The Billionaire's Secret: A BWWM Romance Mystery (14 page)

Chapter
Twenty - Eight

They were all staring down at me.
Jasmine, Kiki...even Kit stood over me like the Cowardly Lion in Wizard of Oz.

And I was Dorothy, waking from a
horrible, horrible dream.

"What happened?" I murmured
sleepily, stretching as I sat up. The left side of my body ached, my feet
ached, my head pounded. I blinked and tried to figure out what the hell was
going on.

"You blasted through the front
door yesterday afternoon," Jazzy said. "I was grading papers on the
couch and you mumbled something about wanting to just sleep forever." Her
lip curved into a sardonic smile. "And then you fell on the couch and
proceeded to do just that."

"Are you okay, honey?" Kiki
looked horrified.

"What time is it?" I asked,
rubbing my sore shoulder. I must not have moved at all when I slept. My whole
arm felt dead.

"Two o'clock," Kit looked
at his watch. Then he watched me scrunch up my face over the math and clarified.
"Two o'clock. In the afternoon. On Tuesday."

"Wait...," I smacked my
lips together. My mouth felt like a desert and tasted like a sock. "You're
saying...?"

"You slept almost twenty-four
hours," Jasmine said, folding her arms. "I called in to work for you,
but Kit here said he thinks he knows why you're playing Sleeping Beauty and
came over as soon as he could."

Kit settled his bulk next to me and
covered my shoulders with the blanket. "I'm guessing it didn't end in
crazy make-up sex?" he asked gently.

I came to me in flashes. Then waves.
Then a flood that threatened to drown me.

Liam sending me away. Dahlia's
coldness. The walk to his office. The oddly abandoned workspace. The sounds of
a fight.

Lily.

"I saw him. With her," I
said thickly. Then coughed.

Kiki handed me a glass of water, mute
and wide-eyed.

"Her?" Kit was confused.

I looked up at Kiki's sympathetic
face, Jasmine's blisteringly angry one. I didn't have to say her name. But I
did anyway. "Lily."

"Motherfucker!" Jasmine
spun on her heel and began pacing like a caged wildcat. "I liked him too.
Cheating asshole."

Kit looked at the three of us.
"Well. Shit. So he's an asshole
and
a cheater after all?"

I gulped down the glass of cold
water. It hit my angry stomach like a rock. But that wasn't why I was suddenly
nauseous. "It would seem so."

"Nothing seeming about it,"
Jasmine muttered darkly."

"Were they kissing?" Kiki
was breathless with disbelief.

I shook my head.
"Fighting."

"Over what?"

I shook my head again. "I
couldn't tell. I think she threw something at him."

"Should've hit him with
it," Jasmine said at the same time Kiki said, "Probably about
you."

I moaned into my hands. "You're
right. I'm the other woman. I knew it. That's the worst part, I
knew it
."

"He swore to you," Kit
soothed. "That's on him.

I growled, too angry with myself to
be mollified.

"If I ever see that snake
again...." Jasmine didn't get to finish her sentence before the sound of
the door buzzer made us all jump. "Who the hell is it?" she barked
into the intercom.

"Jasmine, It's Liam. Is Shay
there?"

Jasmine made a feral sound and yanked
on the door. "Wait! Let him up," Kit boomed.

All three of us turned to stare at
him. "What?" he spread his hands innocently. "I want to see how
the asshole tries to worm his way out of this one." Then he rubbed his
hands together with an evil smile. "What can I say? I'm a bitch."

Jasmine muttered something about homicide.
"Kiki, you're in charge of making sure I don't go to jail today. And
Kit," she stabbed a finger in his direction. "You're in charge of my
bail if she can't stop me. Since this is your bad idea and all."

"Oh, what's another debt, pile
'em on," he trilled and I wanted to laugh if only so I didn't sob.

"Shay?" Jazzy's finger was
poised on the buzzer. "You okay with this?"

I nodded. "Let him up. I'm glad
he's here when you guys are."

She stabbed the buzzer, holding it
down for far too long. We all listened to the sound of heavy tread ascending
the two floors up to Jazzy's place. Each thump was echoed by my thudding
heartbeat.

I was waiting for his cool, poised
explanations. I was ready for his charm. I was ready to harden my heart against
his soulful eyes as he made me sweet promises.

I wasn't expecting the panicked,
disheveled man who appeared gasping at Jasmine's doorway.

He stared at each of us like he had
no idea why we'd be here. Then his eyes focused on me and he took a deep
breath. "Shay," he said, his voice breaking. "Could we talk
about this somewhere private please?"

As thrown off as I was by his
wild-eyed appearance, I quickly collected myself and folded my arms.
"No," I told him firmly. "Enough secrets. If you have something
to tell me, just say it."

He drew a long, shuddering, defeated
breath.

"Lily...," his voice
caught.

"Yes," I prompted.
"Lily.
Your girlfriend?"

His face collapsed. "She's not
my girlfriend, Shay." He pressed his lips together and seemed to decide.

"She's my sister."

Chapter
Twenty - Nine

"Sister?
Bullshit!"

We all stared at Jasmine. Her
nostrils flared like a bull ready to charge. "Yeah, that's right.
Bullshit
. We Googled your ass when you
started hanging around my best friend here." She pointed a me and then
whirled to stab an accusing finger at Liam's broad chest. "I know all
about you, rich boy, and I know you
don't
have a sister."

