do what her ex did. What I did was a million times worse.
Chapter Forty-Seven
KYRA
At home I curl up on the couch in tears. Silent tears fall; the tears of someone who has no fight left in her, no fight for a heart that cannot be fixed because it is so irreparably broken.
I hear another ping on my phone, and see that it’s another text from him. I turn my phone off.
The evening has been surreal. I no longer know what is real and what are lies.
I don’t know where Brad ends and Brandon starts.
He cheated is all I know.
I feel bad that the evening is all messed up and what should have been a great night out for Simona has been turned into the worst night of my life.
We’ll have to have a do-over for her birthday at another time because I refuse to let this man’s trickery affect us.
As I lie, like a fetus, cocooned in my misery, I try to work out why Brad would lie about his name, and it makes me think about the many other lies he’s fed to me, to us, to Redhill, ever since he joined.
Why did he join? Why did the son of a billionaire join my company? To achieve what?
And then I sit up.
Could it have been anything to do with Greenways? After all, he was the one who suggested we relocate.
Until recently. But now he seems to want me to stay. He’s been telling me to trust my instinct and to not listen to him.
I lie back down, because my mind can’t work around the implausibility of this idea.
I prefer to believe that Brad was the dreamer and idealist who went abroad and helped with the building projects of impoverished communities.
I wish I could erase all thoughts about our weekend. I wish I could rub away the scent and feel of him. I wish it weren’t so recent. I wish time would pass fast, fast, fast, and I could fast forward a whole year.
I get up to draw my blinds when I hear a knock at the door. When I look through the keyhole, it’s Brad’s face I see.
Hate rises from my belly. “Go away,” is the only childish comment I come up with.
“We need to talk, Kyra.”
“I don’t want to talk.”
“You need to hear what I have to say.”
“I don’t need to do anything.”
“Jessica did that on purpose.” He knocks again.
“She’s a hero in my books.”
“You don’t mean that. The woman’s a vicious little—” He refrains from saying what he really thinks. “Please let me in.”
“Why?” I ask.
“Do you want me to have this conversation through the door?”
With hate in my heart, I open the door and let him in. I don’t ask him to sit down, and we hover around the door.
“I’m sorry about what—”
“I’m not.” I interrupt, not wanting to hear more lies. “How much longer were you going to lie to me for?”
“I kept meaning to tell you.”
“So, why didn’t you?”
He looks the most somber I have ever seen him. “It just never seemed like the right time.”
“But you lied to me. You’ve lied all along, and about so many things, about who you are, about what you do. How do you do something like this and live with yourself?”
“I’m not a cheat. I haven’t cheated on you, Kyra.”
“You’ve cheated on her then. I’m surprised she didn’t slap you.”
“She and I have a ...” He pauses to think and his hesitation puts me on alert.
“A great relationship.” I finish the sentence for him. “She’s more your type than I am. She’s exactly the type of person I see you with.”
“She’s not. She’s a nasty, nasty piece of work.”
“You two sound perfect for one another.”
His Adam’s apple bobs and he seems slightly anxious. “I made a mistake. I didn’t know what I know now.”
“And what’s that?” I shoot back. Each moment he stays here makes me hate him more because all I see is the lies woven through each and every interaction I’ve ever had with him.
“That I was so wrong, about so many things.”
I don’t want to hear his sob story. I don’t want to hear about the poor little boy who had such a hard life getting adopted by a rich man. Unable to control my rage I jab a finger in his chest. “What I want to know is what you, the son of a supposed billionaire, are doing at Redhill?”
BRANDON
This is my only chance to tell her. Jessica has forced my hand and