All the Secrets Page 24

It looks almost like I had left it.

Almost being the operative word.

I pull out my license and glare at the name. Now everything is crystal clear.

She looked inside and found out that I have lied about the most basic thing about me: my name.

Why did she leave?

Why didn’t she ask me about it?

I walk back into the living room and look out at the vastness of the desert outside.

Of course. Leaving was the smartest thing that she could have done. She doesn't know who I am.

She already knows that I have lied to her so staying here in this house all the way out here, where no one could hear her scream, and confronting me about the truth would be the stupidest thing that she could do.

Of course, I would never hurt her.

I have never hurt anybody. The only reason why any of this is happening is because I stood up to someone who was doing the hurting.

I take a deep breath and exhale slowly.

Emma did the smartest thing that she could do to protect herself but knowing that does not make the pain go away.

 

 

23

 

 

Emma

 

 

I packed my bags silently and left without saying a word. Under normal circumstances, I would never do anything like that.

I would at least say goodbye, but these are not normal circumstances. I'm running for my life.

I thought that I knew this person because I met him a few times and he was polite, charming, and everything that I wanted after what happened with Alex.

Now I realize that I have no idea who he is. He's been lying to me about everything and the smartest thing that I can do is to simply grab my stuff, get into my car, and get the hell away from here.

When I'm almost twenty miles away from his home, he starts blowing up my phone.

He calls a few times, leaves a few messages, and then a few more texts.

He appears concerned. His tone never elevates and he never threatens me. He just keeps asking me if everything is okay.

A pang of guilt tightens in my chest, but I tell myself to listen to my head rather than to my heart.

If I had stayed there to listen to him explain why he has another ID in his wallet and why all of his credit cards are issued under that same name, then he would've just told me more lies.

I can't do that.

I can’t hear any more stories.

I thought that this thing with him might be something, but I realize now that this is nothing but a rebound.

He made me feel good and there is something intriguing about him, but after this I need to protect my heart.

Before Alex, I had never been cheated on. I thought that I could trust men.

I thought that they wouldn’t lie and that they actually wanted to be with me.

Now?

Everything that has happened has turned my life upside down.

I know that I had no business getting involved with someone so quickly after what happened with my fiancé, but it felt good to be wanted and loved.

As I get further away from the desert, the safer I start to feel and the angrier I become.

How dare he lie to me about who he is?

How dare he make me feel so good after I was feeling so low?

My thoughts keep going round and round like they are circling the drain and I'm afraid that if I force myself off the track, then I'll end up going down that same drain.

To break my chain of thought, I pick up the phone and dial Shelby's number.

When I start to talk, tears start to run down my cheeks and I get so overwhelmed I can barely make the words make any sense.

“Okay, slow down,” she says calmly. “Otherwise pull over. I don't want you driving in that state.”

I wipe my eyes and take a few deep breaths. I grab the bottle of water from the cupholder and gulp down half of it.

“You still there?” I ask.

“Yes, I'm here,” she says.

The phone is laying on my lap so I'm talking hands-free.

“So, he lied to you about his name?”

“Uh-huh.“

I tell her everything that has happened and hope that she can help me figure it all out.

“There's one thing that doesn't really make sense to me,” she says after a long pause.

“What?”

“Alex knows Liam from back in the day, right?”

“Yes,” I mumble.

“He actually introduced him as Liam?”

I think about that for a moment trying to remember if he actually said his name to me or not.

“I think so, but I'm not sure. No, he did. At the party I heard him introduce Liam to someone.”

“You have to find out for sure,” Shelby says.

“What do you mean?”

“Alex knows him. He ran into him and invited him to your engagement party. Why would he do that if he didn't actually know him?”

“What if that's just a story?”

“What would be the point of that?”

“I have no idea,” I say quietly.

“You have to talk to Alex. You have to find out if he knows Liam as Liam or as this other guy: Peter Mueller Schmidt.”

“I was thinking about something,” I interrupt her. “What if he just had that guy's driver's license?”

“And credit cards?” she asks.

I take a deep breath. Yeah, but that can't be right.

“Wasn't it also his picture on the driver's license?”

“Yes,” I admit. “I looked at it very closely and it was him.”

Shelby doesn't say anything for a few moments and neither do I.

“Do you think there's any good reason that he could be lying to me about this? Like, maybe he goes by Liam and that's his real full name. Maybe he just hadn't mentioned it yet.”

“It's possible,” Shelby says after moment.

“Really?”

“Yes, of course. People use nicknames all the time.”

“So, do you think I made a mistake?”

“No, absolutely not. If you made a mistake, you can always apologize, but he did lie and if you had confronted him about it there and it turned out that you had discovered some sort of huge secret of his, then… Your life could have been in danger.”

I bite the inside of my lip.

It sounds dramatic, but as someone who has watched more than her share of true crime shows, I know that this kind of thing happens all the time and people get killed for a lot less.

No, it was the right thing to do, to get the hell out of there.

Now, I'm going to go home and I'm going to find out exactly who this Peter Mueller Schmidt is.

Before hanging up, Shelby asks me if I want her to come over.

I do, but I also need some time to work on this.

“Maybe,” I say after a pause. “Let me get home, get situated, and then maybe we can meet up. I'll call you.”

 

 

24

 

 

Emma

 

 

I plan on calling Alex when I get home, but the more time that passes the longer that I’m stuck in traffic, the more inpatient I get.

Finally, I cave and dial him.

He picks up on the first ring.

“I'm so glad that you called,” Alex says in a chirpy upbeat voice.

I'm tempted to jump right in, but I also want him to tell me the truth.

Prev page Next page