The Perfect Lie (The Perfect Stranger #3) - Charlotte Byrd Page 0,12

would keep me safe. I created all of these walls. I don't have any friends and I don't really have any interests outside of my work.”

“You enjoy your work, right?”

She shrugs.

“Don't lie,” I say. “Definitely don't do it on my behalf.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I heard you on the phone with that little boy. The way that you were teaching him to talk.”

“He didn't say much,” she says.

“Is that what it’s like when he's with you in the office?”

“No, he's better there. More interactive. Online is definitely something to get used to, especially for how little he is.”

“See, that's exactly what I'm talking about.”

“What?”

“You love your job. You love your students. I won’t ask you to give all of that up.”

She cocks her head to one side and replies, “I thought that you already had?”

“I did, but I take it back now. It would be better for both of us if we stopped traveling together.”

“That means that we would never see each other again,” she says quietly.

“That's true.” I nod.

I don't know where to go from here and apparently neither does she. I don't know what this means.

Did we just break up?

It doesn't feel like it.

There's still so much to discuss.

“Listen, we can talk about this later, but there's something else that we need to discuss,” I say.

She looks up at me with an expression on her face, as if to ask me what could be more important than what we have been talking about.

“I know that you got a really good deal on this house and that I need to stay here for a bit until my shoulder gets better, but after that… I want to talk about what to do.”

“Okay,” she says very slowly. “I thought that we were talking about it.”

“No, I mean about the money. We only have a few thousand that Tessa gave me at her house. It's not enough to start a new life. Do you think there's any chance that there's any money in that barrel that we left out in the desert?”

Isabelle jolts her head up at me. She narrows her eyes and her mouth drops open just a little bit. She looks confused.

“Yeah, I didn't think so. I mean, Mac probably went back for that money as soon as we left,” I mutter to myself.

“No, you don't know, do you? Of course not.” Isabelle laughs.

“Know what?”

“I got the money. I haven't counted it yet, but I got the vast majority of it from the barrel. You were asleep in the car after the vet sewed you up.”

Now it's time for my jaw to drop.

She walks over to one of the lower cupboards in the kitchen, pulls out all the grocery bags, and then the bags full of cash in the back.

When we count the money, we end up with $92,457. When we count it a second time, we end up with $93,254.

We’re too tired to count it again and just assume that it's a little bit over $90,000. It's more than enough for me to get a new identity with a passport and driver’s license.

But whether or not I will start that life by myself or with Isabelle, I still don't know.

8

Isabelle

Realizing that we have over $90,000 lifts our spirits a little bit. There was a desperation that came with the dwindling supplies of cash and the amount that we needed to actually make a positive step forward.

Now?

Now it feels like we might have a chance.

Before we counted the money, Tyler asked me if I wanted to start my life with him.

I hesitated.

It's not that I don't love him, I do. It's just that sometimes I wonder if it's possible for me to go back to my old life. Oh, how I wish that we had met before he was arrested.

I wish that we had met before he even married his wife.

Maybe then she'd still be alive.

We talk about a lot of things and yet there are some things that remain a secret. I have kept secrets from him, including the debt that I owe.

It's not my debt. It belongs to my mother, a woman that I have not seen in a long time, but the debt is substantial and they are after me.

So far, they have only made threats, but they were following us closely. They knew exactly where we were staying in Palm Desert and they knew the number to call on my burner phone.

How? I bought that phone at Walmart. The number is assigned to that one particular