Page 109 of Tell Me When It's Over

Mom lied.

Again.

How many times is that? How long did she think she could keep up this charade? The questions are endless, and they’ll never be answered because I know Katherine Grier. She won’t give me the benefit of explaining herself or why she keeps ruining everything.

“We were happy here,” I tell her through a cracked tone, broken like the ties she destroyed in front of everybody. “We were happy and you ruined it.”

With one shake of her head, she glances over my shoulder at Kyler. “No, I didn’t. He did. The one you’ve been following around like a lost puppy for years. Go ahead and ask him about the PI he hired to follow me. This is on him. He’s the reason we’re leaving. He’s the one who’s taking you away from this life.”

She doesn’t let me ask Kyler what she’s talking about before she starts toward the stairs, her hand letting go of the paperwork until it flutters to the ground in a messy heap on the floor. “We need to pack, Leighton. Let’s go.”

Blinking past my tears, I stare at the different pictures of Mom with some guy I don’t know outside the office I had to go to get the paternity test done. The man is kissing her, touching her, and she’s smiling like she’s encouraging it. Sultry, sexy, the same look she gives all men. There are so many different photos, on different days, at different times, with different men, that I suddenly understand why she always disappears.

When my eyes go to Kyler, all I can do is blink, waiting for him to say something. To deny it. Confirm it. Anything. His eyes are apologetic, sad, and Mia looks in disbelief as she shakes her head at him slowly.

“Why?” I ask.

Nobody answers.

Mom repeats herself. “We need to go, Leighton. Now. Go upstairs and pack your things. We’re leaving.”

But they’re not my things. We don’t have things. The only belongings upstairs are items given to us by the people we’ve both lied to. It doesn’t matter that the lie I lived was by default, wholly unintentional, it’s still a lie.

One I have to live with for the rest of my life when I look back at how loved I felt in this house by the two people who aren’t saying a word. They aren’t stopping Mom. I’m not sure they know how to process any of this, Mia the most, since apparently Ky has known.

He lied too.

In that moment, I decide I never want to be like the woman whose chronic lies impact everybody around her. As the Bishop siblings, who I no longer have a bond with like I believed, stare at me helplessly, I realize I want to be far from here and the heavy storm that’s bound to come.

I can see it in Kyler’s eyes.

This is only the start of something very, very bad. And Mom and I won’t be around to witness it.

Before the front door closes behind us, I turn to Kyler, who’s lips are pale and parted, and whisper, “You promised.”

More silence.

More heartbreak.

Mia cries, hugging me tightly before stepping back and saying she’ll fix it. “I’ll make this right, Lenny Lou.”

But I don’t want any more promises.

I stare at Kyler one last time.

He never says a word.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Leighton / Present Day

The chairs are packed when I peek my head out to see where all the buzz is coming from. A giddy smile spreads across my face when I notice people holding signs with Kyler’s, Mia’s, and Garrick’s faces on them, along with a few “marry me” and “have my children” ones that make me giggle.

After Chase told me about the show, I’d gotten home to another book wrapped on the kitchen counter for me. But not even my favorite novel by Jane Austen could make me forget that Ky hadn’t told me he was going to be on TV.

As soon as I brought it up, the look on his face turned sympathetic. Before he even said the words, I knew what they’d be. “It’s no big deal,” he’d told me. But it is, and Kyler never lets anyone acknowledge that. I can’t help but wonder if it’s because Harry never made his accomplishments look like they mattered.

So, all I said was, “It is.” Then asked him what time we were leaving.

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