Page 23 of Papers Don't Lie

I wipe the tears off my face. “No need to worry about me, Mr. Graves. I’m fine.”

He sighs, clearly not enjoying my presence. “Don’t be stubborn right now. We can turn back to that attitude of yours after you tell me what happened.”

“It’s a personal matter,” I tell him, even though I know he won’t drop it until I say what he wants to hear by the way his eyes zero in on my arm.

Mr. Graves’s jaw twitches, and it’s not because of my reply. He slowly takes my hand in his to lift it in the air, his fingers running slowly on the hurt skin afterward. I close my eyes even if it doesn’t hurt a bit—it’s because I despise his touch. It’s soft and careful when it shouldn’t even exist in the first place.

“I promise—”

My eyes snap open. “Don’t promise me anything, Kai Graves.”

He lets go of my hand but doesn’t listen. “I promise he’s never going to hurt you again.”

I don’t know why, but that only gives me the confirmation of my thoughts. He was on my tracks all of this time, and there’s nothing I hate more than a shadow.

When I look at him in this moment, I see he’s sincere, but I also spot a raging battle taking place inside him. But why would a stranger want to carry my fights for me? Why would he show so much interest when I’ve been nothing but a huge pain in the ass that made his life a living hell?

There’s no explanation I can find besides that he’s a friend of my parents or someone I’ve known in the past, but that can’t be. I would’ve recognized this face if we had met before.

“What is it that you want?” I ask, doubt settling in my voice. “Why would I trust you when I’ve just been betrayed by my own sister? My blood?”

His green eyes scan my face, his pupils dilating for a moment when they land on my dried cheeks. “Because you have no other choice.”

That isn’t the reply I was expecting to get. I was ready to hear him giving me the bullshit of what kind of person he is and that he’s a man of his word, but this? I didn’t see this coming, and what sucks is that he’s right.

“You don’t have to trust me to let me help you, Esmeray.”

I swallow the dryness in my throat, my shoulders rising with a sigh.He has a point. “How could you help me, anyway?”

“We start with the beginning. Once you’ve told me everything I need to know, we’ll find an escape hatch.”

“And if we don’t?”

“I’ll fucking build one.”

TWELVE

KAI

After Esmeray explained how she ran from her wedding and has been threatened to come back since, she fell into a deep sleep in the back of the car. I had no other choice but to bring her inside. “Inside”doesn’t necessarily entail my bedroom, and yet I brought her here instead of a guest room.

I should know better than that.

Removing myself from any context that will somehow unfold personal information has been my defense mechanism for a while, and it always works according to plan.

Until now.

It’s not like I have a choice because if I let my guard down—a thing that I did with Esmeray without even being in her presence for too long—my brain registers the problems of those around me as my own.

My plan was simple: know people outside my family only at a professional level.

However, being diagnosed with savior complex syndrome makes it impossible for me to follow the rule around Esmeray Hamilton.

As much as I tried to stay away from her and not poke my nose in her problems, when Kendrick told me about the envelopes, I was already in.

If Kendrick knew about this, he’d feel responsible, even if it’s not his fault he doesn’t know about my diagnosis. No one else does.

It wouldn’t make a difference anyway.

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