Queen of Lies (Empire of Lies 2)

“Or else what?”

“I’m not going to answer that.”

“Michael—”

“Meredith.” He cuts me off. “Stop fucking talking, and just do what the hell I’m telling you to do. Now.”

He presses his finger against my lips before I can say another word. “If you don’t, you’ll die, and you’ll have wasted my fucking time.” He glares at me. “Eight o’clock check out. Cab to Naco. Pay in cash and show the Harriet passport. Check into the Rio Grande Hotel, and tell them you’re meeting someone named Benny. There won’t be a Benny, but at noon, you’ll need to swim across the lazy Azul river to avoid the number of protestors that are going to storm the city that day. Traffic will be at a standstill all week, so this is the best way. You’ve been doing one hundred laps a day for weeks, so you should be able to make that swim easily by now…”

I stare at him in utter disbelief.

“When you get there, you’ll tell them your name is Anna,” he says. “You’re a tourist who got lost, and you’d like to visit your security box. It’ll have everything you need. Transportation, more directions, currency, everything. And then four days from now, you’ll need to get to the airport and check in for an eight o’clock flight to Geneva, Switzerland. The receipt for the first-class ticket is already in your bag. The second you get there, you can start over living happily ever after.”

I shake my head, feeling tears fall down my face.

He repeats his instructions, three more times—each time more painful than the last. When he finishes, he has the audacity to ask me if I have any questions.

“Fuck you, Michael.” I step back. “Fuck you.”

“I never told you that this would be a fairytale,” he says. “I told you on the night we met that we couldn’t go any further. It’s your fault for getting your goddamn hopes up.”

“I thought you said that you wanted me to trust you.”

“You should trust me,” he says. “I just helped you get a whole new goddamn life. You can’t go back to New York, and you damn sure can’t live in the United States,” he says. “You can make something of yourself overseas, though. You once said that you could live anywhere and do fashion, so now’s the chance to see if you’re right.”

“Michael, please tell me that this is some type of sick joke. What about us? All the things you said about restarting what we had?”

“This is the end of us, Meredith.” He shrugs. “I said all of those things because at one point I thought I could mean them. Now, I’ve realized that I don’t, and I think that’s for the best.”

I don’t respond. I just let my mind remind me just how big of a fool I am for ever trusting this man.

“I need you to listen very carefully to this final list of directions I’m about to give you.” He starts talking again. “I wrote you this letter explaining the first part of everything I’ve done in detail. Should you take my advice and arrive at all the locations on time, a second letter will arrive explaining the rest.”

I take the letter from his hands and rip it in half. Then into smaller shreds, again and again.

“You’re going to regret that, Meredith.”

“The only thing I regret is falling in love with you.”

“So, you don’t enjoy living?” he hissed. “Because that’s far more important than some relationship. I’ve just ensured that you’ll get to keep doing that. You can say, ‘Thank you’ at any given time.”

I stand still, shocked to my core. First the news of my father, and now this. His way of ensuring I have a new life doesn’t sound like “living” at all.

“Who burned you this badly?” I say, looking at him. “Who fucked you up to the point where you can walk away from someone who loves you enough to be fucking okay with everything you’ve done?”

“You don’t know half of the things I’ve done, Meredith…”

“I’m willing to assume,” I say, stepping close to him as more tears fall down my face. “I feel like there’s a reason for what you’ve done, and you can trust me enough to tell me.” I stare at him, waiting for him to come to his senses. “I’m sorry for whoever or whatever burned you so badly in the past, but mark my words, Michael. I will never forgive you or take you back if you leave me here like this.”

“I’ll never beg for you to take me back, Meredith,” he says. “We both know that’s not my style. You’re welcome for everything. I wish you the best in your new life.”

“That’s all you have to say?”

“If there was more, I would’ve said it.”

I nod and bite my tongue; he can have the last word.