Page 60 of Scar

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Tom and Simonearrived about an hour and a half later. Not only did they bring a very sleepy Grayson and Amelia, but they also had Mark with them. Tally tried to hide her scowl, not sure she wanted to talk about her mystery man in front of Mark. She hadn’t really forgiven him since his birthday party two days ago.

“I heard about your restaurant,” he told her, pulling her into a hug. “I’m so sorry. I tried to call you yesterday, but you never picked up.”

Clearly, he hadn’t taken the hint that she didn’t want to talk to him. “I was really busy with the police and the fire marshal and then dealing with the insurance company, notifying my employees and vendors…”

Mark squeezed her tighter for a second and then stepped back. “I would have come over to help you if you’d asked.”

“Tom was here,” she informed him shortly. “Look, Mark, about your birthday party?—”

“I know, I know,” he sighed. She felt him lift his hand and knew he was running his fingers through his hair, which he did when he was nervous. “I fucked up, Tal. I’m really sorry. I just… I called my mom to tell her and she started talking about rings and how excited my grandma would be if I proposed at my party. Fuck, I just… I froze. I’m the oldest of my siblings and I’m the only bachelor! It’s embarrassing. I got her off the marriage track but I just…” He sighed again before shrugging. Tally was still standing close enough to him to feel the motion. “I panicked. I’m really sorry. I told them all that we’d broken up after you left the party.”

Guilt filled her that he’d had to face his family alone because she’d left early. Tally reached for his hand. “Thank you for the apology. I forgive you.”

He squeezed her fingers. “Still friends?”

Tally smiled at him. “Always.”

“Good, because I smell cinnamon and dough. Were you making your ooey-gooey yummy cinnamon buns?”

Tally shook her head at his boyish excitement. She expected to feel regret for breaking up with him, to feel that hesitation that maybe, just maybe, she’d given up on them too soon… But she didn’t. She felt…nothing. There wasn’t an ounce of romantic intent when she thought of Mark, even though he’d been her boyfriend only two weeks ago.

Simone came back into the room from putting the kids in Tally’s bedroom as Tally said, “I needed to do something while waiting for you guys so I cooked.”

Yet she had no intention of feeding the bodyguards standing outside her apartment like sentinels. Something reallywaswrong with her.

Simone, Tom, and Mark took seats at her island as she went to work serving them. When Simone tried to help, Tally shooed her back to her chair.

“Okay, what I am going to tell you cannot go beyond us. I need all of you to swear to me.”

Though she heard the confusion in their vows, all three still gave them.

Tally took a deep breath and started from the beginning. She told them about the night she’d walked back to her apartment and been accosted by two street thugs. How she’d defended herself, and after they ran off, she’d felt a lone man behind her. She explained how she knew that that was the man inside her apartment when she’d called the police. She didn’t know who he was or what he wanted, but that heneverharmed her. Nor did she know how he kept getting in and out of her apartment without using the front door.

Then how he’d followed her to the restaurant the next morning. How he’d witnessed her hiding coins in her dining room for Grayson and then feigning forgetting her drink so he could sneak her container of food out.

How he never talked, how she didn’t even know his name, but was a constant presence in her life.

She recalled the situation with Noah and how she was sure he’d done something when he was upset with her and how her mystery man had merely appeared behind her, having her back. Then Noah apologized and undid whatever it was he’d done. She told them how her mystery man had cleaned up her desk, organizing her paperwork so she could actually get some office work done. She confessed to Mark about how his apartment had gotten so clean the night she’d come over and they’d broken up over a glass of wine. To say he was pissed was an understatement, but he let her continue talking.

She went on to explain how she’d started talking to her mystery man and making him breakfast. How he’d stopped hiding and started sitting with her, listening to audiobooks or her stories about her life. How he’d walk beside her instead of behind her.

It was harder to confess about Gordon Tremont. How he’d been harassing her since the day she’d outbid him on the building that would become her restaurant. She explained that she believed him to be behind several occurrences at her restaurant, as well as sending the thugs after her. Her lawyer repeatedly told his lawyers that her building was not for sale, but he never backed down.

She did not tell them about their evening at her storage unit or about him guiding her hand to his throat and the scars she’d discovered there. That was too…private, too intimate. That memory was just for her.

She continued on, explaining how she believed Gordon Tremont was responsible for her restaurant burning down. As hard as it was to say, she also confessed to the fact that she suspected her mystery man killed the man in the alley behind her restaurant to protect Grayson, which also confirmed to Tom who Grayson had described brought him to her apartment.

And finally, she told them how he disappeared for most of yesterday and her pleading with him to speak with her the moment he’d returned—but before he could, he’d been kidnapped.

It felt like a betrayal, but she also confessedwhohad done the kidnapping. She couldn’t explain anything beyond that her father had ‘enemies’ and claimed her mystery man was one of them. She very specifically told them that they could not ask questions regarding who her father was and what he did for a living, having to trust her vague explanation.

“So it sounds like your father did the right thing,” Mark said. There was a stiffness to his voice that made Tally wince. “He apprehended a criminal that was stalking you right under your nose.”

“He was not stalking me,” Tally snapped. “Were you not listening? I knew he was there the whole time.”

“How do you know he didn’tletyou know he was there?” Mark asked in return.

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