Our Wicked Lies by Gledé Kabongo (story read aloud TXT) 📗

“I promise, I will never leave you. How else can I reassure you? What’s really bothering you?”

“Who is Nathan Hunt?” she blurted out.

He froze. Then his facial muscles relaxed. “He’s a lawyer with the firm. We work together.”

“Why did he call you at midnight? If you work together, he knew you were in Paris last week.”

He loosened his tie and then turned away from her.

“There was some information for the Paris project that I needed. I asked Nathan to call me the minute he had it, no matter the hour. I realize the call disturbed your sleep, but it’s nothing for you to worry about. Just work.”

She had backed herself into a corner. She couldn’t confess now that she had looked up Nathan Hunt and knew that he was a litigation lawyer out of the New York office. The likelihood that he and Eliot worked together was slim. Possible, but unlikely.

Eliot specialized in project finance, helping large, multi-national corporations negotiate terms and agreements with lenders and investors. Nathan sued or defended companies from lawsuits, depending on the client’s needs. Alicia wasn’t a lawyer, but she knew that there was no obvious connection between the two specialties of the company that would justify the two men working together.

However, in the digital world, any name could be assigned to any phone number in a contact list, so Eliot could have assigned Nathan’s name to Faith’s number to deflect suspicion. It was the perfect cover. The lengths he’d gone through to deceive her stabbed at Alicia’s heart.

“I’m sorry for jumping to conclusions,” she said, eager to end the conversation. “Your job is demanding. Sometimes that means getting calls at odd hours.”

He kissed her on the cheek. “It’s okay. I understand why you were suspicious. There’s no need to be. I’m not going anywhere. You’re stuck with me, whether you like it or not.”

I’m not going anywhere.

The email exchange flashed in Alicia’s mind. Faith was upset that Eliot was still married to her. He’d made it clear that he had no intention of leaving Alicia. So why the hell was he cheating?

CHAPTER 19

“You’re practically shaking, Alicia. What’s happened?” Kat said, as she and Alicia sat down on the patio sofas.

She’d invited Kat over out of desperation. It was best to speak to Kat face-to-face before the girls came home from school and caught them. They might accidentally mention it to Eliot, and he would think it odd that Kat was here in the middle of the day, given her hectic schedule. Though Alicia had been upset about the bracelet situation, all that paled in comparison to what she’d since discovered. And right now, she needed a friend, a listening ear. Kat was discreet. She also knew Eliot well and would be objective, tell Alicia what she needed to hear, not what she wanted to hear.

“Eliot is cheating on me.”

Kat’s face dropped. “I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you. What did you just say?”

“You heard me.”

Kat whispered something under her breath in rapid Spanish, a bunch of expletives, Alicia was sure.

Kat abruptly stood up. “Stay there. We need alcohol.” She raced into the kitchen. It was just after one in the afternoon, and Alicia had barely eaten all day, but in her current state, she didn’t object to downing alcohol. Kat would drink most of it, anyway.

Returning with a bottle and two glasses, Kat plonked down on the sofa and poured generously. “You’re gonna need this.” She thrust the glass into Alicia’s hand. “I’m gonna need this!”

She took a gulp and then placed the glass down on the table. “Okay, start from the beginning,” she said. “Tell me everything. We won’t get emotional until I’m ready to kill Eliot and that perra, whoever she is.”

The entire story came tumbling out of Alicia, punctuated by bouts of hiccups, breathlessness, rambling and hot, bitter tears. Kat held on to her hand and listened attentively.

The exchange via email came roaring back, the words slicing through her anew, as if she had just made the discovery for the first time. After she had no more tears left, she sat up straight, and wiped her face with the back of her hand.

Kat refilled Alicia’s glass of wine and insisted she drink it all.

“He lied right to my face, Kat. If you’d heard him, you would have thought I belonged in a psych ward for even bringing up the idea.”

“Eliot came to see me a few days ago, to cheer me up. He remembered it was the anniversary of Arturo’s death. I apologized again for the incident at Arnie’s. He was cool about it, but I asked him if he felt guilty and had taken you to Paris to make it up to you.”

The hairs on Alicia’s arm stood at attention. Eliot never mentioned that he and Kat had discussed the incident at Arnie’s. He was the one who’d insisted that they put the “ugly incident” behind them when Alicia had confronted him the morning after.

“Anyway,” Kat continued, “he got upset, yelled at me for suggesting he felt guilt over it. Now, I’m wondering if I hit a nerve. What if Eliot in fact did take you to Paris because, A, he felt guilty that he was cheating, and B, he wanted to throw you off the scent that he was being a bad boy?”

The possibility hit her with the force of a freight train. She had previously questioned herself about Eliot’s behavior in Paris and if it meant what she thought at the time. Whether or not he was being genuine or was just pretending. She’d been so sure that he was genuine, but considering Kat’s observation, she began to doubt herself.

“Do you think he’s going to leave me?”

“Oh, Alicia, he—”

“According to those emails, that woman has been pressuring him to do just that, but he’d told her to knock it off. This morning he swore up and down that he would never abandon me, or our family.”

“He wouldn’t, Alicia. He couldn’t.” Conviction