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“Niles? Is he okay? Did something happen?”
“He, uhhh . . .” Cassidy gripped her glass so tightly she feared it would shatter. “He was shot a week ago.”
“Shot! Oh my God. What happened? Is he okay? Shit, are you okay?” Tia’s eyes began nervously roaming Cassidy’s body, and Cassidy knew Tia was searching for any indication that she was harmed. She wasn’t. Physically, she was fine, but emotionally, she was struggling.
“I’m fine, and Niles, he—”
Tia threw her empty hand over her mouth and began shaking her head. “No, no. Niles is . . .”
“Yes,” Cassidy whispered. “He was murdered.”
“Oh God.” Tia gasped, shaking her head again. “How? Why? What happened?”
Cassidy turned and placed her wineglass on the end table beside her. “I need to ask you something, and please, don’t be afraid to tell me the truth.”
“I wouldn’t lie to you, Cass. You know that.”
Cassidy nodded. “I do, but this is about Niles.”
“What about him?”
“He had an apartment in Buckhead under the name Jerrod Williams. He also had a New York license with that same name. Did you know anything about that?”
Cassidy wasn’t sure why she asked, but a small part of her was feeling exposed and wondering just how exposed she had truly been.
“Hell no. And if I did, I would have told you.”
Cassidy felt the anger and certainty in Tia’s response and relaxed a little. It would have killed her to pick up any signs that Tia had known about her husband and kept it from her.
“Why would he . . .” Tia started, then narrowed her eyes. “Wait, was he cheating? Is that why he had an apartment under another name? No, he couldn’t have been cheating. He loved you. I’ve seen you two together. Your marriage was perfect, Cass. So perfect.”
Cassidy’s chest tightened. Tia wasn’t around daily because most of the work she did could be done remotely, but she had spent time with Niles and her a handful of dinners and occasional celebratory events. Even though she managed Cassidy’s social media accounts, handled her website and schedule, and took care of requests for speaking engagements that had begun flooding in after Cassidy’s book hit the NYT Bestsellers List, Tia still had enough insight to have an opinion on their marriage.
“No one’s perfect, Tia. We certainly were not.”
“So he was cheating?”
“I don’t know for sure, but I assume he was. Even if he wasn’t, he had another life I didn’t know anything about. Are you sure you didn’t know?”
“Cass, I swear I didn’t.” Once again, Cassidy watched her body language, searching for any signs that Tia was lying. She knew the young woman fairly well, and Cassidy was far more observant than most. She’d documented Tia’s tells early on in their relationship, but she had never mentioned that to Tia. Because of who she was, she didn’t want things to be weird between them or for Tia to feel like she was constantly analyzing her. Tia’s tells were easily detected. Tia wouldn’t maintain eye contact if she told a lie and unintentionally wrinkled her nose. Neither happened as they conversed.
“I believe you. I know you didn’t spend much time around Niles—”
“I didn’t spend any time around him. Well, at least not when you weren’t around as well.”
Tia was offended, and that hadn’t been Cassidy’s intention. Cassidy wanted to be clear that she trusted Tia. “I’m not accusing you of anything. I was only asking if anything about him didn’t make sense to you. Anything you can think of that he’d said or done that might help me make sense of this.”
Tia’s brows furrowed, and Cassidy presumed she was thinking about her interactions with Niles. “No, nothing that I can think of. I know you said you weren’t perfect, but to me, you were. You guys were what I wanted to be. Niles was the type of husband I could only hope to have one day, and you were the type of wife I aspired to be.” She shook her head softly. “I can’t believe this. That he’s gone, and he had a secret life. How? He loved you, Cass. I know he did. I could literally feel it when I was around the two of you.”
Cassidy hated how much that confirmation soothed her. If he truly loved her, why have an alternate life? She couldn’t erase the thoughts that what she and Niles had was all a lie. “Again, nobody’s perfect, Tia. This only proves it.”
“Yeah,” Tia said lowly before sipping her wine. “So what now? Are they investigating? Do they have any leads? God, this is insane, and what about you? Are you okay? This is a lot. You have to be struggling to make sense of things.”
“You have no idea. It still doesn’t feel real, and I do not know what’s next. The only thing I know is that he was my husband. Even if under pretense, I have to figure things out. For now, I need to clear my schedule.”
“Done. Don’t you worry, I’ll take care of it.”
“You can’t tell anyone what’s going on. For now, I would prefer to keep things under wraps. I don’t know for how long; maybe until they figure out who did this. Just tell anyone who asks that something came up. Some of the engagements are paid. Return the deposits they sent to get me on their schedules and—”
