Page 111 of Tangled In Lies

He shakes his head and lifts his hand as if to touch me but drops it again. “No, everything’s perfect.”

His gaze is so intense my cheeks heat. “So, do you think one of them could be Freddy?”

He exhales loudly. “We checked them and their dads again, but without any luck. And like you said, it could be anyone, and it’s not like we have any solid leads.”

“Gosh. I wish it was over already.” I grab my mug from the table and take a sip of my tea.

Phoenix clears his throat. “There’s something I haven’t told you yet.”

I swallow the warm liquid so fast, it almost goes down the wrong pipe. “More secrets?”

“Yes and no.” He pauses. “The only reason why I haven’t told you yet is because he’s been quiet for a while, and you’ve already had enough shit on your plate.”

A chill goes down my spine. “He?”

“Someone’s been sending me messages too, and I think it might be the same person as Freddy.”

“What?” Tea splashes over my hands and clothes, but I ignore the mess. “Did he make you do things as well?”

He immediately shakes his head. “No. My messages weren’t like yours, which is why I wasn’t sure if they came from the same person. For me, it started a few weeks after I was arrested. My dad, being the controlling and shady person he is, had arranged a phone for me that I had access to when specific guards were on rotation. When I checked it a few weeks after my arrest, there was a message from my dad but also two messages from an unknown sender. One of them was the recording of your nine-one-one call.”

I swallow, the guilt trying to eat me alive like every single time.

Phoenix blows out a breath. “He told me to call him Angel and was acting like he was my friend, helping me uncover your betrayal. From then on, I got messages from him several times a month, updating me about your life and sending pictures of you. Pictures of you smiling at school and having fun with your friends. Doing all the things I couldn’t do because you took that from me. He stoked a fire in me until thoughts of revenge were all I could think of.”

“He pitted us up against each other.” The breath is stuck in my airway until I gasp. “And he told you to call him Angel?”

He nods.

I huff a laugh, but there’s no humor in it. “He told me to call him Devil.”

Phoenix shakes his head. “Very original. Angel and Devil.”

I’m still reeling from all the new info. “I can’t believe he was watching me the whole time and taking pictures of me.”

Phoenix’s Adam’s apple bobs. “I’m not proud of myself, but nothing riled me up more than seeing you happy and free while I was locked away. At that point, I’d already met Holden, and since there was no hiding the phone from him, I told him everything. One time, I imagined how you’d react when you saw me again and realized that’s probably the last thing you’d ever want to do. He joked about me marrying you, but over time, I became obsessed with the idea of making your life a living hell by forcing you to be with me every single day. The continued updates on you kept that obsession burning like a wildfire.”

The words rush out of him, like his brain wants those nasty thoughts out of his head as quickly as possible.

I shake my head in a daze. “He knew exactly what he was doing.”

“I hate myself for falling for the whole charade so easily.”

Unable to stay away, I close the distance between us until I’m almost in his lap. “How could you not buy into it? You were in prison because of me. None of that was a lie, no matter how much I wish it was. I hated you for what you did to me and then my sister, but my heart still broke into a million pieces when I made that call.”

With each new secret we reveal, a puzzle piece clicks intoplace, exposing how endlessly screwed up this entire situation is. Way worse than I ever could have imagined.

The paranoia isn’t helping either.

Just thinking about the engagement party tomorrow has me on edge. Will we be able to make it through the event without anything crazy happening?

Chapter 28

Evangeline

Holden puts his phone away. “Showtime, Princess. Jo is here.”

“Okay.” I smile at him, hoping it comes off as real.

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