12
Langston
I almost lost.
I almost didn’t find her in time.
Liesel almost won.
Almost…
It wouldn’t have really mattered if I didn’t find her the day I said I would. The game we play is invisible, with invisible rules, and invisible rewards. We are playing a game without all the pieces, without knowing how close the other is to winning, without even knowing if we are playing the same game or different games.
But we do know one thing—we both share lies. Lies that keep us from freedom, from living the life we want.
It’s time to end this.
Time to finally finish our game.
To have a winner.
Our game is nothing like Enzo and Kai’s game was with official rules and an empire to gain at the end.
Our game is nothing like Zeke and Siren’s game, spilling sinful truths that harm more than they help.
Our game is simple: lie until you can’t lie anymore. Try to get the upper hand. Try to get the other to fold first.
That’s what having control of this meeting was about. We were always going to eventually meet. But on whose terms—mine or hers?
I got here just in the nick of time. I won this round.
But Liesel has gotten more skilled than I give her credit for. She may live a cushy life now, yet that doesn’t mean she hasn’t been honing her skills on the side.
She put out fake leads, trying to throw me off her trail, so I had no choice but to consider every lead. There was no way for her to hide once she decided to board a plane, car, or boat. She couldn’t hide from me; she never could.
I thought I had found her when she boarded a plane to Paris. Of course, she would choose the most extravagant, beautiful place to try and hide. She wouldn’t take one of the dozens of flights she booked to the middle of nowhere.
I boarded my own flight and followed her to Paris. To my surprise, I found a woman who looks strikingly like Liesel and yet isn’t. They could be twins if I didn’t know that Liesel has no siblings, no family. She gave up her family.
Once I arrived and realized my mistake, I only had hours left to find Liesel before my time was up. I had followed all the leads she left for me. I searched all the surveillance at every airport, bridge out of the city, bus stop, harbor and found no sight of her.
I wasn’t going to find her via my usual routes. She slipped by undetected. My only choice was to choose one last place to search for her. She could have been anywhere, but that’s when I realized where she had chosen. The one place I knew she’d never go. My own backyard.
Miami.
Her mother’s house specifically.
Now, I’m standing in the small, broken-down room face to face with Liesel.
I say room, because this has never been a house, definitely never a home. It’s barely big enough for two people to breathe in comfortably. A strong wind would knock the whole building down.
Liesel hardly stepped a foot inside her mother’s home growing up, and it surprises me the strength it took her to come back here to Miami—the place that ruined both of our lives.
“You win, okay? You win,” Liesel finally says, the pain etched around the edges of her voice. She hates losing as much as I do.
I take a closer look at her. She looks like she’s been on the run for months instead of days. This is the first time in decades that I’ve seen her in anything less than designer clothes. She’s usually radiating confidence and beauty. Right now, the oversized rags that cling to her body scream homeless.
She did everything she could to avoid me. To escape, hide, and prevent me from winning. I should compliment her on her hard work, but I won’t. I like watching her squirm.