Page 4 of The Perfect Lie
“You should be too,” I said as I picked up my phone and headed back inside the restaurant.
“Have a good evening, Mr. McCall.”
I turned toward the young man, wondering. I knew I didn’t give him my name, yet he knew it. Before I could ask how he knew me, he was gone.
~2~
Reyna
There wasn’t anything more to be said. Davian ignored my question, but his answer was written all over his face. It was Gwen on the computer screen, and she was alive. The realization that I could lose Davian to a woman I never met hit me like a ton of bricks, and tears rolled down my face like a waterfall. Desperate to hide the emotional turmoil inside, I quickly turned from Davian and the rest of the men and ran up the stairs.
From the day I was born, my life had been nothing more than a roller-coaster ride. First losing my mom, now the possibility of losing Davian. Granted, my mom came back, but it didn’t change the fact that she had given me up. And now, the same would happen with Davian.
When I reached the top step, I no longer knew where I belonged. I wasn’t sure how long I stood frozen by the stairs until Davian came up behind me. “No matter what, I love you, Reyna. Nothing will change that.”
Davian’s breath was warm against my neck, and I felt his arms wrap around my waist. At that single moment, the way he held me, I knew he meant it. He really loved me, but I couldn’t help but wonder if he wouldn’t feel differently once he came face to face with Gwen. It was just a matter of time.
I pressed my body against his and took a deep breath. “I love you too.”
I loved Davian more than anyone else in my life. Well, except for Kenzi, but my love for her was much different. Instead of worrying about what might or might not happen or if the love we had for one another was strong enough to keep us together, I switched my focus to how good I felt with his arms wrapped around me.
I heard heavy footsteps and Patton’s voice boomed behind us. “Davian, you need to see this.”
Releasing his hold on me, Davian spun me around and took hold of my hands, gently squeezed them as he leaned toward me. “Remember, princess. Nothing will change how I feel about you. Not even Gwen.”
I nodded my head and he released my hands. I couldn’t bring myself to watch him head down the stairs. Wrapping my hands around my waist, I moved away from the stairs and headed to our bedroom. If I was going to have an emotional breakdown, the last thing I wanted was for everyone to witness it.
Hearing the girls laughing in Kenzi’s room, I hurried past the open door, noticing that their eyes were on each other instead of the door. They were the closest thing I had to sisters, but I couldn’t bring myself to let them know about Gwen and her miraculous resurrection. I was fully aware that they wouldn’t judge Davian or me. Still, I didn’t have the courage to share with them the cause of my meltdown.
I quickly walked past the other two bedrooms before reaching my and Davian’s bedroom. As I pushed open the door, I could smell a hint of Davian’s cologne mixed with the scent of my perfume still lingering in the room from this morning. The thought of losing Davian sunk in. I couldn’t imagine spending my life without him. My eyes burned with the need to let the tears fall.
Closing the door behind me, I pressed my body against the hard surface. As I closed my eyes, all I wanted was to forget the last ten minutes and pretend it never happened—like it was nothing more than a bad dream. Everything played back in my mind, and so did what Davian said. Rui had something to do with this. Even though I didn’t see who else was on the computer screen, Davian’s reaction proved Rui was with Gwen. Never had I seen Davian so angry. Rightly so; I knew firsthand what a monster Rui Salko was. If he was the man with Gwen, the possibility of her being with him of her own free will was questionable. Knowing how I felt under Rui’s control, I couldn’t imagine what this was doing to Davian. To find out that the woman he once loved was still alive and with a man like Rui Salko had to be hard for him to fathom.
With everything we had been through, I had to keep faith that our love for each other was strong enough to make it through this. Pushing from the door, I wiped away my tears and headed to the bathroom. Switching on the light, I saw the reflection of a woman I didn’t recognize. Where was the happy girl, who just moments ago was planning her twenty-first birthday party? Where was the woman who moments ago held so much confidence and knew what she wanted in life? Gone, completely gone. Pulling my shoulders back, I looked past the way I looked and focused on who I was. “You are not going to break down, Reyna. You will get through this. Have faith in yourself. Have faith in Davian.”
With a tad more confidence than before, I brushed my fingers along my neck and pulled my hair back away from my face. Surveying the condition of my make-up, which had left a mess on my face, I turned on the water and cupped my hands beneath the cool stream. The water felt good against my skin and oddly made me feel better.
After I finally pulled myself together, I opened the bedroom door and made my way back downstairs, where Davian would be. Stopping me mid-step, I heard Kenzi’s voice minus the laughter. “Reyna, you need to see this.”
Taking a breath, I put on my best smile and entered Kenzi’s room. “What’s going on? Lining up a stripper for my twenty-first birthday?”
Based on the way Kenzi and the rest of the girls were looking at me, that wasn’t the case. They found out about Gwen before I could tell them. Dealing with the fact that they knew was one thing, but nothing could have prepared me for what appeared on Kenzi’s tablet as she held it out towards me. As I looked down at the screen, my body froze, and I couldn’t bring myself to take the tablet from her, fearing that it would spontaneously combust in my hand.
As I read the headline, I realized that all this time I thought my mom and dad were victims just like I was, but instead, they were no better than Rui Salko.
“Don’t believe everything you read, Reyna. I’m sure there had to be an explanation.” Kenzi’s reassurance did nothing to stop the wheels of betrayal spinning in my head.
Backing away from Kenzi and the tablet I refused to take, I turned on my heels and headed out the door. If Kenzi. Mika, and Helga were able to find this, Davian found it as well. He would know more about this than them.
“Miss Reyna, where are you going?” Mika and Helga asked in unison.
Without turning around, I responded more harshly than I wanted to. “To speak with Davian.”
∞
Davian stared at the computer without saying a word after I told him what I learned about my father. I had no idea what was going through his head and I was going crazy with concern. “Davian, please say something.”
“I knew there was a reason I didn’t trust Giles Curtis, but I seriously don’t believe that he would have killed two innocent men.”
