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“Go, Bronn. I need to talk to him.”
The steel in her voice is cold and implacable and even an idiot like Bronn recognizes it. “Fine,” he mutters. “But if you haven’t signed anything, give me a call—”
“Go.”
Once he leaves, she just stares at me. It’s a look I know will haunt me for years to come.
Not the ice and hate and disgust there, but the pain. The shattered trust, the shattered belief in me, and worse, in herself. All that is there. And I did that. I put that there.
I reach out for her, but she recoils and I drop my hand.
“Oh, my God. I’m an idiot. How much did you laugh at me? And that letter? The one I stupidly trusted you with. Was that just a lie?”
“No. I went to take care of it. You shouldn’t have been sent that. Zoey,” I say, keeping my voice quiet and even. “Can we go inside? We’re on the street and—”
“You think I’m going to invite you into my place?”
It’s pretty much mine now, because of the nature of her equity loan. And my finagling. But I keep that to myself because I’m a fucking bastard of the most selfish kind and there’s no way out of this. Billions of dollars for one small business she can open elsewhere? With a bigger wad of money cushioning her?
I don’t even know why she took the damn loan, since I didn’t go through with the Gran con for the imaginary operation. Cold feet. Weak. Call it what you will, in the end, I simply couldn’t do it to her.
“Zoey?”
“No. You don’t step foot in my life again. I don’t care if I starve to death. You won’t get this place.”
“That’s not how things work and you know it.” I stop and take a breath. I need to stick to my track. “I was going to tell—”
“If you say tell me who you are, I’m not going to believe you.”
I shove a hand through my hair. “No, I wasn’t going to do that. I didn’t want to hurt you.”
“Coward.”
“Excuse me?”
“I said you’re a coward.” She swallows hard and her eyes shine like she’s going to cry but no tears come. Zoey is made of stronger stuff than that. “You weren’t going to tell me because you wanted to leave looking good, knowing I’d feel bad for you and your gran and just hope you both had a good life and…”
Zoey trails off as her eyes widen. “I’m an even bigger moron than I thought. She’s not your gran, is she?”
“No.”
“And I— I gave—” Now she closes her eyes and something cold and dark streams through me because that empty apartment flashes in my head. I close the gap between us and take hold of her shoulders, ignoring the flinch and her attempt to pull free.
“Zoey,” I say, “this is important. What did you do? What did you give Amelia?”
She laughs and I don’t think I’ve ever heard such a bitter and harsh sound come from her mouth. “It’s not even Amanda. I’m too stupid to live. That’s what they say, isn’t it? About idiots like me?”
“What did you give her?”
“Played into your plan.”
“You were never meant to give her anything. What did you do, Zoey?”
“I gave her money to pay her back rent.”
“Fuck me.” She pulls at me and this time I let her go. “Can you get it back?”
But I know what she’s going to say.
