Total pages in book: 65
Estimated words: 61427 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 307(@200wpm)___ 246(@250wpm)___ 205(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 61427 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 307(@200wpm)___ 246(@250wpm)___ 205(@300wpm)
Caleb’s betrayal continued to haunt her. It pulsed through her veins and buzzed in her mind and pretty much made it impossible to focus on anything else. She’d come into work only because she needed a diversion from her thoughts.
“I can’t believe this,” Gwen said.
Marley’s lips tightened. “Neither can I. I thought he actually cared about me.”
Gwen tied the drawstring of her scrubs and stepped toward Marley, gently touching her arm. “Maybe he does, Mar. It might have been a case for him at first, but that could have changed.”
“That’s what he claims, but why should I believe him? He’s lied to me about everything, Gwen.”
Gwen looked thoughtful.
“Maybe you should talk to him again, try to make some sense of all this.”
“Sense of it? He lied to me.”
“He lied about what he did for a living,” Gwen clarified. “That doesn’t mean he lied about how he feels for you.”
Marley fell silent. She thought about the times they’d had sex, the emotion overflowing in his blue eyes as he’d held her tightly, as he’d told her she was beautiful. She hadn’t picked up on anything insincere in those actions, in those words, but how could she trust her own judgment after being duped. Twice.
“I don’t know.” She rubbed her forehead in frustration. “I keep thinking about all the time we spent together. It felt real, Gwen.”
“Maybe it was.”
“The way things were so real with Patrick?” she retorted.
“Patrick was a soulless jerk who dealt drugs and killed people. Caleb is a cop. A drug-enforcement cop, to boot.” Gwen sounded conflicted, a deep crease in her forehead. “He cleans up the streets, tries to make them safe—does that make him a bad man?”
“He lied,” Marley said through clenched teeth. She took a breath. “Whatever, it was just a fling and it’s over. I’ll just have to deal with it, the way I dealt with everything that happened with Patrick.”
Her friend sat down next to her and took her hand. Squeezing her fingers, Gwen searched Marley’s face, a perceptive glimmer in her eyes. “What are you really angry about, hon? Because if it really was just a fling, you wouldn’t care this much. You’d just chalk it up as another stupid mistake, the way it was with, what’s his name, the guy you went out with before Patrick.”
“Brad,” she murmured.
“Right, Brad. He was a total ass, remember? He stood you up on your birthday.”
Marley sighed. “I really pick winners, don’t I?”
“You’re missing the point,” Gwen said with a sigh of her own. “I’m just saying, some men are jerks. Brad was, and you barely blinked after you dumped him.”
“And Patrick? Are you saying I shouldn’t have been furious about him?”
“No, I’m not saying that. Patrick is different. You were with him for five months. You lived together. Of course you should have been furious. But you’ve only known Caleb a week. It’s normal to be angry, sure, but not devastated.” Gwen hesitated. “Unless you care about him more than you’re willing to admit.”
Marley smothered another sigh. “I…liked being with him,” she finally admitted. “He’s such a hard man to get to know, hardly ever talks about his feelings, but I thought he was starting to open up to me.” She swallowed. “And when we had sex, I felt really…connected to him.”
“Then you need to talk to him again,” Gwen advised. “You need to find out if he felt that connection, too.”
“I don’t know. I just don’t know.”
She thought about Caleb’s confession, the regret flickering in his eyes, and for a moment she experienced a pang of doubt. But then the memory of all those computer monitors pushed its way into the fore-front of her brain, and the doubt transformed into anger again. She imagined Caleb sitting at that computer desk, watching her, talking about her, wondering if she was helping Patrick leave the country.
How could she ever trust him again?
Her mind was spinning, but considering she was about to start her shift, she couldn’t afford to be distracted.
Taking a breath, she stood up and said, “I can’t talk about this anymore. I need to worry about my patients right now.”
“Just promise you’ll think about what I said,” Gwen said.
“Sure,” Marley said, then kicked off her sandals. Determined to change for work, tend to her patients and forget all about Caleb and Patrick and every other headache pulsing through her mind, she walked to her locker and opened the door.
“Oh, my God,” she choked out.
“What?” Gwen rushed to her side, sucking in a gasp when she saw what Marley was looking at.
On the inside of the metal door, scrawled in the red lipstick she kept on the top shelf, was the word Whore. And underneath it, attached with a piece of silver duct tape, was a photograph of Marley.
A photograph she recognized as the one Patrick used to keep in his wallet.