Page 116 of The Professor's Possession (Crystal River Billionaire Brothers)

Now who’s becomethe stalker.

I’ve gone all the way to Boston from Crystal River on the train hoping to sniff out some of Spencer’s past – especially the stuff I couldn’t find online – and now I’m coming straight back with definite proof that what I saw in his house is real and not just me creating some fantasy. He has a wife. They went back to Crystal River together. I am not crazy.

And all of this was down to my stalker instincts.

But I don’t feel relieved. Or satisfied. Or victorious. I simply feel hurt. Betrayed. Let down.

For a brief moment there, I really thought I might’ve had something with the tall handsome professor, but it all turned out to be nothing but a lie.

I’ve wasted my time. I’ve fallen behind in my academic work, and for what? A deceiving cheat.

But at least I know for sure now.

I definitely think I should square up to the man and call out his fraudulent ways. I want to let him know I'm not putting up with his deceitful crap and even though I might be young and green, I've got enough self-worth to shut him down. It's a shot at getting back some of my pride in all this.

As I board the train back to Crystal River, I take in a whiff of a random scent as it passes by me. It’s the same smell as Spencer’s aftershave. Rich and so finessed. It fills me up like a drug, and I instinctively find myself swiveling my head from side to side, searching for him.

But he’s not here.

It’s just someone else wearing the same expensive aftershave.

How strange it is when something as simple as a smell can bring you straight into a memory like you’re experiencing it for the first time? For a moment there, it felt like I had been transported back to the moment I first met him running in the rain. Him giving me a helping hand in the dark and the torrents. Me wondering who this man was.

Well, that all turned out to be a lie, didn’t it?

I spend the entire train journey back to Crystal River without music or a book or any distraction beyond the thoughts in my head. Thoughts of different ways to confront my professor. Of what to say to him, and where. His place? University? In his class in front of everyone? That would create a stir, for sure.

But it turns out that I don’t need to make any plans and that the universe will offer Spencer Penmayne to me. I spot his car on the way back from Crystal River’s train stop in the taxi. It’s not hard to miss the professor’s unique vehicle.

His car is sitting comfortably next to Crystal River’s main park. The one right in the middle of town. The one with the statue of the town’s founder in the middle. The one I once spotted the professor running at.

“Just stop here, please.” I guide the taxi driver to park alongside the sidewalk outside The Oak coffee shop. “I’ll get out now, thanks.”

I pay the driver and then cross the street. I march through the park, keeping to the edges so as to not be conspicuous. I still can’t see him. I don’t want him spotting me first. He’s probably out for a run or something, knowing him. Maybe even with his wife whom he’s keeping hidden from me.

It doesn’t take me long to find him. Fortunately, he doesn’t see me first like I feared he would.

He’s at the park’s playground, standing a few yards back from it. He’s smiling.

I quickly notice the reason for his joy.

A little girl runs up to my professor. She’s no older than five. The girl is wearing a light blue dress. She raises her arms to Spencer, begging for something. He acquiesces and lifts her in the air.

The whole thing takes no more than a few seconds. But it is a few seconds that change my whole world.

I feel my knees buckle.

The realization hits me as quickly as I see the little girl.

Spencer has a daughter.

55

OLIVIA

Should I do it?Should I confront the man who’s led me in an elaborate lie that now involves a freakingdaughter?

Yes. I should.

---