Chapter 41

The honking behind me snapped me out of my trance.

I flinched and finally pressed the gas, easing through the intersection before pulling over to the side of the road. My fingers were trembling as I shifted into park. A car swerved past me too closely, and the driver yelled something rude out his window. Another flipped me off.

I didn’t care.

I sat there, frozen in the silence that followed, watching the spot where Max and Kimberley had disappeared like it still held the answers I needed. My brain was scrambling, trying to connect dots that were blurring too fast to grasp.

They looked like lovers.

Not business partners.

Not colleagues.

Not anything innocent.

Lovers.

And Max had the audacity to come to my apartment with flowers like he hadn’t just walked another woman to his car with the kind of intimacy that comes from familiarity.

I closed my eyes, willing my breath to steady.

What was this?

A game?

Some cruel plan?

Why?

The questions were beginning to scream inside me.

But I didn’t have answers.

So I did the only thing I could think of.

I reached for my phone.

I stared at Max’s name on the screen for a moment, thumb hovering. I didn’t have a plan yet, but my gut told me I needed to do something. Anything.

I hit dial.

It rang once, twice… then straight to voicemail.

Of course.

I ended the call and tried again.

This time, on the fourth ring, he answered.

“Hey,” he said quickly, his voice too upbeat, too smooth. “Sorry I missed your call. I’ve been swamped at work. Back to back meetings.”

Lie. A stupid, obvious lie.

I could still see him in my mind, smiling at Kimberley, opening the door for her, acting like the perfect gentleman while feeding me lines about loyalty and stepping up for my child.

I cleared my throat, forcing my voice to stay light. “Oh, no worries. I just remembered you said you wanted to talk when you came by the other day. Thought I’d check in.”

There was a pause on his end brief, but telling. “Oh. Yeah, right. That.”

I could practically hear the gears turning in his head, scrambling for something to say.

“Listen,” he continued, “I’m a bit tied up right now still in the middle of something at work. Can I call you back later?”

“Sure,” I said, sweet as honey. “No problem.”

“Thanks, Lila. You’re amazing.”

Then the line went dead.

I lowered the phone slowly and stared out the windshield, watching the world blur behind a sheen of disbelief.

Work?

He was “at work”?

He was “tied up”?

Obviously with Kimberley’s hands and whatever game he was playing.

God.

I gripped the steering wheel again, but this time not out of shock but out of fury.

He lied without flinching. Without hesitating. Like it was his second nature.

Like I was stupid.

And that was what made my chest burn.

It wasn’t just the betrayal. It was the fact that he thought I wouldn’t notice. That I would just go along with whatever story he fed me. That he could smile in my face and scheme behind my back.

That’s what hurts.

And more than that, that’s what made me want to find the truth, whatever it cost me.

Because now, I was sure.

Max wasn’t just pretending to be in love.

He was hiding something.

Something deeper. Something darker.

And Kimberley… she was in it too.

I didn’t know what it was, but I was going to find out.

Maybe it involved Drew. Maybe it didn’t.

But every instinct I had screamed that this went further than Max being shady or emotionally manipulative. This was bigger. The way Drew had been distant. The way Max suddenly appeared, all eager to help. The way Kimberley had floated into the picture like she had more power than her title suggested.

It was all too... coordinated.

And I was tired of playing the fool.

If I had to pretend to still trust Max in order to figure out what he was hiding, I would.

If I had to let him believe I was still soft on him, I would.

If I had to smile while the knife hovered near my back, I would.

Because I needed answers.

And the only way to get them?

Was to play the game better than he did.

I sat there for a long moment, phone still in my lap, mind still racing. I wasn’t sure where to start yet. But one thing was clear: Max was lying, and he didn’t know I knew.

Which gave me power.

For once, I wasn’t the one being blindsided.

This time, I’d be the one watching.

I started the car, letting the engine purr back to life, and drove home, slowly not because I was tired, but because I needed time to think.

Time to plan.

When I got back to the apartment, the silence greeted me like a familiar ache. My mother’s absence was already pressing down on me, but I pushed it aside for now.

I went to the kitchen and poured myself a glass of water, sipping it slowly as I stared at the reflection in the window.

“I’m not stupid,” I whispered to myself.

And this time, I believed it.

I didn’t know what Max was doing, not yet. But I was going to figure it out.

One lie at a time.

I started asking myself some crucial questions.

Why is Max suddenly interested in my life?

What’s his connection to Kimberley?

Why was Kimberley with Drew recently?

What do they gain by being close to me?

These four questions formed a web. And I stood right at the center of it.

One more question quickly popped up in my head as I chewed my bottom lip and narrowed my eyes.

Where does Drew fit into all this?