You have no idea just how much of a right I have to that money, huntress.
“You seemed to lack motivation. Taking days, months, years of your life from you wasn’t working, so I took the one thing that every human responds to—money.”
“You think by taking my money, I’ll be forced to tell you the truth? I think you’ve forgotten everything I’ve gone through. How poor I used to be. How much of a survivor I am. I built everything I have from nothing, and I can do it again.”
“Or you can marry that rich fiancé of yours.”
“Husband,” she says firmly.
I pull out my phone and open my browser to the announcement before sliding the phone on the oak counter in front of her.
“Liar,” I whisper, cutting through the noisy bar with the single word.
Liesel freezes as she realizes she’s caught in a lie.
“That little liar,” she says.
“That would be you.”
She slides the phone back across the bar, her frustration apparent.
My reflexes kick in, and I catch my phone before it slides off the bar.
She’s glaring at the phone, not at me. I’m completely lost.
“Who’s the liar?” I ask.
“No one.”
“The correct answer is you—you’re the liar.”
“Fine, I lied, but so did you.”
“I’m not the one caught in a lie. And I’m not the one who has to tell the truth in order to live—that would be you.”
“Just kill me and get it over with. I’m tired of your damn games. Nothing you do will make me tell you the truth. I will go to my grave hiding my half of the letter.”
“Well, you have six months left to decide.”
“Six months? You took off four months for one little lie?”
“One big lie.”
She downs the rest of her drink, and that’s when I know that I’m getting to her. It bothers her that I’m willing to kill her.
“Whatever,” she says. She pulls her own phone out and starts scrolling through news articles about her engagement announcement in frustration. It’s then that I realize she hadn’t agreed to the announcement. Waylon did this without her consent.
I suspected all along that Waylon isn’t a good person. There is something he’s hiding. I don’t know what it is, but I’ll figure it out long before Liesel does. I may want her dead, but I want to be the one to inflict pain. I don’t want Waylon to beat me to it.
“I wouldn’t trust Waylon if I were you.”
“I trust him more than I trust you.”
“He didn’t even have your agreement before announcing your engagement. Sounds pretty untrustworthy to me.”
“At least he hasn’t threatened to kill me. He doesn’t try to control me, unlike you.”
I lean in close, getting a whiff of her sweet perfume. It’s intoxicating, but I won’t let it affect me.