Page 112 of Heartless Game

Not at all.

“It was me,” she said quietly. “I grew up on your family’s compound. My mom was a maid there for a while. But we didn’t leave because we were involved in your mother’s death. We left because it wasn’t safe for us anymore. My stepfather…he was important to your dad, but he was abusive. Murderous, even. We disappeared and have remained hidden for years. That’s who LOML is on my phone, by the way. Not some other man. My mother. We’re always looking over our shoulders, terrified your father will catch up with us. Do you know what that’s like, never feeling safe? Knowing your loved one is never safe? That’s why I escalated things, that’s why I was going to write the article, that’s why I need evidence against your father to put him away for good?—”

I tried to digest her words, to understand her fear, but all that mattered was that she’d lied to me, she’d tried to hurt me, that I couldn’t trust her. And all I could see was my mother’s unmoving body, her eyes blank, forever, my father screaming with her in his arms, both of them covered in blood.

Tovah couldn’t be trusted. I couldn’t trust her.

I’d been right. I couldn’t have a woman in my life.

We were a mistake.

I leaned over her, putting my lips to her ear, relishing the way she leaned into me. She still responded to me, still wanted me, and it would make hurting her all the sweeter.

“You know what the mistake was, Tovah? It was trusting you. It was believing you. It was forgetting who you really are: a lying, conniving hack who will do anything for a story.”

She shuddered, like I’d truly hurt her.

Good.

But then she turned her head, so our lips almost touched.

“You’re no better than your father, Isaac Silver,” she said against them. “My mistake was forgetting that. You are a monster, and not, never, mine.”

She’d twisted the knife again. The words sliced through me.

Angry as fuck, I slammed out of the shower, wrapping a towel around my waist.

“If you really feel that way, you can leave. Take your shit and get the fuck out of my house. When I get back from the game at Cortland, I want you gone.”

She stared at me, her shoulders heaving, water still sluicing over her face, so I couldn’t tell what was shower water, and what were tears.

A small part of me fought to go back to her, to apologize, to do anything to make sure she didn’t cry.

I buried that part six feet under.

“You know what? Maybe I will marry Eliana. She’s beautiful, kind, and most importantly, I know her and can trust her.”

“I hope you’re happy,” she shot back.

“I will be,” I lied, storming out of the bathroom and ignoring Tovah’s quiet sobs as I got dressed and headed out to go meet the team at the bus.

I had hockey.

For now.

That had to be enough.

45

Tovah

When he slammed out of the bathroom, I sank down, my back rubbing against the tile as I slid down the wall, hitting the shower floor with a painful thud. Water poured over my head, making it hard to breathe, and for a while I gave in, because what was the point? I hurt so badly, I could barely breathe, anyway. I might as well drown here.

I’d told Isaac everything except for what my mother and I had done to my stepfather. I’d taken a huge risk, confessing that my mother was alive, and instead of listening to me and understanding me, Isaac had thrown it back in my face. He didn’t believe me, didn’t trust me. He still thought I was writing the exposé.

I snorted. Toby had wanted to talk to me about an exposé last night, but it had nothing to do with Isaac’s family. No, it was about me. Turned out someone had taken photos of me dressed in that slutty maid uniform and when I was tied to the founders’ statue. Toby had told Veronica about it, who proposed an article about a kinky journalist who got involved with the subject of her article.Is Journalistic Integrity a Thing of the Past? Sex, Kinks, and Tovah Kaufmanwas the headline.

It was going to ruin my entire career. But I had no idea what to do about it. Toby had said if I had somethingbetter, he’d kill the piece, but the only thing I had was the exposé about Isaac’s family.

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