dance with him. “I know that I should admire you from afar,” his eyes went to someone standing behind me, “and by the looks of it, our time together has come to an end.”
“What are you talking about?” I spun around, coming face to face with another waiter holding a silver platter with a new and larger envelope with the word TRUTH in large letters written on it. Something seemed so familiar about this waiter. Spiky blond hair, dimples on his cheeks, and I could see traces of a tribal tattoo from under his long-sleeved button-up waiter’s shirt.
How do I know him?
“For you Alice.”
“Excuse me?” I said.
He lifted the envelope and presented it again. “For you Norah.”
I must have heard wrong.
He smiled devilishly as I took the card and then turned and strode back into the crowd. I held the envelope in my hand and looked at it. It was much bigger than the other little envelopes handed out at the start of the evening. I already knew what it was. I wasn’t stupid. Whatever secret Clint was hiding, was going to be revealed in this envelope. This was it, Pandora’s box, and I was about to open it up.
Why Samuel? Why choose my birthday to do this to me? I lifted the folder up piece of paper from the envelope, hands shaking, and began reading.
Is it true? It can’t be true. But it looks true. But it can’t be true. This can NOT be true! My eyes were reading the words that would not form the reality in my head. My gaze lifted suddenly to a figure running through the crowd and directly towards me. People parted as the gorgeous blond haired guy ran my way.
Clint leapt for me, his mouth immediately on mine, his kiss desperate and scared. I let him kiss me, let him feel my lips and be this close to me this one last time, because I knew it was the last time I would ever let him. After I couldn’t bear it any more, I pushed Clint off my mouth.
The first words to come out of his mouth were, “Norah, I can explain.” He trembled as he spoke.
“It’s true isn’t it?” I could barely breathe.
Tess and Josh came running up to us. They stood back as I gripped the piece of paper to my chest. “Tell me the truth Clint, did you do this?”
“Norah, let me talk to you in private.”
“No!” I yelled, my voice rising. “I asked you a question Clint.”
Josh and Tess just stood back watching, not knowing what was happening. “Norah,” Clint started to say but I stopped him.
“This piece of paper informs me of a contract. A contract you signed Clint. A contract with a man called Devon Lockley to find and get rid of my friend and ex-fiancé Samuel. To kill him.”
Clint’s eyes welled.
“Did you, or did you not sign this Clint? Is this not your signature signing away the life of my friend, Samuel.”
Tess stepped forward to try and comfort me, but Josh held her back. It was not the right moment to come too close. Josh knew.
“Norah, you have to understand that Samuel did it to me first. What I did was protection for me and for us. It was retaliation. He fired first. He did it first. He put a contract on me, so I put one on him.”
So much darkness in and all around me. The thoughts of what I would do if I had a gun in my hands at that moment and where it would be pointed. Clint had purposely hired a man to get rid of my friend, someone I loved, someone I had wanted to marry. Clint was like my father, trying to control me and using threats and force to do so. He should know how much this would kill me inside. How totally opposed to this I would be. How could I love someone who would purposely hire a man to hurt my friend? This was all sorts of wrong.
“I loved you Clint. I really did.” I couldn’t find the rage that would usually erupt from inside me. I couldn’t summon the anger that would tear him down. The pain felt too deep. All that would come out of my mouth were stuttered fragments of hurt emotion. It was a side of me that had felt too much pain already and couldn’t fight back. I was weak now. I was a different version of my old self, and it