Cruel Lies

by Ella Miles

  Copyright © 2020 by Ella Miles

  EllaMiles.com

  Ella@ellamiles.com

  Cover design © Arijana Karčić, Cover It! Designs

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Contents

  Lies Series

  Prologue

  1. Liesel

  2. Langston

  3. Liesel

  4. Langston

  5. Liesel

  6. Langston

  7. Liesel

  8. Langston

  9. Liesel

  10. Langston

  11. Liesel

  12. Langston

  13. Liesel

  14. Langston

  15. Liesel

  16. Langston

  17. Liesel

  18. Langston

  19. Liesel

  20. Langston

  21. Liesel

  22. Langston

  23. Liesel

  24. Langston

  25. Liesel

  26. Langston

  27. Liesel

  28. Langston

  Also by Ella Miles

  About the Author

  Lies Series

  Lies We Share: A Prologue

  * * *

  Vicious Lies

  Desperate Lies

  Fated Lies

  Cruel Lies

  Dangerous Lies

  Endless Lies

  Prologue

  Liesel

  How is it that everything that dramatically changes my life is written in a letter?

  The first time it happened was in a letter from my father. That letter was ripped by Langston, so I only got half of the truth.

  But this letter, I ripped myself. I destroyed one half and plan on giving Langston the other.

  Why did I destroy half of this letter?

  The contents scare the shit out of me.

  It changes how I think of myself.

  It changes who I am.

  If true, it changes everything. I won’t let my world change all because it was written in a stupid, threatening letter, but I have no way to verify the contents.

  Except…

  No.

  Time will reveal the truth.

  Meanwhile, I’m left to wonder if the world is the one lying to me…

  1

  Liesel

  I gave up my son without ever having laid eyes on him. I never held him. Never got to see how many of his features matched my own. Never got to smell his sweet head. Never breastfed him. Never changed his diaper. Never dressed him. Never counted his fingers and toes.

  I never did any of the things most new moms get to do. Even moms who give their children up for adoption usually hold their child at least once before giving them away.

  Not me.

  I had an emergency C-section. I was unconscious when he was born, so I never got to hear his first cry. I never met him. I didn’t get to name him or find out what his parents named him.

  I thought I’d never meet him. That was the plan. When I gave up my son, I did it for him.

  I was young and not ready to be a mother, but if keeping him was best for him, I would have figured it out.

  I gave him up because of who his father was—the most dangerous man in the world. I had no idea how he would have reacted if he found out the truth. Would he have tried to kill my son? Would he have tried to brainwash him and bring him under his thumb like he did Enzo? Would he have had to fight Enzo to become the new Mr. Black, ruler of the most notorious crime organization?

  No—I ensured that my son would never be harmed, would never grow up in this dangerous and cruel world like I did.

  So I gave him up, ensured he had the best parents possible, that he was hidden, never to be found.

  And then, Mr. Black was killed. I could find my son. Kai did find him. It was safe to know my son. To love him out in the open.

  But I knew better. Mr. Black dying changed nothing. We are all too connected to money, crime, and power for our enemies not to come and find us. We are always in danger. Enzo, Kai, Siren, and Zeke think they can protect their children while still living in this world—they’re wrong. They will never be safe. I did the responsible thing. I kept my son safe. I gave him up a second time.

  I thought that was it—I’d never know my son, not even his name, the color of his eyes.

  Giving him up the second time was immensely harder than the first. The world turned to shades of gray after I decided to remain out of his life. Nothing brought me happiness or even a tingling of joy. I didn’t smile or laugh, and I knew I never would again.

  And then, everything changed.

  I realized I made a mistake.

  I had to find my son for his own survival.

  I searched and searched, but I couldn’t find him, not with all the resources in the world.

  Then, I met Waylon Brown. It seemed like a coincidence at first, but eventually I realized he had ulterior motives. He knew where my son was; he provided proof. But in return, I had to marry him.

  I would have married him that day, gave him everything I owned, and kneeled in promise to be his servant forever if he gave me my son. I still don’t know what Waylon’s real reason for wanting to marry me was.

  Did he just find me attractive and want a good-looking, intelligent woman on his side? Or did he want the treasure he thought I had the key to?

  The treasure.

  Father, what did you put in motion? Why couldn’t you just burn your letter? Why ruin my life and every generation after because of a rumor of the greatest treasure to exist on earth and only a Dunn able to retrieve it?

  “Liesel, did you hear me?” Langston asks as he sits next to me on the beach.

  I’ve been staring off into space, thinking about everything I’ve lost over the years. Langston is included in that list. And yet somehow, my enemy, my best friend, and now my lover might be the man who can give me my son back.

  “I heard you,” I say, having no idea what to do with the information.

  I have so many questions.

