Crown of Lies
“Why?” His face crunched.
I swallowed hard, pushing down my heart where it hyperventilated in my mouth. “Why did your brother give you this necklace? It’s not something a boy would normally play with.”
He scuffed his shoe on the ballroom floor. “I’m looking after it for him.” His eyes blazed. “I would never play with it.”
“You didn’t answer me, Stewie.” My panic made me sharp. “Why do you have this?”
His attitude prickled. He crossed his arms. “Because if he was caught with it, his sentence would’ve doubled.”
My legs turned to liquid.
My knees to chocolate mousse.
“What sentence?”
His lips thinned. “I dunno if I should be telling you this.”
“Yes, you should.” I moved forward, towering over him, commanding my fingers to stay locked around my necklace and not reach for his throat to strangle the answers from him. “Tell me, Stewie. Tell me right now.”
He puffed out his cheeks, as if doing his best not to reply but unable to ignore the order from an elder. “His prison sentence, all right? He got done for robbery. He asked me to keep it, so they didn’t have evidence.” Fear turned his face red. “I know I should’ve hidden it somewhere, but I liked it, okay? I like blue, and I like stars.” He kicked the floor. “I want to be an astronomer when I grow up. I know it’s girly, but...I love stars.” His hand came up. “Give it back.”
My body obeyed before my mind caught up.
In a daze, my arm reached forward. My fingers opened, letting the sapphire slip from my grasp to his.
I was numb.
I was dead.
Two choices.
Two men I’d cursed their very existence.
Two men tried to rape me.
One man had succeeded.
But it wasn’t rape.
It was consensual.
It was wanted.
He’d stolen more than just my necklace but my innocence and goodness too.
How could I move on from this?
How did I ever come to terms with what he’d done?
Who is he?
Which one?
Stewie clutched the evidence of Penn’s heinous crime. He didn’t wait for more questions. He didn’t even thank me for returning what was rightfully mine.
Taking off, he vanished into the silver throng, leaving me destroyed and heartbroken.
Truth was a fickle thing. I’d believed I wanted it. I’d begged and cursed and demanded to receive it. And now that I had it...I wanted nothing more than for it to delete what it’d caused and choose a different ending to the one I’d been given.
I’d gone from euphoric joy believing Penn was Nameless to finding out my worst nightmare.
Penn wasn’t Nameless—the boy who’d protected and kissed me in the park.
He was one of the muggers who’d tried to rape me.
They’d known my name from my I.D badge.
One of them had come after me.
I’m going to throw up.
Chapter Thirty-Five
I RAN.
How could I not?
I didn’t know what was worse.
The fact he’d lied so effortlessly. Or the fact I’d believed—that despite being so dishonest—he was a good person underneath.
I couldn’t have been more wrong.
He was a thief, a rapist, a scam artist.
And he’d successfully used me for whatever mind games he wanted to play.
He’d lied from the moment he’d coerced me into saying yes at the Palm Politics. Any truth I thought I saw in the split seconds of tenderness were rust-covered and full of counterfeit honesty.
Oh, my God.
How could I let this happen?
Tears gathered like vinegar in my eyes, stinging with disbelief.
The taxi bumped through the arteries of the city, carting me away from Penn and his empire of fibs. I hadn’t called David because I didn’t want anyone who knew me to see me like this. See how far I’d fallen.
My cheeks still glowed from limousine sex. My dress rumpled. My hair tangled. My lips red from throwing up in the hotel bathroom before bolting to the street and hailing the first cab I saw.
I didn’t wait for Penn to confirm the hideousness of Stewie’s revelation. I didn’t meet him at our rendezvous for yet more lies. I could never have sex with him again.
I clamped a hand over my mouth, holding back another wash of nausea.
I slept with him.
I climaxed with him.
I have—had—feelings for him.
The vinegar in my tears pickled my insides, fermenting my heart, marinating my blood until my entire body turned acidic.
I just wanted to get home, shower away his touch, and sleep so I could forget what I’d done and who I’d done it with.
I couldn’t think about who Penn was.
I couldn’t let my mind poke at such appalling conclusions.
It’s not real.
I can’t let it be real.
The drive took forever, but finally, the taxi dropped me outside my building. Climbing unsteadily from the cab, I refused to think about what explanation I’d give for breaking off the engagement. Why I’d inform security that Penn was no longer permitted to step foot inside Belle Elle. Why I would get a damn restraining order if he pursued me.
How would I tell Dad that the man he believed was suitable—the successful entrepreneur who pretended to be an old-world romantic—was truly just a clever deceiver?
Thank God, I never told him what happened that night in the alley. Thank heavens, I kept the robbery and almost rape a secret because he would hunt Penn down and kill him for being one of those men who’d tried to take me.