Fated Lies (Lies #3) - Ella Miles Page 0,3

dead. You don’t have a candidate to support anymore. Your job is done.”

“My job is far from done,” Nolan says.

He’s heartless. I don’t know what Nolan has planned, but if I didn’t know that Langston killed Waylon, Nolan would be my number one suspect. He’s up to something—I just don’t have the energy to figure out what.

My eyes glaze over as Maxwell drives us away. Building after building passes by. Car after car. Tree after tree. None of it registers. I don’t even know where Nolan lives.

I see the city disappearing behind us, and yet, we keep driving.

The car slows as we turn down a car-lined suburban street. I don’t know how this is going to help keep me away from the press, but maybe that’s not the point. Maybe the point is to force me to talk to the media.

“Pull into the garage,” Nolan says.

I exhale a deep breath I’ve been holding since we turned down the cul-de-sac. I won’t have to talk to the press.

I don’t pay attention as Maxwell pulls the car into the garage. As soon as he parks, he’ll open my door and offer to carry me again, but I’m tired of being carried. I’m tired of relying on someone else. I know better than to trust another man.

As soon as Maxwell stops the car, I open my door and climb out. Nolan opens his door at the same time and walks toward the house door. I follow him inside.

“You okay?” Maxwell catches my arm just before I step inside.

I nod.

Reluctantly, Maxwell lets go of my arm, and I enter the house.

“I’m so sorry about your loss, Mrs. Brown,” a woman in a suit comes up to me and says.

I give her a tight nod as I push past her in the hallway and into the kitchen.

Big mistake.

A dozen eyes stare at me, and each pair begins to approach me.

“I just can’t believe he’s gone. You must be so devastated,” a woman in a black dress says, gripping my hands.

I stare down at where she’s touching my hand and pull my hands abruptly away before pushing past her.

“I’m Toby Cox, I was working on Mr. Brown’s campaign. I’m so sad he’s gone. Please, accept my condolences,” a man in suit pants and a buttoned-down white shirt with the sleeves rolled up says to me.

I frown at him with my eyes.

Then I let my daggers cut through everyone in the room, warning them to stay the fuck away from me. I’m hurting. I’m in pain. I’m in shock. I’m still reeling from the loss. And these people have the audacity to approach me, to speak to me.

I don’t even know these people. They worked with Waylon on his campaign or in his law office. We aren’t friends. We aren’t family.

I run out of the room. I don’t know where I’m supposed to be staying tonight, and since Nolan hasn’t escorted me to a room, I’ll take whatever room I want.

I reach the stairs and run up, all the time feeling odd stares from the room.

“Leave her alone. She needs space to mourn. She just lost her fiancé,” I hear Maxwell trying to defend me.

I don’t care what anyone thinks of me.

And I don’t need a man to protect me.

I run down the hallway to the farthest room from the stairs and peer inside. It looks to be an unoccupied guest room.

Thank god.

I open the door and slam it shut behind me. I find a lock on the door.

Perfect.

I lock the door and then walk to the bathroom where a large freestanding white tub sits. I flip the water on, intending to wash the pain away. But as the water runs, I collapse onto the floor and cry.

I’ve already forgotten how it feels to cry—to let warm, wet tears flow down my cheeks.

So many people came up to me apologizing for my loss, but none of them understand the depth of what I just lost.

Langston won.

I lost.

It’s over.

I hope Langston is in as much pain as I am. I hope he’s lying on a bathroom floor somewhere crying his eyes out with all hope lost.

But I don’t care. Even if he is, he won. He just doesn’t know it yet.

3

Langston

I shed one last tear.

In that tear, I feel everything. Its warmth and wetness fills the corner of my eye, fogging my sight of the ocean from Enzo’s balcony. It burns until I finally release it. It starts its quick journey rolling down my cheek until it hits