Page 102 of Tangled In Lies

After a swallow, she goes back to pushing her eggs around. “I . . . mmm . . . I’m really sorry about your back and your other injuries. I don’t think I’ve properly thanked you for what you did, so thank you.”

A million unspoken things float between us.

“There’s nothing to thank me for, Eve. If it weren’t for you, I’d be dead.”

She opens her mouth and closes it again.

It’s easy to tell she doesn’t like this topic by the way she averts her gaze and chews on the corner of her lip.

“Eve, who’s Freddy?” I put down my fork.

She blows out a long breath and holds my gaze. “Listen, I want to tell you everything, but I need you to promise me somethingfirst.”

“What?”

“I need you to not do anything rash, please. I haven’t heard from Freddy since the explosion, so to be honest, I’m not completely sure what’s going on, but this isn’t just about you and me. There are other people involved who could get hurt.”

I lean forward. “Other people? What are you talking about?”

She swallows. “Pretty much anyone who’s close to me. My family, Ruby, Mason, Tyler. Thankfully, I haven’t been close to anyone else since I started college, or they’d be targets as well.”

“We need to find this guy. He tried to kill us. And he’s the reason I was in prison.Prison, Eve. I was locked away for three years like a fucking animal. I had to spend most of my time crammed in a tiny cell, was beaten up for fun, had to eat food I’m pretty sure even stray dogs wouldn’t eat, and was deprived of so many other things. I fucking deserve the truth.”

Her eyes shimmer, and she nods.

With a firm grip on the imaginary knife, I twist it in deeper. Not because I want to hurt her, but because my desperation for her to lay it all out is pushing me from the inside. “Connie wouldn’t have wanted this for us.”

A lone tear escapes her eye and runs down her cheek. I’m not sure if that was the right or wrong thing to say, but as before, it’s too late now.

Knowing someone’s secrets is a weapon like no other.

I finally understand my dad’s “words of wisdom,” as he calls them. They’re pretty much the company’s unofficial mission statement at this point.

He failed to tell me, though, they can also turn on you atany time, slicing you up from the inside until you slowly bleed to death.

And I’m so sick of it.

With no time to regret it, I open my mouth again, knowing my next words will completely change the trajectory of Evangeline and me.

“You knew that Connie was pregnant?”

She nods, suddenly looking a little paler.

Here we go.

“The baby wasn’t mine.”

Chapter 25

Evangeline

My heart pulses so violently I’m genuinely concerned it might explode.

I put my hand on my chest, as if that could keep it all together, and stare at Phoenix with my mouth hanging wide open.

“The baby wasn’t mine.”

My brain reboots, and I yell the first thing my mind can grasp, “She cheated on you?”

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