Fraud

She glances left and starts laughing again.

“Oh, that was Ta

His death will be the worst of them.

I shake my arms to rattle my chains. “And this is for?”

Eyes lifting to look at the cuffs on my wrists, the corner of Ivy’s mouth pulls into a smirk before she meets my stare again.

“That’s to keep you in place,” she explains.

“For?”

The smirk transitions into the saccharine grin that has always driven me insane.

“For the discussion we’re about to have.”

Interesting choice of words...

I smile back. “And what discussion is that?”

Silence falls for a few seconds, the tension between us interrupted by a single cluck.

“The discussion where you finally drop all your bullshit and tell me the truth.”

She takes a step toward me, but stops several feet away. “The discussion where you admit you haven’t been using me and that you only said that because you blame yourself for what my dad did.”

Our eyes dance together, hers a shimmering blue that has haunted my dreams since the day I met her.

My voice is soft when I answer, “It might be kind of hard to have that discussion with a chicken in the room.”

Her smile fades, and her expression becomes serious.

“Then try your best, Gabriel. Because if the discussion doesn’t happen today, I can’t promise you we’ll see each other again.”

I don’t like the look she’s giving me. I also don’t like how my heart is in my feet, my pulse a heavy beat that feels like a funeral march.

Letting her go would be a stupid mistake. One of the worst I’ve ever made. And after what I said to her father, after realizing that the only person I’ve been lying to this entire time is myself, the last thing I need to do is make a decision I’ll regret.

“Fine, Ivy. We’ll talk. But what the hell is there to say?”