Last Chance (Liar Liar #3)
Page 11
I sank back into the cushions, closing my eyes. I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t feel. She’d had this knowledge all along and kept it to herself. Why? Was she trying to protect him? Was she willing to let me go down for his crime because in some sick way, she still had feelings for him?
“I know what you must be thinking,” she said, glancing at me. “But it wasn’t like that, I swear. I forgot all about that dance. I thought it was insignificant, just a brief moment that meant nothing.”
I stared at her, trying to read her. Was she telling me the truth or saying what she needed to to save her own ass?
“It wasn’t until you told me Ben was a possible suspect that I thought back, remembered everything he’d said to me, all the things he said and did to try to get me back.” She took a deep breath. “I was afraid you’d confront him, and I knew that wouldn’t end well. I wasn’t trying to protect him. I was trying to protect you. I didn’t want you to end up in jail for assaulting him.”
That was exactly what would have happened if Maura had told me the truth back then. I would have hunted him down and beat him until he’d begged me to stop. Back then, I’d been reckless. I had nothing to lose. Except her.
“Why were you dancing with him in the first place?”
“I didn’t want to,” she said, clutching the pillow harder. “I was dancing with a friend from school when Ben asked to cut in. I didn’t want to make a scene, so I told my friend it was fine. I shouldn’t have. That was my mistake.”
“Tell me the whole truth. I want to know everything.” My voice was deceptively calm. I was boiling inside. “You said he was trying to get you back. What, exactly, did he do?”
She rubbed her forehead, looking agitated as her eyes darted around the room. “I don’t know. He would send flowers, letters, call me at all hours of the day and night. Sometimes he would show up outside of one of my classes or when I was out with my girlfriends.”
“You’re telling me that son of a bitch was stalking you, and you didn’t think to tell me?” I tried, with everything in me, to hold on to my patience, but she was making it damn near impossible.
“I didn’t really think of it as stalking,” she said, jumping up. She paced the large room. “In hindsight, I realize that’s exactly what he was doing, but at the time, I thought he was just having a hard time with the breakup. We’d been together a long time. It was his first serious relationship, and mine too. He was my first lover—”
“Don’t remind me.” I stared through her, not really seeing her, as I tried to comprehend everything she was telling me.
“I’m sorry.” She crossed her arms, clenching her fists. “I’m so sorry. This is all my fault. If I’d taken his behavior more seriously… if I’d gotten a restraining order against him—”
“Do you really think a piece of paper would have stopped that psycho?”
I almost felt guilty when her face crumpled, but I was pissed that she’d kept this from me. I believed her when she said she was just trying to protect me, but I had a right to know the truth. If anyone could have protected her from harassment, I could have. That weasel wouldn’t have been stupid enough to mess with me.
“I know you must hate me—”
“You’re wrong,” I said, spitting the words. “I don’t hate you. I could never hate you. But Jesus…” I leaned forward and dropped my head in my hands. “It’s a lot to process. I thought I could trust you to be honest with me, and now I find out you were lying to me. Not just once, but every goddamn day of our relationship. What am I supposed to do with that? How the hell do you expect me to feel?”
She leaned against the wall and sank to the floor. She seemed to have expended all of her energy. “I don’t expect you to forgive me or believe that I was only trying to protect you, but I was. I swear to you.”
I stared at her, seeing a flashback of the fresh-faced teen she used to be. She didn’t look all that different in sweats with her hair in a ponytail. But she was different. So was I. Everything was different. “I need time to process this. A hell of lot has happened in the past few days, things you know nothing about, and it’s rattled me.”
“What happened?” Her eyes locked with mine. “Is it work or… something personal?”
“Lana lied to me about being raped.” I still found it difficult to say that. I wasn’t used to being played for a fool.
“She what?” Maura looked appalled. “How do you know?”
“She admitted it, right before I kicked her out of my apartment. Apparently after she saw us together, she realized trying to get my attention was a waste of time. She could see my feelings for you were real.”
“She went to all that trouble just to get your attention?” Maura shook her head. “That’s pretty twisted, especially when I think of all the women who really are going through hell right now, trying to figure out how to recover from an attack.”
I watched her work through her feelings until it looked like she’d found her way to anger. I could still read her like a book. Her feelings were so transparent.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked.
“Your dad told me you’re having a hard time with the idea of having to testify again, that it’s brought up a lot of bad memories.”
“You talked to my father?” she asked. “When?”
“At the courthouse. I told him I wanted to be there for you, to help you through this, but you were shutting me out.”
