Tell Me No Lies: The Black Orchid, Book 1 (28 page)

Why was my boyfriend’s name in my best friend’s diary? I continued to read. The passage went on for pages. As I read, my chest began to ache and I found I was gasping for air.

I flipped through more pages, blinking back tears as I did so.

Kael.

Kael?

When I finished reading, I closed the book and moved toward my door like a zombie. Charlotte’s words ran through my mind on a loop.

Liar. Murderer. Psychopath. Killer.

I opened the door and saw Haley consoling Charlotte, with her arm wrapped around her.

“Hey, sis. What’s going on? You guys woke me with all the noise you were making.”

“You mean all the noise Charlotte was making?”

I looked at Charlotte and felt like I was seeing a stranger. She stared at me with eyes as wide as saucers.

“What the hell is going on?” Haley asked. “Rain?”

A burning sensation inched its way through me and I turned to Charlotte, barely speaking in a whisper. “You conniving, backstabbing bitch, how could you? You know I love him.”.

Charlotte stood frozen to the spot. “Rain, you have to believe me. I’m telling the truth!”

I couldn’t think. I just wanted to grab Charlotte and shake her. How could she write such horrible things about Kael? Why did she have his postcard? There was no way to articulate what I was feeling. I lunged for Charlotte when Haley jumped between us and pushed Charlotte out of the way.

I tried to reach around my sister and slap Charlotte in her stupid, lying face but again my sister shoved Charlotte out of the way.

“Rain!” Haley began. “Stop! Would you please tell me what happened? I’ve never known you to be violent.”

I made some sort of garbled noise, this time partially blinded by the tears crowding in my eyes and lunged for Charlotte again.

This time, Haley grabbed me by my shoulders and shook me like I wanted to do Charlotte. “Somebody tell me what the hell is going on here!”

The red haze that had fallen over me was slowly lifting. What had once been white-hot anger dissolved into sloppy, wet sadness. Suddenly overcome by the situation, sobs overtook me and I collapsed to the floor, the sounds of my crying echoed throughout the house.

Charlotte’s diary fell from my hands onto the carpeted floor beside me. Haley kneeled next to me and picked up the book. “Is it about this?” She looked at Charlotte and then me. “This is Charlotte’s right?”

Feeling like I was waking up from a stupor, I could clearly see my sister for the first time. I calmly took the diary from her. “Let me find it.” I began flipping through the pages. “Just let me find it. I saw it. It was right here…his name…”

Frowning, Haley took a step closer to me. “Whose name?”

Charlotte finally spoke, her eyes on me. “Kael Bradford.”

“Rain’s Kael?” Her face scrunched up, confused. “In your diary? Why?”

“You were supposed to be my best friend,” I bit out, finally able to voice my feelings. “How could you hate me so much?”

Charlotte took a step backward. “I’m still your best friend!”

I glared at her, my heart pounding so hard, so erratically, I could feel it in my throat. And it hurt. My entire body ached. “You wrote that you wanted to go to the police.”

Haley pressed her palms to her temples. “It’s too early for this,” she wailed. “I haven’t had an espresso, a latte… What is this about?”

Charlotte shook her head. “I wanted to tell you way before now.”

Looking at my sister, I felt a weird smile cross my face. One of those, “this is so fucked up, I don’t know what else to do but find humor in the situation” smiles. “I saw Kael’s name. I saw
my
boyfriend’s name in my so-called best friend’s diary.”

Charlotte’s face was paler than I’ve ever seen it. She stared at me helplessly while I continued to speak.

“She claims she saw Kael kill a man in cold blood in Jamaica.” I pointed a trembling finger at Charlotte. “She wrote that he was an egotistical, psychotic, pathological liar that deserved to be locked away in a maximum security prison, that I was completely blind to Kael’s true nature—he was playing me for a fool, cheating on me and using me for reasons yet to be determined.” I glared at Charlotte. “Is that about the gist of it?”

Charlotte avoided my sister’s eyes. “Basically.”

Haley looked at me then Charlotte. “You saw Kael kill someone?”

But Charlotte didn’t answer. She just stared at me.

“If this is true,” I took a step toward Charlotte, “if I fell in love with a raging lunatic capable of murder, why the hell wouldn’t you have told me? We’re like sisters. At least we
were
.”

