Page 23 of Dissension

“I don’t shop,” Kara replies quickly as she starts packing things into a box that the secretary up front gave her to use. “Sorry about that. I’m so underwater with things right now-”

I just lost my job, spins in her mind.

Claire’s voice suddenly changes in tone, making the hair stand up on Kara’s neck. “Kara, I must speak with you. I won’t do it over the phone and you certainly don’t want me coming to your office for this conversation. Do you understand me?”

Well, that’s a big one-eighty. Oh, God. This is it, isn’t it? This can’t be good. She knows something and she wants to confront me about it.Bile rises in Kara’s throat and for a minute, she thinks she’s going to vomit on the desk that she’s trying to clear off.

In an effort to dissuade the other woman from bringing up something chaotic, Kara says sweetly, “I can’t imagine it’s that serious, Claire. Listen, we can talk later, but right now I have work-”

“I’m not finished,” Claire says tightly. “Ineedto talk to you about Nicky. I don’t want to wait anymore.”

Oh, God. Please no. It is about what I think it’s about.

Holding on to the thin threads of her sanity, Kara manages to keep her voice steady. “What about Nick?”

A snort. “Oh, please. Don’t play me for a fool, Kara. Youknow.”

Fuck.

Kara supposes she can suffer through it. She always figured this dreadful day would come, once she found out he had a fiancée this entire time. All without telling Kara. This is karma coming back to bite her in the ass. “Fine. I’ll meet you downstairs in ten minutes.” It’s clear to her that Claire already looked up where the Benson law firm office resided in the city.

“Great!” Claire’s voice is chipper and excited, causing Kara to frown into space at the odd switch. “I’ll see you soon.”

After the line goes dead, Kara hangs her head for a moment before thudding her forehead onto the desk. She relishes the momentary pain because she knows things are only about to get worse.Time for you to reap what you sow, love.

Nick, why did you have to tangle me up in your horrible web?

Kara finds herself walking into handbag stores that she would never in a million years enter for herself, but it seems that Claire has no qualms dropping thousands like no one’s business. Some of the fine leather purses in the stores are so plain, so unassuming, no labels on them whatsoever, costing over ten grand.

That speaks of old money to Kara; the sort of people that buy things that are so expensive that they don’t even care that no one sees a brand name. The ultra rich aren’tflashy.

Claire walks and talks, her voice never rising into anything hysterical, for which Kara is grateful. She’d imagined that the other woman would give her an ugly verbal thrashing the moment that she met her outside her office building, but instead, Claire had simply greeted her with a slight, cool smile. No teeth.

“He’s been off since I arrived in town again,” Claire complains, meeting Kara’s gaze head on with an uncomfortable intensity. Her blue eyes are sharp, icy. “He’s never off, not quite like this. You cannot begin to appreciate how hard it was for me to get him to admit what it was about.”

Kara leans forward and blurts out in surprise, “Hetoldyou?” Her face must be red. Holy crap, she’s going to strangle Nickif she ever sees him again. He’d probably enjoy that though, so maybe she shouldn’t…

Lifting one shoulder in an elegant, so-so shrug, Claire replies, “He’s a good liar, I’ll give him that. I usually never trust a word out of his mouth, but the more he backs up, the more defensive he gets…well, that’s how you know you’re getting closer to the truth. Orsomeversion of it.”

This is absolutely not the conversation that Kara imagined they would be having. Where is the screaming? Where are the insults? The hair pulling? Where is the knock-down, drag-out? Isn’t that how this is supposed to go? She feels guilty enough about the situation, Claire deserves to get at least one slap in…

“Look,” Claire says as she browses a few bland leather purses that don’t excite Kara in the slightest. “You and I are not going to be best friends. I’m sure you understand why?”

Kara stares at her in shock.What is going on here?“I honestly don’t know where this conversation is going, Claire. What is it that you want? I’m not seeing him anymore, I’m not going to, he’syours. He lied to me. I didn’t know he had a fiancée and I’m so-”

Claire rolls her eyes, shushing Kara with a few hand gestures. “Don’t get all worked up. I’m not insulting you; I’m starting cold facts. Here’s the punchline, which I think is what you seem to want to get to pretty quickly. Nicky is out of sorts.”

Heart leaping weakly, Kara tries not to let her momentary vulnerability show on her features. She misses how he makes her feel. The danger, the adrenaline. Biting her lip, she says thickly, “Again. Why should I care?”

“Because you’re the reason for it,” Claire says with exasperation, bright blue eyes piercing. “I love him, but I’mnot in love with him. He and I cannot have any intimacy for reasons you are well aware of. I need you to go back to him and get him out of this funk he’s in. It’s depressing and I’m sick of it.”

Kara’s jaw drops straight to the floor.Did I hear her correctly? Did she literally say what I think she just said? Is this woman crazy?“So…before I say anything, are you still marrying him?”

The reply is short. “Of course. Our family ties require it.”

It doesn’t take much thought on Kara’s end. “Then my answer is no.”

Icy eyes flash with disbelief. “No?! What do you mean no?”

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