“You better, and fast because my mind is spinning to assumptions you’re not going to like.”
Surrounded by floor-to-ceiling glass walls overlooking what seems like the entire city as their backdrop, my mouth has fallen open from the view, and from the technology that fills this spacious penthouse apartment. Alexander touches my lower back, but I step out of his reach. He knows I’m pissed without the obvious gestures, but I want it to be clear to everyone here. I feel betrayed. I feel betrayed by everyone in this room.
Cruise, Chad, and Shelly remain quiet as they stare at me with wide eyes.
Alexander says, “It started as a small operation and has grown.”
“Grown?” My mind struggles to piece together the puzzle before me. I turn to Shelly, her betrayal and lies cutting me as deep as Alexander’s. “Why are you here?”
The answer doesn’t come fast, her cautiousness taking over. “It’s not what it—”
“It’s not?” I strike back. “Because this looks exactly like everyone I know was in on whatever this is except me.”
She replies, “I’m only here because most nights this is where Chad stays.” This is where Chad stays. Shelly had the choice to stay with her boyfriend, knowing that night after night, mine left me. What the hell?
“How did I not know about this? How could you lie to my face?”
Standing behind Chad, she looks worried. “I was alone in the apartment anyway. You weren’t there. You were at the manor.”
At the manor—secluded, protected, deceived by everyone around me who I thought were my friends, and by Alexander who I can’t even look at right now. “Locked away like Rapunzel.” I look her in the eyes, but she looks away. “I trusted you. You were my best friend.”
“I still am, Sara Jane. Please,” she says, grasping my arms. “I’m your best friend. Everything was to protect you.”
“While everyone else lived in reality, I’ve been living a charade.”
Shelly knows this is going to take me time and walks away. “I’m sorry,” is mumbled.
Alexander takes my hand and though I try to pull away, he doesn’t let me this time. “You weren’t locked away or living a charade. You chose to see what you wanted.”
“I was blind, but now I see the big picture, and I’m not sure what to think.”
“Don’t jump to judgments.”
“Alexander, stop. Just stop. I don’t need you to fill in every silent second. I need to process that you have some kind of operation setup that could rival the CIA.” Four large desktop computers anchor the room, with three smaller laptops open and running some scanning program. The furniture is leather and sleek, the stark-white kitchen is off to the side with a clear glass table covered in photos laid out like an investigation. Cruise sits quietly in the corner, looking as if we interrupted something but wise to not speak.
Chad sits at a desk near the kitchen. I’m so confused why the three of them are here in this makeshift computer lab, so I ask the one person who owes me nothing, but will be honest—Chad. “Why are you here?” He’s never been able to lie to me. Friends since high school, I’m hoping that trait is still intact, but who knows since he’s been hanging around Cruise and Alexander. My annoyance is at an all-time high. The fact that I have been kept out is sobering and irritating.
Chad looks worried. He should be. He thinks Alexander is tough. Well I’m tougher. His voice is quiet, but he replies, “This job helps me pay for school.”
“Job?” My eyes turn to Alexander. “What is he talking about? What is this place?”
Alexander looks much too relaxed for someone whose girlfriend has just found out more lies he’s been hiding. He smiles that wry grin that usually gets him out of it just as quickly, but it won’t work on me now. I’m way too fired up. He says, “Babe, this is where we conduct our searches.”
“What searches? Your mother’s murderer?”
“Not just that, though that is a priority.” In the middle of the night?
“Alexan—Never mind.” I’m so hurt. I can’t think of anything rational or kind to say. One bombshell after the other has been dropped tonight. I am strong, but at what point do I say enough? With questions swirling around my head—How long has this been going on? Can we continue our relationship under this new revelation? Can my heart heal?—I realize they can’t give me the answers. They don’t have them. That’s what this is about. And like Alexander said earlier, I’ll get what I need in time. Hopefully we all will. I have to trust him until then. But the room feels warm, and with my vulnerability exposed, I need a minute. “I’m going to get some fresh air. You guys can get back to whatever it is you’re doing here.”
I walk out onto the large balcony, leaving the sliding glass door open. The frantic, but hushed voices drift outside, though I can’t understand anything spoken, except when Alexander says, “Don’t worry. She’ll be okay.”
Will I?
I take a deep breath. Yes, I will. If nothing else, the one positive I can find instantly is that when Alexander is here, he’s safe. There’s comfort that comes with the answers I’ve found tonight.
Looking out over the city, I didn’t pay much attention to where we were going or when we arrived. I had no idea whose building this was, or who lived here. It’s clear though. Cruise is from a wealthy family, meeting Alexander when they attended the same prestigious private school when they were younger, but his parents cut him off when he got a job at Kingwood Enterprises. I don’t know what he does there, but I know he can’t afford a penthouse in the middle of downtown. Nor can Chad who goes to school on scholarships just like he did back when we were at our private Catholic high school.
Alexander can.
He can afford to indulge any whim he has, especially his life’s mission.
A shiver runs up my spine and the breeze fills my nose with his scent. I don’t have to turn around. I know he’s there. Before he can downplay the situation, I say, “First the motorcycle, now this.” Turning my back to the railing, I hold on to it for support. His body is a silhouette with the lights from inside haloing him. “This seems more like an obsession. I’m trying to understand, but this is so much more than I could have imagined. This is about your mother?”
“That’s my priority, Firefly.”
“I thought I was, but seeing this, having everyone know except for me . . . I’m not sure what you’re really doing or how I fit into the big picture. Your picture. Our picture. Our future. We just made declarations that I meant.”
He sighs. “I meant mine too.”
“You’ve said you trust me.”
“I trust you with everything that matters.”
My head jolts back. “This really seems to matter to you by the lengths of deceit you’ve gone to keeping me out.”