it next to him on the table as she sat back down.
“Thank you,” he said. “I didn’t intend to eat your dinner or take up this much of your time. Lucas wanted me to share this with you.” He pulled a sheet of paper out of his briefcase. “It’s a press release that he’ll be releasing tomorrow, assuming you have no objection.”
She took the sheet and read its contents.
“’Sadly, Terri Briggs and I have ended our engagement. I will not be answering any questions about the matter and neither will Terri. I expect everyone to respect my privacy, Terri’s privacy, and the privacy of Terri’s family and friends.’ That’s short and to the point,” she said as she put the paper down.
“If you’d like to add anything, I can run it past Lucas.”
“No, not at all,” she replied, feeling incredibly sad. Somehow, the simple statement made the ending of the relationship feel more final.
“Lucas has instructed me to leave you on the payroll until the end of the year. If you do get bothered by any reporters, please call me immediately. We don’t expect it to be a problem. Lucas has several other things he’s going to be announcing over the next few days. He’s hoping that will keep them busy and away from Ramsey.”
Would he be announcing his engagement to someone else, she wondered. “What sort of things?” she couldn’t stop herself from asking.
“Just some buying and selling of properties, but some of them will be national news items. He’s going to be selling his stake in one of the country’s biggest shopping malls and he’s going to be buying an entire street of derelict houses in, well, a major city somewhere.”
“Good for him.”
Douglas nodded “At some point, he’ll announce that I’m buying out some of his properties here, but that won’t matter to anyone outside of Ramsey, really.”
“We’ll all be pleased for you, anyway.”
“I appreciate that. I just need your signature on a few forms, if you don’t mind.”
“What am I signing?” she asked as he put the paperwork in front of her.
“Employment termination paperwork,” he explained. “It’s all dated for the end of the year.”
She hesitated. “I don’t want him to keep paying me for three more months.”
“You’d have to talk to him about that. I’m just the messenger.”
“Can’t we simply change the date on the forms?”
“No, because he’s already signed them. Any changes will require new forms.”
She pushed the sheets away from her. “Then get new forms. I don’t want any money from him and I don’t want the ring, either.”
“I’ll talk to Lucas and see what I can do.”
He finished his glass of wine and then gathered up all of the paperwork. She followed him to the door, where he stopped before opening it.
“I don’t know what happened between you and Lucas, but I want you to know that he’s miserable.”
“He’s miserable?” she echoed, feeling confused.
Douglas nodded. “Miserable.”
She sighed. “I simply got tired of living a lie,” she told him. “And I got tired of being lied to, as well.”
“Lucas had a difficult upbringing. Lying was simply part of everyday life in his family.”
“And that’s a problem for me. I was willing to go along with the fake engagement to make his dying mother happy, but it was just too hard.”
“I’ve known Lucas for over twenty-five years. He was happier here in Ramsey than I’ve ever seen him and now he’s, well, as I said before, miserable.”
“I’m sure his twenty-six year old girlfriend will cheer him up in no time.”
“His girlfriend?”
“I don’t know anything about her, but he told me he had a girlfriend when we first met.” She looked at Douglas and sighed. “He was lying about that, too, wasn’t he?”
“I’ve no idea. We don’t talk about his personal life. We don’t talk about mine, either, but then I don’t have a personal life.” Douglas grinned at her and Terri gave him a weak smile in return.
“Maybe you can see my problem, then,” she said. “I’ve no idea if he was telling the truth or not. He lies so smoothly and easily that I can’t believe a thing he says.”
“He truly is a good person,” Douglas told her. “I’ve never known him to lie when it really matters.”
“Our entire engagement was a lie.”
“It was a pretense that you both agreed to in order to please a dying woman.”
Terri might have argued, but Douglas held up a hand. “I’m sorry things didn’t work out. As I said earlier, I know Lucas truly enjoyed spending time