  “The others? Do they know?” I ask, referring to Kai, Enzo, Siren, and Zeke. I asked them all for help at various times in my search for my son, but none of them had been able to help me. Were they just keeping Langston’s secret?

  “No, they think he’s my biological son.”

  I nod and look down at my feet. I still haven’t looked at the boy Langston claims is my son since he revealed it to me. I’m not ready to see if he has my eyes or hair coloring. I’ve seen him before, but not up close, not while I was looking to see if he resembled me.

  “What’s going on in your head?” Langston asks, trying to pry beneath the shield I’ve put up.

  I shake my head, but then I finally speak. There is no use keeping my thoughts to myself. Not when we’ve shared so much.

  “I just don’t understand. I don’t understand how you could have my son. I don’t understand how Waylon said he knew where my child was if you had my son. I don’t know who to believe.”

  “I don’t know why Waylon said he knew where your son was, other than he was trying to manipulate you.”

  “He had proof.”

  “What kind of proof?”

  I shake my head. “It doesn’t matter what his proof was, what’s yours?”

  I look Langston in the eye, and my heart swells. He looks broken from my doubt, but he’s lied too many times. We both have. Of course, I don’t believe he has my son. But then, why would he lie? I could easily get a DNA test and prove him wrong.

  Waylon had DNA proof. That’s w
hy I believed him. Will I believe Langston until I have the same proof?

  “I’ll tell you my story and get a DNA test if that will make you feel better, but spend one minute with him and you’ll realize he’s yours.”

  My heart catches. How can he be so certain?

  “I met Phoenix when I was a teenager. We met at one of Enzo’s father’s bars. I don’t remember much about that night, except that I was horny and lonely. She was alone and in need of company.”

  “I don’t need to hear this,” I say. I don’t want to hear about the night they met, fucked, and then how she eventually became his wife.

  He grabs my cheeks in his strong hands, holding me so fervently as he peers into my eyes. “Trust me, you do.”

  I close my eyes, keeping the tears at bay. He was off fucking whores in bars, while I was dealing with the trauma of carrying my rapist’s child.

  “I was lonely because you were gone. Sure, it had been years at that point since you and I were friends, but even when we were fighting, I felt close to you. But then you took off for Europe. You left. You were gone. That pain was the first intense pain I ever felt. It left a hole in my heart. A brokenness I didn’t know I was capable of feeling.”

  “You seemed to get over it just fine by running off and marrying the first girl you laid eyes on.”

  “I never got over you. I’m still not over you.”

  Dammit, my eyes water so much that I can’t hide it. His words aren’t the truth. They are empty, meant to manipulate me.

  “I got drunk that night. I fucked her in the filthy bathroom. And then I left.”

  I grab his wrists to pull them off my face, but I can’t quite do it. I revel in the feeling of his warm hands on my skin—even if I get burned, I want to feel him. That’s my problem when it comes to Langston; I have no self-preservation. He’s always going to end up hurting me—that’s why I should let him go.

  “A year later, I found out I had a child.”

  “Rose?”

  He nods. “I knew I’d be a terrible father. I’d most likely end up dead before my child turned eighteen, so all I initially offered was money. I thought it would be better if I stayed out of her life.”

  He initially gave up his child for the same reasons I did.

  “But then Phoenix reached out for help. I made the mistake of agreeing to meet her and my daughter.” His eyes water. “Once I laid eyes on Rose, I knew that I couldn’t give her up again. I wasn’t strong enough.”

  His words stab me in the chest. Once I lay eyes on my own child, I won’t be able to give him up. I need to make sure it’s the right thing before I look at him.

  “So, I became part of her life. I wanted to spend as much time with her as I could. But Phoenix wanted more than just a father-figure. She wanted me—something I wasn’t willing to give her.”

  “What changed?”

  “Fate.”

  I frown.

  “I brought Rose to a playground. She was playing with a young boy her age. When she ran over to where I was sitting on the bench, she was dragging the young boy behind her. He was smaller than her, even though they were the same age. He had dark hair and was too thin in ratty clothes. It was clear he wasn’t taken care of as well as he should have been.”

  I gasp—my son was hungry. He wore ratty clothes. I tried so hard to ensure he didn’t have the same life I did. He was adopted by a wealthy family, or so I thought. What happened?

  “I wasn’t going to do anything other than talk to the foster agency and ensure he was placed with a better family. Maybe pay for his food or clothes—”

  “I put him up for adoption with a wealthy family; he shouldn’t have been in the foster system.”

  “His adoptive parents had died the year before.”

  My eyes bulge. My poor son. Is he fated to live my same broken life? How can fate be so cruel?

