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"You’re lying"

"I’m not, Kennedy"

"I had my dad look for you in the department after you left me, and he said you just disappeared! He said you stopped coet in touch with you!"

Rhys’s eyebrows rose, as if he were trying to get"Exactly They knehere I went, but I couldn’t have any contact with them, just as they couldn’t have contact with ht, when I got ho your fae that I don’t think you even noticed how dead I felt Knowing that I’d have to leave you, and fighting with myself over whether or not I should tell you why I didn’t want to go to your parents’ house after that, but realized that we needed to I knew your fa their daughter--so they would have a face to go with the name of the person they blamed And I needed to see them to know that you would have people there for you once I was gone Iot when you and I walked in, and there was your dad expecting you and wanting to knohere you’d run off to for the past few daysthe same man who just hours before had told me to cut ties with everyone inonce he was finished I couldn’t remember how to speak, and wouldn’t have knohat to say if I could

When minutes passed without a word fronh so and tests to make sure I waswell, to make sure I was still me The minute I could, I found your dad and asked about you And now I’o back to hoas? We get ain on a whim and see what happens? I had three months with you, Rhys Three! And in thoseI knew and turned it upside down in themy entire world apart! I waited for you for two years before co that you would show up and it would be okay again Or that it really had all just been soain But there was nothing And you can’t coo back to hoere and try toforyou, but I love you I have always loved you I have never met anyone--"

"No, you don’t and you didn’t If you ever had, you would have turned down the job" I stood from the chair and turned, but Rhys’s whispered words stopped

"Your dad was so sure that you would be waiting foryou still wanted"

I looked back at the mixture of confusion and hurt on his face, and shookdownYou shouldn’t have coan walking toward my room, and I whirled back to face hiet that? Leave!"

I didn’t wait to see if he did I just walked intodown it until I was on the floor I sat there crying for hours with my heart torn now that my past had just collided with my present

14

October 27

Liam

THERE WAS A soft knock on my office door three days later, but I didn’t respond to it If it was Eli, he’d have co for me to invite him If it was anyone else, they could call me A minute later, I heard another few knocks and then the door slowly opened

"I have it shut for a reas--" I cut off quickly when I looked up and saw the girl standing in front of ht settled on h my mind I wanted to hold her, I wanted to yell at her, I wanted to demand she tell me nohy she never told ainst the wall and show her what exactly we’d had and what she had throay

Instead, I cleared my throat and looked back at the screen of my computer "I’ anything, but the second I heard her voice, I couldn’t stop ht in your apart what you already knew I felt for you?" I didn’t respond, but she continued anyway "You toldfrohting your husband"

"Ex," she corrected "Rhys iswhat you askedyou found out about him, yes, I know he’s my ex I ahteen when I married him and he divorced me three months later and disappeared until just the other day I looked for hi up, and only now do I know that he had to leave o undercover--just like ood, I’m happy for you Now he’s back, and you can pick up your e where you left off," I said, but it was obvious that the last thing I was feeling was happiness over the situation

Kennedy shook her head as tears gathered in her eyes "What I’ to tell you is that his reappearance had ure out what to say or do the otherI never expected to see or hear froain--especially not while Kira and I were here in California--but I didn’t want you to leave then, and I don’t want you to leaveat her as tears slipped down her face "I don’t knohat you want me to say"

"I want you to say you’re still here withme!"

"I can’t, Kennedy! He was your husband, and now he’s come back for you I can’t co how defeated I felt

A hushed cry burst frohtened her lips into a hard line as she tried to regain control over her emotions, but her voice still shook when she said, "That pain you used to talk about? That fear? That wasto have another Rhys interrified that ain by you, because I knew you had the capability of doing that I knew it in the way you silently coave in to you again and again, and I knew it in the way younear me No one had ever done that except for Rhys until you cas left in a heavy rush It felt like her words had just landed a blow to my stomach Never once since Rhys had shown up at her door had I iined that the entire ti her of hiht me, or is that why you ith me--because I reminded you of him?"