“How are you?” I ask.

“Terrible. I miss you. I'm a total wreck.”

I swallow hard. He does exactly what I don’t want to hear.

That's the whole fucking problem.

“I'm not calling about that,” I say coldly.

“It's too bad because that's all I want to talk about.”

“Alex, I want to ask you something.”

“Move back in with me,” he says as if he hasn't heard what I just said.

“I was never living with you.”

“That was the issue. We should have been living together. We should've been spending all of our time together.”

“No, you shouldn’t have been sleeping with your boss.”

“What can I do? How can I make this up to you?”

I see an opening and jump in.

“Tell me about your friend Liam.”

“Why?”

“I don't know if you know but I did a story on him. He's a pretty famous writer.”

“No, he's not.”

“Yes, he is. He writes fantasy novels. I just published a story on him a few days ago. He uses the name D. B. Carter.”

“Okay,” Alex says nonchalantly. “I don't know anything about that. I don't have time to read.”

This irks me.

This is the kind of bullshit that people who don't like to read like to say. It sounds like a compliment to them, but it's really a putdown to other people.

“I know that you pride yourself on not being well read,” I say mockingly and immediately regret it.

The only reason we are talking is to get some information out of him. Insulting comments are not going to help my cause.

“So apparently he is a famous writer,” Alex says. “He told me that he made all of his money investing in the stock market, but what do I know?”

My mouth drops open.

Could this be right? What if… I don't want to let my thoughts go there, but they do anyway.

What if Liam isn't D. B. Carter at all?

I mean, this elusive Matt Lipinski led me to him, but what if he is actually Matt?

What if he is just catfishing me, pretending to be this famous writer?

I decide to keep this to myself for now.

“Are you sure that his name is Liam?”

“Yes,” Alex says. “110%. I've known that kid since middle school.”

“You haven't really seen him since then though. How do you know that it's actually him?”

“I guess I don't, but he looks the same. Plus, we talked a lot about our time back there with Mrs. Williamson, Mr. Kilpatrick, and all the teachers that we had. He knew all about them.”

I nod processing all of this.

Alex isn’t stupid.

He's sharp and if someone were just egging him on or pretending to be Liam, then he would know.

Right?

“Do you think it was a lie?” Alex asks.

I look at the whites of my knuckles wrapped tightly around the steering wheel.

“I don't know what to think.”

“He may not be D. B. Carter, huh?”

“I just don't know why he would make that up. To what end?”

“People lie for all sorts of reasons,” Alex says and I see that as a veiled statement.

What is he trying to say with this? Is he trying to use this as an excuse for what he did to me?

“What are you going to do about your article?” Alex asks.

“I don't know.”

“I can talk to him when he comes in to talk about his investments.”

“What are you talking about?”

“He is investing two million dollars in our fund.”

“Two million?” I gasp.

“Yeah, so whatever it is that he does for a living, it must pay pretty well.”

My thoughts get muddled and my vision gets blurry, but I blink and put myself back on the freeway, crawling in traffic at twenty mph.

I read somewhere that most accidents occur at this speed because people get distracted and bored and start tinkering with their phones and their music.

Who the hell knows if that's true?

“What's going to happen with your article?” Alex asks. “The whole thing is about him. Will you have to write a retraction?”

“I don't know, probably not.”

“It looks good,” Alex says, catching me off guard. “I have it pulled up here on my laptop and I'm going to read it as soon as we get off.”

“You really don't have to.”

“No, this is important to you and I want to show you that I'm interested in things that are important to you.”

“Alex, we're not going to get back together.” My voice is stern but quiet and direct.

I've said this before, of course, but this is the first time that I think I really meant it.

There's a long pause on the other end and I wait for him to reply. Instead all I hear is him licking his lips.

“I don't believe that,” he finally says.

“No, you don't want to believe it, but it is true.”

“Let's just wait and see,” he says calmly. The coolness of his voice startles me. There's a certainty in it that throws me off a little, but I choose to ignore it.

I don't want to talk to him anymore, but there's something else that I need from him.

“What is Liam's last name?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Tell me his last name.”

“Linville. Liam Linville.”

I grip the steering wheel harder and exhale very slowly to slow down my increasing heartbeat. For a moment, I don't think that I had heard him correctly.

“Are you sure?” I ask, my voice cracking in the middle. “Are you sure it’s not Liam… Parish?”

“Yes, his name is Liam Linville. That was always his name.”

“Tell me everything that you can about him.”

“Only if you promise to have dinner with me.”

“No, I'm serious. I have to know the truth.”

“Well, then you won't mind having dinner with me in return.”

I think about that for a minute.

“What do you know?”

“I'll tell you everything that I know tonight at seven. I'll pick you up at your place.”

I want to protest and tell him no, but this is an important part of the story. He's the only person who I know for sure knows Liam. Maybe there's some hidden information that he's holding that he doesn't even know about.

“What do you say?”

“I'll have dinner with you for one hour and that's it.”

“Perfect,” Alex says and I can almost see him grinning on the other end.

25

Emma

When I get home, I drop my bag on the floor and melt into the couch. I want to immediately get to work on finding out the truth about Liam, but I can't physically make myself move.

The ups and downs of the last two days have thrown me for a tailspin. The odd thing is that I hadn't even realized the extent of my exhaustion until right this moment.

My eyes feel heavy and impossible to lift. My lids close all on their own and despite how much I fight it, I start to drift off and fall asleep.