Page 53 of If We Never Met

"About what?" he asked warily.

"Keira. Was it as innocent as you both said it was? Or is she a part of this?"

"She's not the reason we're breaking up, and those photos were innocent." Those two answers were the truth, even if they weren't the whole story.

She gave him a long look. "You might be lying to me or you might be lying to yourself."

"Or I'm telling the truth."

"I guess we'll see."

As she moved into her room, he exhaled and then headed up the stairs. He tossed his phone and his keys onto the dresser and then stretched out on the bed, looking at the ceiling. Breaking up with Nikki had been the right thing to do, and it felt good to make one decision about his life, to have something under his control. But the rest of it was still a cloud of confusion.

Would he get his life back? And if he did, would it be the same?How could it be?

The injury had not only derailed his career, but it had also forced him to stop and look at his life, at his relationship with Nikki.Had it always been so superficial?

He'd never thought about it before, but their relationship had mostly been a series of one-night stands or weekends together. He'd met Nikki right before the season had started, and after the first three weeks of dating, he'd gone off to spring training. Then the season had started.

Nikki had popped in and out of Miami. Occasionally, they'd meet up on the road somewhere. They'd spent a lot of time in clubs and at parties, but not doing real world stuff. They hadn't had to deal with mundane issues like who needed to take out the trash or who spent too long in the bathroom. It had all been fun and sex and a lot of drinking. They'd certainly never had to deal with one or the other being sick until he'd gotten injured, and that hadn't gone well.

Well, he and Nikki were done, and she was definitely leaving with her pride intact. He didn't know if her bravado was a defense mechanism or if she was even more narcissistic than he'd realized, but she'd turned the breakup into his biggest mistake, not hers. That was fine. He didn't care what she had to say about him. He was just happy not to have to deal with her anymore.

As for the media, who knew what would come next?That was probably in Nikki's hands. But she'd spent a lot of time on the story she'd spun today. Hopefully, she'd just stay quiet for a while and let everything die down. That would be the best thing, although he suspected he was being overly optimistic.

Sitting up, he grabbed his phone and punched in Keira's number. She probably didn't want to hear from him, but he needed to speak to her.

"Hello?" she said, a wary note in her voice.

"It's Dante."

"I know. Why are you calling?"

"Two reasons. I broke up with Nikki."

A longer silence than he would have expected followed his words. "Okay," she said finally. "Why?"

"A lot of reasons. She's leaving Whisper Lake tonight. I wanted you to know in case any of the media hang around town to ask you about her or us."

"Is her story about us all being friends going to hold?"

"I don't know. I'm sorry she ambushed you the way she did."

"I was surprised, but I wanted to help. I felt a little guilty that things weren't completely innocent between us."

"You have nothing to feel guilty about. And I didn't break up with her because of you. That's the truth, Keira."

Silence met his words. Then she said, "You mentioned you were calling for two reasons. What's the other reason?"

"When I left the rehab center today, I witnessed an argument between Mark Langley and a middle-aged, red-haired woman. She told him he was going to be sorry. He said he was already sorry. He told her it was over, and she said he was wrong. Then he jumped into his car and left. A moment later, she did the same."

"Really? Did he say her name?"

"No. He didn't say her name, and I don't know who she was."

"Maybe it's that woman, Mandy, the one who called him a few days ago when I was in his office. He said basically the same thing on the phone."

"I know you think this Mandy is the sister of the woman who died. Have you seen her photo online? Does she have red hair?"

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