“Beer, please,” I grunt at the bar maid who’s too young and pretty to be in such a dive. I don’t know why I’m here really, it’s just the nearest place I could find. “Whatever you have on tap is fine.”

“Oh dear,” she coos while getting me my drink. “Now that doesn’t look like a very happy face.”

I roll my eyes and wipe my hands across my face as distress gets the better of me. “No, well it hasn’t been the best week to be honest. I feel like I’m constantly banging my head against a brick wall.”

“Oh yeah? Well, that sucks.” She slides a glass to me. “Anything I can help with?”

I chuckle at the mere idea of bringing someone else into it. I’ve been trying my hardest to do research without giving myself away, the last thing I want is for Bryan to work out what I’m up to - not that I’m sure he knows anything about who I am - and to kick my freaking ass. It’s hard to get info though. Ridiculously so.

“Well, that depends,” I reply wryly. “How much do you know about everyone in the city?”

“Ooh, you’re like one of those private investigator guys.” She leans in closer. “Who you looking for?”

I run my eyes over her face trying to work out how trustworthy she can be. I don’t know anyone here and even since Savannah left me I don’t know how good my judge of character is. I would love to ask someone though.

“Come on, cutie.” She pinches my cheek and laughs. “I won’t tell anyone. It’s boring here, I just want some fun. I promise you can trust me. If you can’t, you know where I work, right?”

“I might not survive it if you prove untrustworthy,” I reply, wanting her to know how serious this is. Or might be, I still haven’t quite worked it out yet. “Do you know a man named Bryan Janssen?”

Her face falls, for a moment I wonder if it’s because she doesn’t recognize the name, but then she leans in a little closer. The next time she speaks I can feel her breath tickling over my cheek.

“That man is an asshole, like the worst of them all. I absolutely hate him.”

“You do?” I sip my beer slowly. This could be a dead end, I can’t get too excited. “Why is that?”

“He’s married, you know that, right? He has, like, this really nice wife. She’s sweet and pretty. Or so I’ve heard, I don’t actually know her, but he’s like shoved her down. Crushed her spirit.”

“Yeah, I actually know his wife.” I gulp loudly. “She’s… someone I know. Someone… a friend.”

“Ah, I see. So, you probably know that he cheats on her all the time then. He’s an asshole, right?”

“He does?” Savannah never told me that. Perhaps that isn’t as important as her child. “I see.”

“Yeah, and one of the people he fucked behind her back was my friend. My roommate, actually. Her name is… wait, I can trust you too, can’t I? What I tell you won’t go further than this?”

“My lips are sealed. I won’t say anything, I promise. The cheating isn’t what the issue is here.”

I half expect her to ask me what the issue actually is but thank goodness she’s so desperate to tell the story of her friend that she doesn’t dive in on my point. I breathe out a sigh of relief as I get away with it.

“Okay, so my roommate, Tiana, got a job at his company. She was working in the accounts department. When she spotted some of the other employees fudging the numbers, she spoke to Bryan, all concerned, like, and he told her not to worry her pretty little head about it. He made up some bullshit reason about why it was necessary, and because she’s a bit of a dumbass she fell for it.” She rolls her eyes dramatically. “I told her she was an idiot but she wouldn’t hear it. She was charmed by him. Then she ended up fucking him for a while until he fired her last week. He got bored of her, I guess. She had served her purpose.”

“Woah…” None of this paints a very good picture of a man I already hate. I try not to fall into the trap of believing him wholeheartedly just because it’s what I want to hear, but it’s hard. “That’s nuts.”

“I know. And while they were screwing she fudged the books just like the others. Idiot.”

“Do you know why? What were they up to? What did they want to hide?”

“Wait, you aren’t a cop, are you? I don’t want to get Tiana in trouble.”

“No, not a cop, just a concerned friend, honest.” I nod slowly. “Not here to get you in trouble.”

“A friend to his wife?” I nod. “Did you hear that she didn’t even want to marry him? Her father made her, or something equally fucked up. Like we’re in the nineteen twenties or whatever. He proudly told my friend that story as well. Honestly, it’s like he’s proud of what he’s done. What a fuck up, huh?”

“Why would he be proud of it? Why did he even insist on it? That’s so weird, right?”

“She’s rich, right? She comes from a wealthy family. Poor woman, she’s so stuck.”

I remember Pippa, Savannah’s college roommate, telling me something like that, but I was too hurt at the time to really hear it. All I could clearly see was that Savannah had gone. My brain was blocked off to anything else.

“Wow, that’s really awful, isn’t it? I don’t know what to do now.”

“You want my advice?” I stare expectantly at her. “Get your friend out of there sooner rather than later.”

