False Hope by Meli Raine

Author:Meli Raine [Raine, Meli]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Meli Raine

Chapter 17

Jane's said it. Silas has said it. I've said it.

Lily still hasn't.

She's the one who counts.

“Of all people,” Silas says to Jane, “you know what it’s like to be set up. To have a secret cabal of people all working against you.”

Pain fills her eyes.

“And to not know who’s doing it or why they’re doing it,” he continues.

Her eyes flick to me. “Yes, I do. I think Romeo’s setting Duff up.”

Lily’s face goes pale. “Setting him up for my shooting?”

“Yes. Not in terms of evidence. In terms of suspicion. This isn’t about pinning the actual shooting on Duff. It’s about innuendo and starting rumors that shake people’s confidence. It’s about manipulating and using people’s psychology against them.”

Silas looks at me hard. “You know exactly what I’m talking about. You’re trained to do it.”

“So are you,” I tell him.

“I know,” he nods. He looks at Jane and Lily. “Will you excuse us? We need to have a private conversation.”

“There’s nothing that you can tell Duff that you can’t tell me,” Jane insists. Lily takes a step closer to Jane, the two of them a united front.

Silas doubles down. “Actually, there is. You know if I could tell you, I would.”

My blood runs cold, muscles tightening. Whatever he’s about to tell me, it’s not good.

“You swear?” Jane asks him.

“Of course,” he says.

“I don’t understand any of this,” Lily gasps, her voice filled with frustration. “Two years ago, I was making unicorn arrangements for little girls in the flower shop where my parents raised me. And then one day I was shot because somebody thought I was you,” she says, gesturing to Jane, who flinches, guilt that she doesn’t deserve all over her face.

“I wake up and fourteen months of my life disappeared, I’ve got a giant scar on the back of my head, my bones are reknitting, and I get stuck with this guy,” she points to me now, “living with me practically twenty-four/seven. My mom and dad are a wreck, my dad has a heart attack, and then when I’m finally getting better, someone tries to shoot me again. And now here I am in Texas, and you guys are all telling me that Romeo is the one who’s responsible for all this?”

Her rant is good. I’ll give her that.

I reach for her, grasping her shoulders, turning her towards me and looking down. I move closer until we're eye to eye, our faces inches away.

“None of this is a surprise to you, so just spit it out, Lily. Quit lying. You don’t need to fake your amnesia anymore.”

She holds her breath. So does Jane. Silas continues to inhale and exhale, just like I do. The body breathes autonomously and intentionally. It’s one of the few systems in our physiology that does both. It’s something we can control, and yet it’s out of our control.

Just like love.

“It wasn’t Duff,” Lily finally says, looking down at the ground, unable to make eye contact with Jane, Silas, or me. “It wasn’t Duff.”

“You’re sure?” Silas says.

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