  Langston continues, “I was just going to help him out, since Rose had made a friend, something she didn’t do often. I’d been coming around for two years at this point, and she never made any friends. So her caring about this boy was a big deal. But then I saw his eyes.”

  He stares into my own eyes. “I saw his eyes, and it was like I had found a missing piece of my soul. Eyes who hadn’t peered at me in years were now looking back at me. Big, beautiful hazel eyes. Eyes that belonged to my best friend. Eyes I would know anywhere.”

  My eyes.

  My son has my eyes.

  The tear that I’ve been holding back finally falls, rolling gently down my cheek.

  “I couldn’t leave him. I considered reaching out to you, but then I knew that you had given him up for a reason. The choice was now mine, not yours. I talked to the foster agency. I could adopt him; the only problem was Phoenix.”

  I wipe my tears. “Why was Phoenix a problem?”

  “Rose took an immediate liking to Atlas. I knew I couldn’t separate them. And I only had partial custody of Rose at the time. I knew I needed her to agree to take Atlas into her life. To love him like a son. She was hesitant to bring another child into our life. Especially when our life was complicated. I was gone working with Enzo for a long time, while she was left behind with Rose. I would come back as often as I could, but it still meant that she had to do more than her fair share of the child-rearing.”

  He looks ashamed as he says his next words. His head hangs down, and his cheeks pinken. “I told her I’d do anything to make it happen. Atlas was my son, and I needed him and Rose to have the best life. Phoenix has her flaws, but she’s a great mother. My kids needed a mother and a father. They needed love from a supportive family, something that you and I never had growing up. So I asked her what she needed to make this happen.”

  “And what did she ask of you?” My heart is beating a million miles a minute even though I already know the answer.

  “She asked for more of my time. For me to spend more time with her and the children.”

  I nod, imploring him to say the next words.

  “And she asked that I marry her.”

  My heart flatlines. Phoenix has everything I’ve ever wanted—a child of her own that she can love, my child, and my killer. She has it all, while I have nothing. I’ve been dealt all the pain, while she’s gotten all of the happiness. It’s not fair.

  “So, you did?”

  He nods. “I married her. She knew what she was getting—a man who would never be faithful, who would never love her, but would protect her and our children with my life. For her, that was enough. To have me be hers for an eternity.”

  I close my eyes, taking it all in. Langston married Phoenix so that he could protect my child; I can’t fault him for that. I can’t fault him for protecting my child when I failed. I can’t fault him at all, even if it all hurts like a thousand needles attacking my skin all at once.

  “Thank you,” I say, opening my eyes, more tears plunging down my warm cheek.

  He stills, like I just slapped him. “What?”

  “Thank you, Langston. For everything.”

  He cups my face in his hands again, wiping away my liquified pain, searching for the heartbreak that was there before. He won’t find it. All he’ll find is forgiveness and gratitude.

  “I mean it. We’ve been through a lot you and I. We’ve failed each other so many times. Hurt each other. It stings that you know my child better than I do. That you got part of his life that I will never get. I’m jealous that you married a woman when I always thought deep down that if you ever did marry someone, it would be me.

  “But above it all, I’m thankful. My son needed someone to love him. I thought I was protecting him by hiding him away, but you—you showed him love when I couldn’t. You found him, protected him, loved him. You became his father when you had no responsibility to do so. He wasn’t your blood. He was the lost child of a woman you hated. You didn’t have to intervene. You definitely didn’t have to become his father. And yet you did. I can never thank you enough for what you did.”

  “I
hid your child. I took him instead of telling you I had him. And I married your cousin when I could have chosen you. Don’t thank me for that.”

  I grab his hands and lift them to my lips, kissing them. “No, you loved my child and became his father. The rest is just messy detail. I’ll never be able to repay you for what you did.”

  He scrunches his eyebrows and gruffs but doesn’t argue. “Do you want to meet your son?”

  I hear the children laughing just feet away from me. My heart pulls toward them. I want to meet my son. I want to meet Langston’s daughter. More than anything in the world.

  But I have to make sure it’s for the best to meet them. I don’t want to bring more enemies into their life. When I meet them, it has to be because it makes their lives better, not worse.

  So I answer the only way I can, “No.”

  2

  Langston

  She said no.

  My mouth falls open. Her hands slip through my fingers, and my eyes are blinking rapidly. She’s joking, or she just said the word because she’s used to telling me no.

  “Liesel?”

  She stands and starts to walk away from me—away from the kids.

  “It’s okay to be scared. I’ll be there with you.” I stand, hoping to lure her back. She lived with a man and agreed to marry him because he said he could help her find her son. Now that I told her exactly where he is, she’s running. It doesn’t make sense to me.

  Maybe she’s scared? I’m scared too. I’m scared that I’m going to let my feelings for this woman cloud my judgment and change all my plans.