of loss once things began to make sense again.
Bethany had believed that. Probably because she needed to at the time.
The second thing that had been shattered was her new relationship with London. He had purposefully kept something enormous about her life from her, choosing to bring her to his family’s secluded estate to tell her all about mates. He had played the part of the lovesick man quite well even as he kept a secret from her. On one level, Bethany understood why he had done it. Her reaction to the news had been brutal. No person would take joy in the difficult task of delivering such news. But there was a part of her that refused to accept that he had done it to protect her. It felt like a betrayal of her trust. Especially since her ex had been cheating on her.
A secret was a secret.
The discovery of it would always hurt. But she knew he’d had a reason for holding on to the information even for a short time. Her heart told her to trust him. To give him and a relationship together a chance. Her mind, though, was confused and scared, and she didn’t want to get hurt again.
In their time together, London had shown her kindness and romance. Care and concern. Aside from their initial meeting and his gift, he’d been a perfect gentleman and she’d quickly fallen for him. Why lie? She was in love with London Warwick. That thought alone was scary enough. Could she get past that lie and trust a relationship with London? Could she trust him?
Bethany hugged herself tightly, hating herself a little bit for walking away from London, and a little bit for wanting to go back to him.
“And?” Eugenie asked, hopping from one foot to the next excitedly. “How was it? Did you guys have loads of sex?” Her face fell when she finally stopped to take notice of the panic on Bethany’s face. “Oh, no. What’s happened? I shouldn’t have pushed you toward him. What has he done? I’m going to wring his neck if he hurt you. I warned him.”
“He killed my mom.”
Eugenie shook her head in confusion. “London killed your mom?”
“No. Leonard had hired a hitman to kill my mom. London discovered the truth, and he sat on it until after I agreed to be his mate.”
It took quite a bit of time before Bethany could explain everything that had happened in such a short amount of time. She was dizzy just thinking about all of it. Eugenie looked as dazed as Bethany felt.
“You have to go to the police,” Eugenie insisted.
“I know.”
Bethany covered her face with trembling hands and let out a shaky breath. It shook loose tears she had been holding in since the cab ride back home.
“I thought he loved her,” she sobbed. “Oh, god, and his wife, Lucille. She doesn’t know she’s with a murderer. I need to see Leonard, Eugenie. I need to look in his face and ask him flat out if this is true. I need to get Lucille away from him right now.”
Eugenie gasped. Bethany got to her feet and grabbed her purse.
“I’m going to go talk to him. I’ll get the truth out of him, and then…” And then what? What would hearing the truth from Leonard’s mouth do? What would it change? Bethany’s entire body hummed with pain and confusion. Her head was positively buzzing with it all. “I’m going over there.”
“Bethany, no. You have to stop. You can’t go in there, making all kinds of accusations. Can you imagine if London and James are right? If they are, that means Leonard is a killer. What will stop him from killing you, too?”
“I have to try.”
“Try what? To get him to talk? You’re being stupid,” Eugenie snapped. “This is the scene in the movie that makes no sense. This is some too-stupid-to-live stuff.”
Bethany shook her head. “I don’t think so. I’m going to be recording the whole thing. Plus, he has a bunch of guards. This is where we find out the truth.”
Leonard had hired some security when the murder had happened. At first, he had claimed it was to protect himself and Bethany from the killer, and then he had kept on the staff to keep the media away from their front door. The vultures had taken to looking through their trash to find clues as to what was going on in the house. Keeping the security guards during that media flurry had been