“Micah, there is something I need to tell you. I should have told you years ago, but when no one found out I just, well, I just went along and lived this life of lies and bullshit. The only reason the paparazzi are this interested in me has to be because they found out. There is no other reason that I can think of.”
She watched as Micah’s demeanor shifted. The concerned look on his face was gone, and in its place was the face of a man who was both angry and confused.
“What is it Izzy? Just spit it out.”
“My name isn’t Isabel Diaz. Well, it is, but I was born, Juanita Isabel Maria Diaz, not the Isabel Maria Diaz that you know me as.”
“So you changed your name? That’s what you are upset about?”
“No, it’s why I changed my name that I’m upset.”
Micah stood and paced the room before turning to her. “Start talking.”
“Before I came to work for you, I was in a relationship with a terrible person. I lived in California back then and we met while I was in college. He was older than me, quite a bit older than me. After college, I stayed there for him. It devastated my mother that I didn’t come home. It was hard on my whole family for us to be apart. At first things were good between us, at least I thought they were. He was a financial advisor and was teaching me all about the business. He told me he wanted to open his own firm one day and I would run it with him. Side by side, forever.”
“And?”
“And that didn’t happen. About a year into planning for the opening, I learned he was married. I immediately broke things off with him, but I was a wreck over the pain I caused his wife. I was absolutely clueless. We never lived together, but I saw him every day at work and we spent most nights together. I had no reason to believe I was the other woman. After I broke things off, his wife called me. She told me I wasn’t the only one. Not only was he cheating on her, but he was cheating on me, too. He had gotten a college girl pregnant and his wife found out because the girl went to their house looking for him. The whole thing makes my skin crawl just thinking about it.”
Micah stopped pacing and came to sit on the bed next to her. “Izzy, that wasn’t your fault.”
“There’s more. The firm he claimed to be setting up wasn’t an investment firm at all. He was embezzling money from his clients and making trades without their authorization. When everything unravelled, they investigated me for financial crimes and pleaded no contest. I forfeited my investment licenses. My name was dragged through the mud during the trial. They made me out as the deceitful adulteress that coerced him into the entire thing. I couldn’t afford an attorney, so I just did what the public defender recommended. When I got back to Miami, I shortened my name, hoping to disappear into the thousands of other Isabel Diaz’s in the city, and it worked.”
“Fuck Iz. I can’t believe you didn’t tell me.” Micah was back on his feet and this time it seemed he was trying to get as far away from her as possible. “This could ruin my entire business. How could you keep this from me for so long?”
“I just... I don’t know Micah. When you gave me the job that day, it was the first time I had dusted off my past and gone for something I wanted. Things were so dark back then; my cousin found the ad you placed and helped me get myself cleaned up and to the interview. As soon as I stepped in the doors, it was like I was re-energized. I had hope for the first time in what felt like forever. I have always loved finance, and I thought working as an assistant would fulfil me. It did for a long time, but you kept pushing me to do more and I wanted to show you I could.”
“Don’t blame this on me.”
“I’m not, believe me, I’m not. But the person in those court records is not who I am. The person I am is the person you have gotten to know over the last seven years. It’s who I want to be. But now... now it’s over, and I can’t apologize to you enough for it.”
When he stood there saying nothing, she realized then that she had to leave. He would need her out from under his feet while he figured everything out. She couldn’t stay at the apartment with him any longer. The breakup of their fake engagement needed to happen sooner rather than later. It had all been on her mind since she saw the first camera, and there was no point in delaying the inevitable. She pushed herself up out of bed and remade it while he stood there watching her. Isabel crossed the room, pulled her suitcase out of the closet, and opened it on the bed. She began pulling her clothes down out of the closet and started folding them to put them in the suitcase. Tonight she’d go home to her mother and tell her the truth, then tomorrow she’d leave town for a few months until everything smoothed over. Leaving was the right thing to do, even though every bone in her body ached with the heartbreak she was feeling. The last two weeks with Micah had been some of the best nights of her life, and now she had become his worst nightmare.