Page 12 of Lips of an Angel

“Uh, that guy wants to talk to you.” He spoke in a low voice. “He looks really official so I didn’t think it was something I should handle.”

Nervous, I approached the man. Upon seeing me, he schooled his features. I was tall, but this man damn near looked me in the eye.

“Are you Raleigh?” he asked.

He pronounced my name wrong.Ray-lee.His dark eyes raked over me. I knew what he was doing: taking in every one of my tattoos and piercings. Despite the designer clothes I wore and the pride I felt in my body modifications, I suddenly felt self-conscious.

“It’s pronouncedRah-leigh, but yeah, that’s me.”

He shuffled in place. He looked away from me, but I thought I caught him blinking back tears. “I can’t believe I’m doing this,” he muttered.

I glanced over my shoulder at Jack. “Do you want to go somewhere private?” I asked the stranger. “Let me pour you a drink?”

He blew out a breath. “Yeah, that would be great—to both.”

“Scotch?”

“Please.”

Jack was already pouring two glasses of top-shelf scotch when I stepped back to the bar.

“Is everything all right?” he asked in a hushed whisper.

“I’ll let you know when I find out.” My heart was in my throat. I had no idea who this guy was, or what he was there to tell me, but it couldn’t be good.

The man thanked me for the drink and I led him back to the office. I took one side of the two-seater leather couch and he sat on the other. It was only after a long pull from his glass that he spoke. “I guess I should tell you who I am.”

“That would be a good start,” I laughed.

I clutched the snifter in my hands to keep them from shaking. Who was this guy? He wasn’t an old boyfriend. I didn’t recognize him from any of the liquor distributors, and he didn’t seem like someone from the real estate agency.

“My name is Darren Forbes.”

Forbes? Oh. “As in, Kali Forbes?”

“That’s right.”

I frowned. “I don’t understand. Did something happen to her? Is she okay?”

Darren shook his head, looking taken aback. “Yes, sh-she’s fine. But she, um, what I mean is…” His gaze dropped to his glass, and he blurted, “She’s my wife. Mywifeis fine.”

The glass in my hand fell from numb fingers to the carpet. It didn’t shatter, but the expensive scotch soaked into the rug. My heart sank, my stomach churned. I found myself grateful that I hadn’t taken a drink yet.

“I’m sorry,” I said, ducking into the private bathroom and retrieving a black towel from under the sink. Returning to the room, I knelt in front of the couch and began sopping up the puddle. “Can you repeat that?”

“I’m Kali's husband. And there’s someone else you should know about.” He pulled out his phone and showed me his lock screen. Kali stood close to him in a red Oscar de la Renta dress thatI’dhelped her pick out. I remembered sitting outside the waiting rooms at Nordstrom while she modeled it for me. In the photo, her lips grazed Darren’s cheek, her hand resting on the shoulder of a young man between them. He had her eyes but Darren’s hair.

I didn’t need to hear the words to understand the implication, but Darren said them anyway. “This is our seventeen-year-old son.”

I rocked back onto my heels and Darren shoved his phone back into his pocket. I had one knee on the towel, and I felt the booze soaking through it and dampening my jeans. I looked back up at Darren, and his eyes shone with unshed tears.

“Please tell me you didn’t know,” he pleaded.

“No!” I shouted, then lowered my voice. This wasn’thisfault. “Of course I didn’t know. I…” I forced a nervous laugh and let myself collapse to my butt on the floor. There was a wet patch on my knee where the scotch had soaked through. “I’m a bit of a slut—anyone who’s known me longer than five minutes can tell you that—but I’m not a monster. I’d never do that to someone. Darren, I’m really sorry. I had no idea. She never talked about anything outside of her job. She never wore a ring.”

I ran a hand through my hair, unable to wrap my head around this news. I’d been sleeping with a married woman for two years, and I had no idea. A sudden urge to strip off everything she’d ever bought me welled up inside me, but something told me that Darren had no desire to see me in my underwear. Wait—Kali had bought those too.

Fuck.

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