“But.” I shake my head thoughtfully. “What about the kid? She can’t just…”

“What kid?”

I give her a confused look. “Peter. The child who was… who might have been killed in a car accident.”

“Oh, I don’t know anything about a child. Tiana never mentioned on that, I don’t think Bryan ever spoke about it. Or maybe he said they couldn’t have children, I can’t remember now.”

I don’t know what to say to that, it’s not even an option I’ve considered. But what would all this be for if there wasn’t a child? Savannah doesn’t seem like herself at the moment but I couldn’t go as far as to think she’s having a mental breakdown. But would I be able to immediately recognize one if I saw it? They come in all shapes and sizes, I do know that no one suffers them the same. This might be all just too much for her now. Or perhaps she’s always had an underlying condition and something has sparked it. Anything could have happened. I can’t pretend to know her as I did ten years ago. I probably didn’t even really know her then, I just idealized her.

“Seriously, dude, I cannot stress this enough. Just help your friend. Get her away from him.”

“Trust me, you have no idea how much I want to do that, but I’m afraid it isn’t my place.”

“Ooh, do you love her?” Her eyes light up and she leans on the bar giving me a wide eyed smirk. “This could turn out to be a very interesting night after all…”

“So?” I demand to Tommy down the hand set of my cell phone. “What do you think about that?”

He’s silent for a while, which I suppose is to be expected considering everything I’ve just laid on him.

“Do you really want to know what I think, Jayden, because I’m not sure you’ll like it?”

My heart sinks, he’s right I only want to hear good news, but that’s exactly why I rang him. I need some truth bombs landed in my lap. If I don’t, I’ll get carried away and that will lead me into heart break.

“Yes,” I practically whisper. “Tell me what you think about it all.”

“It’s crazy, that’s what it is. I haven’t heard anything like it. She calls you out of the blue after all these years with some crackpot story about her kid going missing and her husband being in on some plot.”

“But what about to girl in the bar? The one that said about all the cheating and stuff?”

“Yeah, it’s probably true. He probably is like that. That’s why Savannah wants revenge. And don’t forget the girl from the bar said that there wasn’t any kid in the first place.”

“No, she said that she didn’t know if there was any kid.”

“Right… which is weird. Her friend worked there and there was no mention? She’s lying, Jayden.”

“But she was all messed up about it. You didn’t see her, she’s been struggling for ages…”

“She’s lost her freaking mind. If there was a kid, he was killed in an accident and now she’s lost it. It’s quite typical for a rich and a bored housewife to lose it anyway. That’s like, a statistic I’m sure.”

“No, that’s a generalization. A stereotype, that isn’t what’s happening here.”

“You can’t see it because you’re doing the one thing I told you not to and you’re falling back in love with her. It seems to me that you’ve always been blinded by Savannah and this is just more of the same. You should come back here, get your sorry ass back to work and get back to the real world. All of this is madness.”

I chew down on my bottom lip, considering this. It would be so easy to chalk this up to insanity, to tell Savannah that her child is definitely not alive anymore and to extract myself before I sink too deep, but I already know that will never happen. Not a chance in hell, I would never be able to forgive myself.

It was hard enough when she left me. No way I can do it the other way around.

“But, if you are going to stick around, which I’m sure you are, then you really need to watch your back. This situation is either way fucked up - a big old lie, in which case you need to worry about the motivation, or dangerous.”

“I should find out more about the husband, don’t you think? See if he is a dangerous man.”

“Just because he’s messing with his numbers doesn’t necessarily make him dangerous, but it is troubling. When certain people have secrets, they’ll do whatever it takes to keep them. Don’t be a casualty of that.”

“You honestly think I’m nuts, don’t you?” I rub my head. “I think I do too.”

“I just care about you, Jayden, that’s all. I’m scared this woman will hurt you.”

I am too, I really am. This time I think I have more than my heart on the line, but still I won’t let it get in the way, still I want to do what I can for Savannah. I just can’t help myself, she makes me act nuts.

“I’ll look after myself, don’t worry, Tommy. I’ll keep you in the loop too.” I smirk as I make a joke that’s much too dark really. “Someone needs to know where I am!”

“Urgh, it would be so much easier if your parents hadn’t moved to France. Why were they so selfish?”

I laugh loudly, glad that Tommy gets my sense of humor. “I know, right? Anyway, I’ll speak to you soon, I better get some sleep. I have another long ass day ahead of me tomorrow so… yeah.”

“Night, buddy. Take care of yourself. I’ll be thinking about you.”

I hang up the phone and sigh, exhaustion completely floods me. I don’t think this is going well, it feels completely awful. To be honest, I just want it to end.