6

CHAPTER Six

Arlyn

“Arl.” Liam said my name softly.

I kept on looking dumbfounded at Liam, my brain trying to work up a connection between him and Reid.

“You know her?” It was Reid who asked Liam, but he didn't respond, looking at me through narrowed eyes.

“What's she doing here?” He asked no one in particular.

I felt rather than saw my mother looking at both of us, and I returned her look, drawing a blank expression over my face to cover up my initial shock, but it was already too late. Everyone had seen my reaction.

“Do you two know each other?” she asked curiously, asking almost the same thing Reid had asked.

“No.”

“Yes.”

We answered at exactly the same time, and I saw Reid cock an eyebrow at us out of the corner of my eye.

“Yes, we do.” Liam repeated even though I was subtly shaking my head at him. I watched the corners of his lips and knew he was going to take this as an opportunity.

Reid walked back to his seat, and Liam took one opposite me, his eyes still locked on me.

The staff set up the table for breakfast, but everyone ignored the dish, all wanting to hear the story behind Liam and me. Even Bradley.

“How do you guys know each other?” he asked Liam now, leaning forward with his elbow on the table.

I glared at Liam, trying to get him to understand I didn't want him to say anything. But he smiled at me mischievously.

“Well… you see… she is my girlfriend,” he said with a smile, and I rolled my eyes.

The lying dick…

“That's a lie. We used to date but not anymore. We broke up after all…” I explained to everyone before focusing an accusatory stare at Liam. “Something he seems to conveniently forget.”

My stepfather took in my words before addressing Liam again.

“Is what she says true?” he asked Liam.

Liam sighed dramatically and leaned back in his chair, refusing to look my way but focusing on the senator. “Not entirely accurate, sir… We do have a misunderstanding, but it's something that we are trying to settle… You see, I love Arl very much.”

My mum gasped, and Ella was staring open-mouthed at Liam, while I couldn't read Bradley. But the person's reaction I was really most curious about was Reid.

I looked at him and caught him staring openly at me… "No glaring" is a more appropriate word… His mouth was a thin hard line, and his eyes were narrowed at me. It was almost like he cared.

And that somehow excited me. That meant he was beginning to get curious about me.

I broke eye contact first and swung my head around to look at Liam. I knew my look was murderous, but he wasn't fazed by it.

An awkward silence filled the room as all present tried to guess the truth.

Bradley cleared his voice suddenly. “Let's eat. The food is getting cold.”

His words were magic words, spurring everyone into action as each person loaded up their plates with slices of bread and pudding.

I was aware of Liam watching me closely, almost as much as Reid was also watching him, but I fought to act like I was unaware, even though my brain was hard at work.

Who was Liam to Reid, and what connected them together?

If their earlier display was anything to go by, then it meant they were close to each other, though just how close, I had no idea.

“So, Liam dear, how did you two meet?” My mother asked out of the blue and mentally scolded the woman for encouraging him.

Liam took his chewing on a piece of pudding before he began his narration.

“Well, we met in college. She happened to be on the cheerleading team, and I was like… oh my God! She's so beautiful….”

Yeah, right! Yet you were fucking someone else.

I dropped my cutlery set and stood up, leaving my food untouched. My movement drew my mother's attention, and she looked at me with concern, her eyebrows furrowed together.

“Where are you going, baby?” she asked, reaching out to touch my hand. “Are you not feeling okay?”

I felt Reid's eyes on me, and I looked at him, locking gaze with him as I responded to her. “I will be back. I just remembered there was a really important one I ought to have made.”

Allison opened her mouth to speak, but Bradley beat her to it, his voice heavy with disapproval even though it was calm and low. “You are already seated at the table. Can't it wait till after you're done with breakfast?”

I was still locked in a gazing contest with Reid, seeing the judgment in his eyes plain as day.

“No.” I replied to my stepdad and hurried out of the offensive dining hall, glad I was on flip-flops, as it made my getaway easy.

I made a beeline straight for the garden, inhaling large gulps of air as I stood among the petunias and roses. Gradually I felt the panic within me begin to fade until all I could feel was a dull sensation of anger.

I couldn't believe the tyke, coming into a place I was still trying to adjust to and disrupting my peace of mind.

I allowed myself to remember that fateful day, wanting the reality of it to hold on more to my hatred for him.

Fuck him.

I had just been coming back from my graduation ceremony, pissed that he hadn't considered it important enough to put in an appearance, but then I still tried defending him to my friends that his dad probably needed him. They'd smiled and told me that I was deluding myself and that he was probably with some girl, and I angrily left them.

Imagine my shock when I got to the condo we shared and saw his car in the driveway, and worse still, the windows were down and doors unlocked, which is something Liam was always careful about.

I peered in, and my eyes immediately picked out the feminine clutch purse on the front passenger seat… a clutch purse that I had seen someone at my school with.

Still, I made excuses for him in my head, denial kicking in heavily. I walked up to the room door and opened it….

“Knock knock… anyone home?” The sound of Ella's voice brought me back to the surface, and I looked down at her with a small smile.

“I'm here, little one.” I said, trying to ruffle her, but she dodged out of my reach.

“Liar. You were thinking of something that you didn't even hear me walk up to you.” Ella accused me, pushing out her bottom lip. “I don't matter to you.”

Oh heavens sake, me…

The teenage girl was definitely a handful.

“Why are you here and not with the others?” I asked her.

She looked at me like I was too dumb to figure that out on my own already. “Uncle said to check on you because you looked like someone who just found out she was in a haunted mansion. My words, not his.”

I laughed out loud, and it felt good to do so. All the emotions flowed out with it, and she smiled up at me.

“What's the relationship between Liam and Reid?” I asked her when I was done.

“Oh! They have been best friends like forever… How do you know Liam?” she asked with innocent curiosity.

I thought about giving her a vague response but decided against it. The truth was…I needed to talk about it with someone before I exploded with it, and right now this fourteen-year-old girl seemed like the best choice, and so I did.

I opened up my heart and poured it all out to this girl who I barely knew but was already like a real sister to me.

But I had no idea someone else was standing in the shadows and listening in to my tale.