Page 16 of Even if You Fall

“You’re such a liar,” I whispered, my eyes pricking with fresh tears. When he started arguing, I shoved him harder, trying to get him away from me. “Not that I believe you’ve left your wife for a second, but even if you have, what about all the other women you were seeing on the side?”

His head slanted and his brow furrowed, once again mastering that look of confusion and innocence. “Other—what other women?”

“Don’t,” I begged, the word thick as emotion clogged my throat. “Don’t. I know you!”

“You do know me,” he agreed as I continued over him.

“I know what you’ve been doing and how you’ve been lying to all of us—manipulating all of us.”

Hurt that looked so, so genuine tore across his features, making me question myself for all of a second. But I’d already promised myself to never be fooled by this man again.

“Get out.”

“Chloe,” he began, my name leaving him on a breath that was at once wounded and confused and miserable. As always with him, it was such a perfect combination that it had me aching for him despite my assuredness that he was playing me. “I don’t know what you think you know, but since I met you, it’s only been you.”

He lifted a hand to stop me from arguing, then let it fall to my cheek even when I tried jerking my face away. “Again, I know I messed up, but I didn’t know how to leave my wife before. But there was no one other than you when we were together, and she and I really are done now.”

I used my book to swat his arm away when his fingers drifted to my jaw and then my neck, then shoved the hardback against his chest again. Not that he moved an inch. “You’re good,” I told him as the tears finally built and fell. “But you’ve always been good at making me believe anything. Unfortunately for you, I’ve seen the real you, and you can’t make me fall for your?—”

A sharp sound of protest rose in my throat when he crushed his mouth to mine, trying to silence me. Trying to remind me what we were like. Trying to fool me once again.

Not long before, I’d been thinking I wouldn’t be strong enough to survive him because of how emotional and vulnerable I already was from the day. But that only made my frustration burn hotter. It only made my resolve strengthen as I finally succeeded in shoving him away.

“Get out,” I cried, then reached for the door.

Before I’d managed to press the book against the wooden surface to shut the door, he took another large step forward, bemusement forming a crease between his eyebrows. “But you asked me to come,” he said so convincingly that I nearly wondered if I had.

But then he reached for me again, and without thinking, my palm connected with his cheek in a slap so powerful that my hand instantly tingled and burned from the impact.

Shock and anger flared in Owen’s eyes as his jaw worked a few times before that charming look settled over his features again, ready to make everyone around him fall in love with him. “If this is why you asked me here, I get it,” he said in that liquid gold voice, his words filled with understanding. “I deserve your anger, and you deserve more time to heal from what I did to you.”

“I don’t want time, and I never asked you to come here,” I told him as he turned to leave. “I told you I’d get a restraining order against you, and I meant it.”

He shrugged as he looked back at me, that million-dollar smile fixed on his face. “You haven’t filed one yet, and you won’t.” His stare drifted over me in a way that felt far too intimate, especially considering my handprint was on his cheek, and I’d just repeatedly called him a liar between telling him we were over. “I’d like to see what happens if you try though.”

At that, the chill clinging to my spine burst through the rest of my body.

With a wink that had my stomach churning even more, he said, “See you soon, Chlo,” and turned to leave.

I didn’t respond. I wasn’t sure I could as I replayed those words about the restraining order over and over again while finally closing and locking the door. On shaky legs, I moved through the house, letting the book slip from my fingers once I made it into my room.

It didn’t matter that it was just after six, or that I hadn’t eaten since this morning. I was so emotionally drained and shaken after the day, that I climbed into my bed and waited for sleep to claim me.

I startled awake, my heart racing when I realized someone was simultaneously ringing the bell and knocking on the door.

Scrambling for my phone, I flinched away from the brightness of the screen, then blinked quickly before squinting to see the time, wondering how it was only nine that same evening, when it felt like I’d slept for days.

Gripping my phone in my hand, I unsteadily got out of bed and staggered down the hallway a bit before gaining my bearing as I hurried toward the incessant sound of a fist hitting my door. But the instant I set foot in my living room, I faltered, worried that Owen had returned. That his parting words of,“See you soon, Chlo,”had been literal.

But that was ridiculous, right? He hadn’t...hewouldn’t. And especially not this way, with this loud, aggressive knocking that never seemed to end.

Just as I started wondering if there was a more sinister reason behind the knocking—I probably shouldn’t have watched that serial killer documentary with Lainey—a wheeze of a laugh left me when I finally woke up enough to remember my neighbor.

With his imaginative words and lack of clothing whenever his mastiff made its semiweekly escape from home, he didn’t care who he bothered if he thought the dog was in their yard. He also wasn’t subtle when trying to get anyone’s attention. Loud, persistent banging and ringing doorbells were right up his alley.

Still, as I neared the door, I jolted and barely managed to bite back a scream when the bell sounded two more times. And by the time I was flipping the deadbolt, I had nine-one-one dialed and my thumb hovering over thecallbutton.

Grabbing the handle, I cracked the door open before opening it wider with a start when I saw the police officer standing there.

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