Charlotte’s cheeks were slick with tears and her eyes bloodshot. “When should I have told you?” Her voice wavered. “Before or after you introduced him to me as the man you wanted to marry?”

Haley looked at Charlotte in surprise and took a step toward me and reached for my hand. “Were you going to file a fake police report against Kael because, what? What could possibly be your motivation? You’re jealous of their relationship? You want Kael for yourself? I don’t understand. Aren’t you happy with Gian-Carlo?”

“It has nothing to do with that.” Charlotte wiped her face with the back of her hand. “I’m not just happy with Gian-Carlo, I’m in love with Gian-Carlo. I want Rain to be with the right man too.”

My fingers curled around my sister’s hand. “You’ve determined that Kael is not the right man for me?”

Charlotte took a deep breath and told us how she lagged behind the group and what she witnessed after.

“The way you describe it, it could’ve been in self-defense.” I looked at Charlotte who seemed unconvinced. “He
told
you it was self-defense.”

Haley wiggled her hand out of my grasp and looked at me with a hesitant expression before speaking. “Did you guys know that Kael used to be in the Army?”

My stomach plummeted then. Were there more secrets? More lies? And from my sister? I gave her a hard look. “No. I’ve never heard anything about it.”

“He was in the green…hats or something.”

Charlotte almost smiled. “Do you mean the Green Berets?”

“Yes, that’s what he said.”

“That’s Special Forces.” Her eyes widened. “My dad always said they were badass, killing ma—” she looked at us, “—chines.” Frown lines creased Charlotte’s face as she closed her eyes and rubbed her temples. “He said something about the guy being a war criminal. Is it possible that he was on some top secret mission for the Army?” She shook her head in confusion. “Wait, Haley you said he
used
to be in the Army, right?”

“The Army, the government, I don’t think it matters.” Haley looked torn now, not sure if she should still be angry with my traitorous, lying roommate. She placed a hand on Charlotte’s arm. “You’re not still planning on going to the police, are you? We wouldn’t want to get Kael in trouble unnecessarily.”

Charlotte bit her lip. “Of course not.”

I glared at my sister and pointedly looked at her hand on Charlotte’s arm. She got the message and moved it.

“So, Kael had already met you when I introduced you two over dinner?” I said to Charlotte. “All this time, he’s pretended like he didn’t know you. What does that say about him?”

“That he’s a liar,” Charlotte said softly.

“If that’s the case, so are you,” I spit out, the fire in my belly beginning to spark again.

Charlotte shook her head. “I wanted to tell you. He didn’t.”

He
didn’t? Were they in collusion together? A wave of nausea washed over me. “You’ve discussed it…recently?”

Charlotte nodded.

Despite how angry I was, I could not stop the tears then. They filled my eyes until I thought my eyes might explode from the pressure. “My boyfriend and my best friend keeping secrets from me. Both of you lying straight to my face each and every day.”

I just let the tears fall. “What else haven’t you told me?” The tears fell faster. “Did you sleep with him too?”

Charlotte’s mouth dropped open and she gasped. “Of course not. I swear it!” She shook her head violently. “No matter what, I would never,” she shook her head again, “I would never do that.”

I stared at my former best friend without speaking and then took a long breath. Relieved. She was telling the truth about that. “Okay.”

She exhaled loudly and closed her eyes for a minute before speaking, this time in a stronger voice. “Now can you see why I don’t want you with him? Even if he was on some government-sponsored mission, he’s a liar. Not to mention, there’s still that girl. He’s just a no good.”

“Whoa.” Haley’s eyebrows shot up and she gave Charlotte a look. “This is not the time. I think that girl might have something to do with his work.”

“I don’t care if there is a rational reason for every irrational thing he’s done.” Charlotte had completely stopped crying and appeared to be getting her Kael-is-bad-for-you groove back. “He’s still untrustworthy. He’s still a creep and Rain deserves so much better than him.”

“Charlotte,” my sister whispered. “Drop it.”

She took a deep breath then closed her mouth.

Finally something clicked. Charlotte didn’t just dislike Kael, she hated him. She feared him. If she truly thought he was a cold-blooded murderer all this time, she would’ve done anything and everything to make sure he and I never reconciled.

