Page 39 of Ugly Truths
A watery laugh escapes me. “I don’t agree,” I say, voice cracking just slightly. “But thanks for saying that.”
“Anytime,” he says. “And for the record, you’re wrong, but we’ll come back to that later.”
I take a slow breath, though the ache in my chest doesn’t loosen, not really. There was never going to be a world where I ended up with everything I wanted. I sure as hell don't deserve it, either. Silas wants me dead, and I’ll have to make peace with the fact that I’m never going to be able to fix what I’ve broken.
But I can do something.
I can help figure out what William’s been hiding. If it’s as bad as I think it is, I can make sure it never hurts anyone else. And if Peter really is still circling, then Silas and Davey won’t let that stand with Natalie involved. They’ll hunt him down, and they’ll end it.
Maybe, if we’re lucky, I’ll finally get Drew the justice she’s always deserved. If nothing else, I can hold onto that.
I clear my throat, forcing a hint of lightness into my voice even as everything inside me still feels splintered.
“You ready to end this shit with Peter once and for all?”
Luis doesn’t hesitate. “Let’s do it.”
And for the first time in months, I feel the faintest flicker of hope.
Chapter 18
Silas
Ismash my fingers against my phone andthrow it across the desk, as far out of reach as possible. The recording I had been listening to cuts out mid-sentence, but I don’t need to hear any more. The words are still echoing off every corner of my mind.
It must be late afternoon now, though I’m not sure how many hours have passed. The curtains in my study are drawn and the only light illuminating the room is my desk lamp, which casts long shadows across the walls. I don’t remember the last time I looked away from my laptop other than to use the bathroom or make coffee.
I had only meant to listen to their phone call before eating dinner last night. I needed to hear for myself whether Elena and Luis were telling the truth about their relationship. It was their first conversation since being separated, and I wasn’t stupid. If there was anything between them, it would come out after Ben and Corey hung up.
And then Luis so perfectly posed the question to her about us, as if there was anything left. Instantly, my jaw set, convinced that somehow they planned this exact dialogue, knowing I’d be listening in.
“If the only thing I can do is love him from a distance and hope he’s happy, then that’s what I’ll do.”
Her words have dug into me like a splinter I can’t pull free, and all I need is some goddamn relief.
After listening to their phone call the whole way through, I found myself pulling up the security footage from her week in thebasement and started from the beginning.
Elena began with her parents and childhood, and how college was her way to escape them. I'd heard snippets of those memories in the spring, but I never realized just how bad it had been. It might be the one story that wasn't a lie. She talked about getting into college, trying to survive, and her friend who was murdered for wanting to do the right thing when she found out how much Elena had lost her way.
I hadn’t intended to watch the almost twenty hours of footage, but hearing the story from her instead of the broad strokes Davey and Cillian provided me made everything worse, because I could feel all that she lost before she ever had the chance to really hold onto it.
Though my bloodshot eyes would say otherwise, the time felt like it passed in seconds. Before I knew it, I was watching her on her last day in the holding room with Natalie, as she admitted that she tried to keep her distance from me, but my persistence had worn her down.
My skin still tingles at the memory of that high—those moments when she’d try to mask her surprise at whatever crass thing I said. The way her gaze would flick to my mouth before her cheeks flushed pink. How I’d prepare for five different reactions, just to stay one step ahead of her and keep some semblance of control between us.
Every narrowed look, every sarcastic jab, every involuntary shiver. I caught them all and I reveled in them, because they told me that she felt it too.
The pretty lie I told myself over and over was that if I had her once, I’d get her out of my system like all the others. This only felt different because she was trying to prove a point, and the chase was as maddening as it was addictive.
But Elena’s denial only hardened the closer I got to breaking her. She used her friendship with Natalie as an excuse and insisted she didn’t want to be just another woman I brought home. I figured she’d read the worst of the tabloids, which got louder after I started keeping parts of my life off-limits. She knew that I might lose interest the second she gave in. Everything she’d orchestrated could fall apart the momentI was done.
Or maybe she knew how deep she’d buried her talons into me and how unlikely it was that I’d let her go.
My grip on the armrests of my chair is so tight that my joints ache. Despite everything she did, it’s more obvious than ever that Elena wholeheartedly believed she had no other options. And for the first time in months, I don’t know where to put all of this anger.
I’ve never known that kind of fear. Some decisions I made for myself, some I allowed to be made for me—whether out of loyalty or convenience—but they were still choices. I had resources and people who cared, whether I wanted them to or not.
What if she really did believe there was no way out and everything that happened was collateral damage in her trying to survive?
