Page 61 of Faking It with my Small Town Billionaire

“Hi, Orson. It’s Ellie.”

My eyes fly wide, and several emotions wash over me as thoughts of why she might be calling fly through my head at lightning speed.

Is that where Lily is?

Is she all right?

Maybe she wasn’t with Ellie at all, but something happened.

Why don’t you talk to the darn woman and find out?

“Hi Ellie,” I say, listening to my common sense. “Is everything all right?” I try to keep my voice as even as possible, but it’s a struggle.

“Not from what I hear,” she replies. “Listen, Orson. Lily’s in a pretty bad state. She—”

“Is she hurt?” I blurt.

“No. I don’t mean like that. I mean, since she moved out of your apartment. My sister takes on a lot of responsibility. She’s always been the one to keep us all level-headed, but I think she’s just had too much on her plate. She needs you.”

“Where is she?” I ask.

And five minutes later, I’m punching in an address on my GPS.

24

Lily

The evening brings with it a chill in the air, and so I go inside to grab my shawl and refill my wine glass. I swear, I’m going to need to detox when I get back to Willow Creek. This is my second bottle in as many days, and there’s plenty more where they came from.

Note to self: restock the wine rack before you leave.

I’m still tired, but after the Facetime conversation with my sisters, I’m now seeing the situation with a little more clarity. The problem with that is, I think I might have made a colossal mistake.

Sitting back on the porch, I think back over the conversation. In the beginning, I was so determined that I was in the right, but now, both Martha and Ellie have filled my head with doubts.

After I explained what had happened and shed a tear or two, my sisters comforted me and told me how much they loved me. But after that, Martha was the first to jump in.

“So, you saw an email from someone named Charlie—”

“Charlotte,” I corrected

“Okay. Charlotte. And because of that, you packed your belongings and left?”

By her face, I could tell she was astonished by my decision; I just couldn’t understand why.

“Martha, he’s clearly seeing this woman,” I defended.

“How can you possibly know that?”

“Really?” I cried.

“Martha has a point,” Ellie chimed in, giving me a placatory smile. “I mean, it does look like you jumped to a bit of a conclusion, sweetie.”

Had I? My doubt was clearly written all over my face because Martha then said, “I know relationships can be complicated sometimes, Lily, and we don’t really know Orson at all, but it just feels a little out of place.”

“Look at everything he did when Mom was in the hospital. He was so kind and caring,” Ellie added.

“Sure, but he could be covering up the fact that he’s with someone else,” I replied, repeating thoughts that I’d brainwashed myself with.

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