I thought of the postcards and looked at her. “How many postcards were there?”

“What?” Her eyes widened.

I sensed that there was still more to uncover. “I said, how many postcards were there? How many times did you steal my mail and keep it hidden from me?”

“Oh. That.” She took a deep breath. “I don’t know, several?”

I took a step toward her, my breath beginning to come in pants. “Several? How many, precisely?”

“Umm…” She shrugged. “Twelve, I think. He’s pretty much sent one every month.” She looked at Haley and then me. “For the past year.”

My nose tingled.
Kael.
My eyes watered. I was going to cry again. But then, Kael’s words echoed in my ears,
“Someone intercepted the letters.” And the tears dried up.

Charlotte.
Oh, Charlotte. Say it isn’t so.

I looked at her again, finally seeing her for the horrible lying, deceitful woman she was.

I’m not sure which action was worse, witnessing Kael committing a murder, hopefully in self-defense and never telling me, or destroying the postcards and letters he’d mailed to me.

Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive…

Ice ran through my veins. “We’ve been friends for a long time,” I began.

“Longer than you’ve known Kael,” Charlotte added quickly.

I waited a moment, waited to see if she was going to come clean. I wanted to know her true nature, the depth of her character flaws. Would she fess up?

She eyed me nervously, her face suddenly filled with optimism. “Can you forgive me? I had the best intentions, you have to know that.”

That. Lying. Bitch. She wasn’t going to say anything. “If I forgive you, I have to forgive Kael too.” I forced my voice to sound calm. “I know him. I trust him. I love him. And if he killed a man, I know he had a good reason.” I pushed my cheeks up and willed my lips to form a smile. “Who knows, maybe it
was
self-defense. Maybe we should find that out before we decide to tar and feather him.” I took a step toward her. “Huh, Charlotte?”

Charlotte frowned. “I don’t know. Sure. I guess.”

Haley inched toward me. “Umm, Rain?”

My sister knew what was up. She was right; I was not a violent person, but the very few times I had been angry, she knew how I got. Quiet and very still. Like right now. She had to know that I was beyond pissed.

“So, Charlotte, you want me to forgive you?” I asked in a low voice. “Just put everything in the past and move forward?”

Charlotte looked at me, her eyes lighting up. “Yes, that would be wonderful

“You know what else would be wonderful?

She looked from me to Haley with a confused smile. “No, what?”

“If you would tell me everything.”

Charlotte stared at me. Her hands flew to her mouth.

“Charlotte?” I stepped closer to her. “What else haven’t you told me?”

Charlotte opened her mouth to respond but no sound came out.

“This is about the letters, isn’t it?” Haley glanced at both of us, suddenly looking very sad.

“How do you know about any of this? About the letters, about Kael’s past?”

Charlotte looked at Haley like she wanted to know the answer to that question too.

“Kael mentioned a few things to me in passing and I just put two and two together.” She shrugged. “Rain, you’re my sister. You know I would never keep anything from you. Definitely nothing as big as all this.”

I fixed my gaze on my sister’s earnest expression and knew she was telling the truth. I turned back to Charlotte. “If you don’t start talking…”

Charlotte’s eyes filled with tears. “I convinced you to tear up that first letter because I didn’t want you two reconciling. And when other letters came, I took them to work and put them in the shredder.”

I took a step backwards, my arms hanging limply at her sides. He had been telling the truth. He’d tried to contact me. “Did you read them?”

Tears rolled down Charlotte’s face as she nodded. “It’s been awhile…and I’m paraphrasing but…he wanted you to know that he would be traveling to some part of the world for several months that didn’t have reliable phones or Internet service, and if you didn’t hear from him, you shouldn’t worry because he loved you and would try to call or email you whenever he could.”

Tears ran down my face. “And?”

“Well, you know, I convinced you to change your numbers, delete your old email accounts so he couldn’t contact you. You were getting on with your life. He wrote you saying that he wanted you to promise to wait for him and that as soon as could, he’d find you.”

“Why didn’t he? Why didn’t he come?”

“I wrote him back.” She stopped, unable to finish talking.

“You
what
?”

Charlotte nodded. “I told him that you’d moved on, you’d met somebody else. That it was serious and he should just forget all about you.”