Page 60 of Desolation

Landon rubs his hand through his hair before taking a seat at the kitchen island again and looking back at the papers on it. “You can leave Mari. We have business to discuss.”

My heart freezes at the temperature of his cold words. I’ve seen him be a dick, a cocky bastard, and a broken man but never have I seen him be so frigid to me or anyone for that matter.

I look at Dax but he just shakes his head as he walks over to the island. I grab my clutch off the coffee table and take my leave. Once again feeling like the woman being put in her place in the corner.

I turn and walk out of the room with pride long enough for them not to question me. But as I walk down each step to the guest house a little bit of my heart breaks. Miss Independent fading away with every step and every tear.

* * *

I lay in the pool on a floatie as I watch the night sky. I decided a swim was best to clear the alcohol fog in my brain. At first, I thought to keep drinking but decided against it.

Landon and Dax have been inside for nearly three hours. A few they spent arguing. I have no idea about what and I am sure it’s not me. From the bitterness in Landon’s voice and the rude dismissal, I am sure he is done with me.

It didn’t take long for me to deduce that they work together. And I don’t know what that means for me. Will Dax give up on helping me? Will Landon speak to me again?

I don’t know why I am thinking about him now. I’ve been an awful person. Lying to him since I met him. I knew I never should have engaged with him. Never should have asked him to go to dinner that night. But my loneliness got the best of me.

I’d been living in darkness for such a long time. The only thing that brought me joy were my kids. Even my job was starting to wane on me and that was before everything blew up in my face with those deposits into the accounts.

I guess you could say I’m depressed. But who wouldn’t be? My husband is gone most of the year, I was living a life I never had planned for myself, and I was surrounded by my stuffy mother-in-law every weekend criticizing me about the way I was raising my children.

I wasn’t lying when I told Landon I wanted to be a marine biologist. But after I found out all the ugly truths about my father, I changed my path. I wanted to take my family name out of the sewage it was soaking in and bring it into the light. I wanted to make something of myself and I wanted to give my mother the freedom she desperately dreamed of.

At least I got one of the two.

But like my mother said we all make sacrifices. And I suppose my happiness was the greatest sacrifice of all.

“Want to tell me any more lies?”

The sound of Landon’s voice startles me and I flip out of the floatie and go under. I’m almost tempted to stay under, to scream until the water fills my lungs. But what good would that do? It wouldn’t solve any problems.

I push up to the surface and back up to the opposite side of the pool that he’s standing on. “I didn’t tell you any lies.”

Liar.

“No? David, I mean Dax, as you call him, had some other things to say to me.”

Asshole. I am going to kill him.

“He said you don’t live in Chicago.”

Murder. He will be murdered.

“Said you live in Boston.”

The second I am alone I am digging him a grave.

“That your husband is blackmailing you and that it might have to do with bad people.”

He is going to die a thousand deaths.

“That you escaped here looking for answers. To protect yourself in case your instincts were true.”

Torture. He deserves to be tortured.

“He didn’t tell me who your husband was though. Just that he was a prominent figure in the Boston business scene.”

Okay, maybe not tortured. But Dax had no right spilling my secrets.

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