"'Only child of Dahlia Jessop Graves,'"
Kiki recited fiercely.

Liam buried his face in his big hand,
then dragged it down, like he wanted to wipe away the look of shock and outrage
that was frozen there. I was trembling so hard I could hear my teeth clacking
together. Kit moved to pull me to him, but I was rooted to the spot.

When he pulled his hand away, Liam
looked composed. But I knew him. That dangerous pulse was beating at his
temple. "Shay," his voice was low. "I can't talk about this
here. Will you
please
," he bit
off the word, "come with me?"

"No!" I shouted. Louder
than I meant to. So loud I shocked myself and everyone around me.

If I went to him, my body, no, my
heart would betray me. I needed to stay here, in the safety of Kiki's shock,
Kit's sympathy and Jasmine's furious outrage.

I couldn't trust myself alone with
him. "No, whatever you want to say, say it here." I crossed my arms
tightly to stop the shaking. "No more secrets."

Liam gave a tight, hollow laugh.
"Shay, my god, I have so many secrets I'm not even sure I can keep track
of them anymore. My life.... My family, we bury our secrets so deeply I'm not
sure I could ever dig enough to tell you the whole truth." His anguished
gray eyes tugged at my heart. I wanted so badly to comfort him. But I didn't
move, out of fear of the ferocity of my feelings.

And so he took a shaky breath.
"I don't think I can dig deep enough. But that doesn't mean I don't want
to try. I want to tell you." He inhaled sharply. "Because I love you.

Kiki let out a soft cry, her eyes
wide.

Everyone waited.

I didn't move. I was too scared to
open my mouth and hear what I might say in response.

As long as I didn't say
it
....

Liam saw my struggle and seemed
to...deflate somehow. Disappointment carved out a hollow in his chest and he
slumped against the doorway in defeat.

"Lily is my sister, I am telling
the truth. What you read?" he pointed at Jasmine who crossed her arms and
lifted her chin. "That's the lie. The lie Dahlia forced me, forced
everyone who knew Lily, to tell."

He drew a shaky breath. "She
tried to kill herself around the time I was born," he began. "Before
that it was drugs, cutting, running away, more drugs...." he shook his
head. The words were coming faster now, more than I had ever heard Liam say at
once. "She actually tried more than once, it's just that time when I was a
baby she was the closest to success. She was in the hospital for a long time,
and then once she was better...physically...Dahlia had her committed."

Kiki let out a little gasp. I clapped
my hand over my mouth. But Liam didn't notice any of this, lost as he was in
his painful memories. "Lily had caused her so much embarrassment, so much
pain, that she ordered the staff to stop saying her name. Then she disowned
her. Then she set about...erasing her."

He looked up. "To the world,
Lily Graves never existed. Just like you saw in your Googling. But she does
exist. She's real. And she needs help. My help."

My memory flashed back to the pale
pale blond. Her ice blue eyes...those were Dahlia's eyes. Dahlia's pallor,
Dahlia's thin fame. Everything that Liam lacked as Dahlia's offspring, Lily had
instead.

I felt my heart flop sideways.

He rubbed his face again and stared
off into a fixed point over our shoulders. "God," he laughed shakily.
"Even saying it out loud like this...it feels just
wrong
. Like I'm violating some sacred taboo." He shook his
head. "I never really knew her. She's fifteen years older than me and has
been in and out of mental institutions my entire life. To hear Dahlia tell
it...when she even mentions her at all...she's completely insane."

He looked at us, entreaty in his
eyes. "But...she isn't. She was just released," he looked at me,
"The day after I ordered the bouquet. Her doctors said she was ready to
live on her own. I've been trying to find her a halfway house, maybe a live-in
nurse. Set her up somewhere. She has no one else. She needs me. My sister needs
me."

Kiki made a soft sound. Her fingers
were at her lips, her eyes shining wet with tears that would be falling soon
enough.

She believed him.

I turned and looked at Kit. His face
was grim. And Jasmine was still staring at Liam like he was something stuck on
the bottom of her shoe. But none of that mattered because Liam was looking at
me.

And I believed him.

He saw it. The breath left his lungs
with a loud whoosh. "You believe me, Shay?"

I wasn't ready to say it. "And
the note?" I pressed. "From your...." I had to force my tongue
around the shape of the word. "Mother?"

He looked panicked again. Rage and
sorrow passed each other in waves across his beautiful face, rippling like I
had thrown a boulder into still water.

He stared at Kit, and then Kiki and
Jasmine, and I knew how badly he wanted to retreat into his secrets.

But he didn't.

"Papers. I have power of
attorney over Lily's estate." He swallowed hard. "Dahlia wants me to
have her committed. Again. Against the doctors' recommendations. Against all
reason." His knuckles were white against the doorframe. "She's threatened
me with everything she has....and she has a lot. Money, connections, power. All
of my business partners, all the investors...hell even my secretary used to
work for her. She has - has always had - her tentacles in every part of my
life. But this...." His breath caught as the shock of her cruelty socked
him in the gut again. "This is her lowest blow yet. And I cannot do this
to Lily. Not when she's doing so well. Dahlia cutting her off, sending her away
again?" His gray eyes glittered. "That will kill her."