Page 13 of Loving the Liar

Never ask a Shadow for a favor. That’s what Luke told me once. Because when you owe them something, they always come for it, and the price to pay is never worth the favor they granted.

“I don’t understand. You can ask the Circle for any favor you want if you’re part of it. Dad was a board member. He?—”

“Isn’t anymore. Gerald Baker’s debts to the Circle are going to his family, but not his…” he hesitates as he finds the word to use. “…membership.”

Luke has always hated the Circle. He never took any step to be part of it despite my dad pushing him.

To be a fully pledged member, you must bring a woman in with you. Someone you’re going to marry and who is accepted by the board members, initiated, and promised as yours. Because that means heirs, and heirs mean trusted people to join the Circle in the future.

Luke might have had some contacts in the Circle through my dad, but he always made a point to never introduce any of his girlfriends to them or my family. Stupid as it sounds to them, my brother believes in love, not just bringing a woman to a secret society as proof of your commitment.

“If you had done what you were told.” My mom’s accusing tone doesn’t even sound like her. “If you’d joined when your dad asked you.”

Luke runs a hand across his face. “If you’d shared the extent of his debt, I might have. But you didn’t.”

Heart beating harder, I walk up to my mom again. “How much?”

It’s Luke who answers.

“Many men in the Circle were investors in Bakers Café. The company wasn’t doing well, but it’s going bankrupt as we speak. Dad’s been milking those men for years.” He shakes his head. “I don’t even think there’s a specific number at this point. We’re talking?—”

“We have to marry Ella in.” My mother’s voice covers the room in a blanket of ice.

My only reaction is a dumb snort.

Because she’s joking.

She’s joking, right?

“I am not marrying Ella into the Circle to pay for my idiotic father’s debts,” Luke hits back. The low threat in his tone should reassure me, but only one thing hits me.

“I’m not a cow up for auction.” The current anxiety is my worst enemy. It makes my voice sound bland, even when I’m panicking on the inside. “That decision isn’t up to any of you.”

“We have no choice!” my mother shouts desperately. “They’ll?—”

“Celine, if I may.” Chris’s smooth voice cutting in seems to release some of the tension in my mother’s shoulders. He’s been so silent I forgot he was here. “Discussions about the Circle and Gerald’s debt might be something you want to have in private.”

Oh, the asshole.

He’s shutting me out of this.

I shake my head in disbelief, striding over to him and sizing him up. He doesn’t move, barely even breathes. I’m so close I have to crane my neck back to look him in the eye. Chris is over six-four, and I barely reach five-three. My eyes usually line with his chest, but I’ll be damned if I let my asshole of an ex kick me out of this conversation under the pretense of helping my family.

So, I meet his gaze when I say, “What are you even doing here? This is a family matter.”

In my stress and confusion from the whole situation, I forget that I’m meant to pretend to have no problem with him in front of my brother. Luke doesn’t know we dated because Chris never had the balls to tell him. He doesn’t know his best friend broke my heart. He would think I have no reason to hate him.

“Ella,” my brother huffs. “Don’t be rude. Chris is doing us a favor right now. He’s the only Shadow we know personally. Our only ally in the Circle.”

My ex’s jaw ticks as my brother drops that truth bomb on me, like he didn’t want me to learn about it that way. Being a Shadow doesn’t fit with Chris’s image of being Mr. Sweet and Respectful. He loves that delusion he puts out into the world. Loves that the women who fawn over him and the men who want to be part of his circle think he’s a great guy.

I’m under no illusion when it comes to him. I know who he really is. I know that underneath his gentlemanly behavior is a selfish, manipulative, and controlling asshole. But a Shadow? I didn’t realize how bad it was.

“Who would have thought,” I rasp, barely containing the disappointment twisting my stomach.

If Chris is a Shadow, he presented them with a future wife. I knew he was dating someone, but I never thought… I swallow back tears, blinking up at him. The worst is, I can see on his face that he feels bad for me. His mouth is set in a straight line, his eyebrows pinched in the slightest.

He knows this is breaking my heart all over again. I hate him for his fake pity, and to pretend none of this touches me, I plaster a mask of indifference on my face. He can join the group of people who will never know how I really feel.

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