Page 79 of The Truth in My Lies (Secrets of Suburbi 1)

“You gave me a key, remember?” He sat down on the couch beside me.

“No, I don’t remember giving you a key.” I didn’t really care that he had one though. I was just upset that he had nearly given me a heart attack.

“Well, maybe I just picked the lock.”

My breath caught in my throat. Crap. He knew. I had been so consumed by my scheming that I'd forgotten about what I'd done. “Ben, I’m so sorry. But your basement door was the only thing that was locked. Obviously that’s not an excuse. At all. But I couldn’t not try to get in. I…”

“Addy, it’s fine. You told me your secret. It’s only fair that you know mine.”

“Right.” I didn’t know his secret, though. I hadn’t successfully broken into his basement. But he didn’t know that I didn’t know his secret. And I was dying to know what it was.

He had a strange expression on his face. Curiosity maybe. It’s like he was waiting for something.

A chill ran down my back. What if me “knowing” was a bad thing? What if he was here to kill me? I was about to tell him the truth, when he started to speak.

“We definitely need to talk about all this,” he said and gestured to the stuff on the coffee table. “And about how there’s tons of boxes packed up in the kitchen. But I think we should address the elephant in the room first. Addy, I’m so, so sorry.”

“Well…you should be sorry.” Possibly? “Thank you for apologizing.”

He lowered his eyebrows. “Addy, you overreact to everything. How are you not upset with me right now? And how have you played it so cool for the last few days? I didn’t even know that you knew until this morning.” He pulled out the broken bobby pin from his pocket and tossed it next to the staple gun on the coffee table.

I was supposed to be upset? What the hell was his secret? “Of course I was upset…at first. I mean, you lied to me about…” What? Or had he lied at all? What was I even saying? “About everything,” I said. Maybe?

“Not everything.” He grabbed my hand in his. “I never lied about us. My feelings for you are real.”

My heart was racing uncontrollably. He was lying about something, but not his feelings. Who cared about the rest? I had been lying to him the whole time too. Sometimes there was bliss in lies. We could still be happy. We could still have a future.

“I wasn’t supposed to get involved with you, obviously.”

Obviously. No sane person would. But I still had no idea what he was getting at here. And I wasn’t sure I even wanted to know. “Ben, it’s fine. I forgive you.” I patted his knee. “Let’s watch the rest of the movie. Actually, let me rewind it.” I grabbed the remote off the coffee table. “I don’t want to miss anything important.” I leaned my head against his shoulder.

“It’s fine? None of this is fine.” He shifted away from me. “I should have figured it out by now. Before he was able to do this to you.” He touched the side of my face.

“What does this have to do with him?”

He just stared at me. “Everything.”

It was as vague as my answer about what he lied about. “Ben, I asked you not to look into him. That it was dangerous. What are you doing? You’re going to get us both killed.”

“I’m doing my job. I’m trying to crack this case before he strikes again.”

His words settled around me. Maybe he was the insane one. “You’re a landscaper, Ben.”

He laughed. But his laugh quickly died away when he saw my face. “Did you not see my basement?”

“Not exactly. The bobby pin snapped. My phone was missing so I couldn’t look up how to pick a lock. So I was kinda just guessing how to do it. And I couldn’t figure it out. I never got down there.”

“You just…” He ran his hand down his face. “You just flipped me.”

“Sure?”

“You flipped me without even realizing it.” He leaned back. “Jesus, Addy. You should be freaking CIA.”

I laughed. “Or maybe you’re just terrible at your job. Whatever that is. Look, Ben, I don’t know exactly what’s going on, but it’s probably best if I don’t know. Right? And I have a really busy day. So let’s just watch this movie and then get the house set up…”

“Addy we’re not Home Alone-ing your husband. I have a few days left to get the evidence I need. He’s planning on a move right? I saw the boxes.”

“But, Ben, I have it handled.” I pointed to the movie. “I was hoping you could help me set up a few things, but I have the general idea. He’s not going anywhere. He’ll be dead by Wednesday night.”

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