“I’m sorry I overreacted the other day.” She sighed. “I’d had a nightmare the night before, about the rape. That hasn’t happened in a long time. I guess I was just on edge, you know, with all those memories coming back and trying to remember every detail of what happened with Ben. I want to help the police in any way I can. He deserves to be locked up for what he did.”
“Have the police called you down to the station?” I asked, pulling my attention away from my misery to focus on hers.
She nodded. “Yeah, they called me in the day you left. I told them everything I could remember. I have more to add. It seems I was repressing a lot, but now that I know it was Ben, more is coming back. Just in snippets or flashes, sometimes while I’m sleeping.”
“So you’re still having nightmares?”
“Yeah, every night now.” She lowered her head to the crook of her arm. “That hasn’t happened since the days following the rape. I thought I was over the worst of it, but it feels like it’s starting all over again.”
I held out my hand to her. I was angry she’d kept me in the dark, but I couldn’t stand to see her going through hell alone. “Come here. I need to hold you, angel.”
Without hesitation, she rose and took my hand. She sat beside me and curled into my chest. “I hate myself for what I put you through.”
“This wasn’t your fault, sweetheart.” I kissed the crown of her head as I ran a hand over her hair. “He did this. He’s to blame. Not you.”
“Are you sure you don’t hate me?” She sounded so scared and timid, nothing at all like the confident, sassy woman I’d fallen in love with.
“I’m positive, baby. This won’t break you, angel. I won’t let it.”
She shuddered, holding me tighter. “I know it won’t. I just need some time, maybe some more therapy.” Shutting her eyes, she said, “I’m supposed to be the together one who mentors these women, and I feel like I’m right back where I started.”
“But you’re not,” I assured her. “This is just a set-back. Anyone would feel the way you do.”
“How can you be so understanding?”
“Because I love you more than I hate him. I started out wanting revenge, but now I just want to close this chapter so we can move on with our lives together.”
She looked at me, her eyes wide and glowing. “You still want a life with me after everything I put you through?”
“My sweet angel.” I stroked her face as I smiled at her. “It’s not like I have a choice. You own me, heart, body, and soul. Where the hell am I gonna go
without you?”
She smiled and touched my face reverently. “I passed some of my workload off to my assistant. I decided I need to take some time off to regroup.”
“I think that’s an excellent idea.” I kissed her softly. “Maybe a change of scenery?”
“I was thinking the same thing.” She rested her head against my shoulder and ran my silk tie through her fingers. “My assistant said she’d be interested in buying my business.”
“Really?” I wanted to let her know how thrilled I was by that prospect, but not until I knew how she felt about it. “What did you tell her?”
“That I’d have to talk to you about it first.”
I grinned. “Really? I thought you weren’t talking to me.”
“I couldn’t tell you all this over the phone. It was just too much.”
“So you weren’t ignoring me because you’d given up on us?”
“I could never give up on us,” she said, burrowing deeper under the throw I’d pulled over her.
“Sell, Maura. Sell your business and move to New York with me. You can start another business or take some time off and travel with me. Whatever you want, baby.” I peppered her cheeks and forehead with kisses. “I just need you with me.”
“We’ll have to come back for the trial,” she reminded me. “And to visit our parents.”
“Our parents?”
“Have you seen your mom and dad yet?” She tipped her head back to look at me.
“No, I was planning to go see them in the morning.”
“Can I come with you?” she asked. “I want to see them, to apologize for everything and let them know I never intended to hurt you or them. I can’t even imagine the hell they’ve been through, wondering what happened to you.”
I tightened my grip around her. In that moment, all of my anger, frustration, and resentment melted away. She got it. She got me. “You don’t have to apologize for anything, sweetheart. But I do want you to go with me to see them.”
“You do?”
“Of course. I have to introduce my parents to the woman I’m going to marry, don’t I?”
Her smile lit up her face. “I love you so much.”
“I love you too, angel. Everything I went through to get here, all those years in prison and on the run, I’d do it all again if I knew it was going to bring me back to you. You are my life.”
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Now Available
Part One in the Liar Liar Trilogy
Breaking Free
Part Two in the Liar Liar Trilogy
Truth or Dare
Part Three in the Liar Liar Trilogy
Last Chance
Coming Soon
The Stavros Family Saga, #1
Aris
The Stavros Family Saga, #2
Jase
The Stavros Family Saga, #3
Talia
Table of Contents
Last Chance
Copyright © by C.A. Mason
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
About the Author
Now Available
Coming SoonThe Stavros Family Saga, #1ArisThe Stavros Family Saga, #2Jase