She leaned up on her elbows. By the time she got to her phone, only to see it was Dalton using her mother’s cell again, she wanted to throw it across the room.

Instead, she faced her demons.

“Hello?”

“You can’t answer your damn phone?”

“Mom?” Emily ran a hand through her hair, surprised to hear her mother’s voice.

“I’ve been calling since last night. Where have you been? My power’s off and I don’t have the cash to pay the hydro company. All the food in the fridge went bad.”

“You’re home?”

“Of course I’m home. Can you pay the bill for me this month? I wasn’t expecting this and I’m short on funds.”

“But—”

“Can you or not? I’m sitting here in the fucking dark.”

“Yes, sure, I’ll see what I can do.”

After hanging up, she rubbed her temple. Her mother was free but Emily hadn’t given Dalton anything in return. She wasn’t sure what was going on. If she wasn’t so shocked, she’d be pissed off her mother was leaning on her for money again when she hardly had enough to pay her own bills.

After a quick shower, she headed out to pay her mother’s hydro bill. She wasn’t surprised she hadn’t mentioned being locked up. It wasn’t something to be proud of. Emily wasn’t going to mention it first.

On her way, she decided to stop at the shelter quickly to let them know she’d be a little later than normal this morning. She had mixed feelings as she walked up to the office. This was a place of joy and now it was the cause of her newfound anxiety. She couldn’t help but wonder why Dalton decided to let her mother go. Playing nice wasn’t something in his playbook. None of this could be good.

“Congrats, Emily!”

Sarah, one of the volunteers, ran up to her as soon as she opened the front door.

“Congrats?”

“I mean, the place couldn’t have gone to a better owner.” Sarah hugged her as Jude and Casey walked in from the back.

“Jude, what’s going on?” she asked, stepping away from Sarah. “Why’s everyone look so happy?”

“It’s yours,” he said.

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